Photo credit: Hannah Rooke
Love Saves The Day, Saturday – Words by Toby Downes
Love Saves The Day is out-doing itself every year and the talent that graced the stages this time around, truly did the organisers proud. Really showing locals why it has become a staple in Bristol’s summer calendar.
The festival has this knack of attracting a wide range of skilled and intelligent musicians – Joy Orbison is one of those. The Hyph Mngo producer was one of the names I was most excited about seeing on Saturday. Having narrowly missed out on seeing him at the Love Inn in November, I shot straight to his set at the Paradiso Stage when I arrived. His eclectic selection of tracks, showed me why it was worth waiting two hours, to try and see him.
Although festivals are about seeing the acts you love, it’s also about experiencing new music. Prior to the festival, I had only listened to a couple of tracks by Maribou State, but I’m glad my friends were so desperate to see them. The electronic duo performed a lot of tracks from their latest album Portraits (which I now can’t stop listening to), on the Main Stage.
Photo credit Hannah Rooke
Indie-rock band Everything Everything were another highlight of the evening. In all honesty, since the release of their album Arc, I haven’t been following the band, but their sunset-slot was so nostalgic. Only live, did I begin to truly appreciate singer Jonathan Higgs’ falsetto.
Personally the hardest part of the evening was weighing up which stage headliner to see at 9pm – Hot Chip, Ben Klock, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Martinez Brothers, Roni Size, and DJ Luck and MC Neat all clashed. Dutch producers Motor City Drum Ensemble were definitely the best act of the day. Their selection of groovy, soulful house kept the Brouhaha stage dancing into the night. Eager to see German techno giant Ben Klock, we had to make to the short walk to the Paradiso stage, which didn’t disappoint. Renowned for his track selection and his capacity to engage with the crowd through this, he lived up to his name – everyone seemed to forget they had been dancing all day and continued to do so with more vitality than the rest of the day.
The atmosphere surrounding the festival was simply magical. Between dancing and running from stage to stage I took a few moments to appreciate the happiness of fellow festivalgoers. Arms waving, laughter roaring and happy dancing was among us all, this was the only place to be in Bristol on this sunny day.
Photo credit Portia Lyons
Loves Saves the Day, Sunday – Words by Hannah Rooke
As the weather continued to defy the forecast, round 2 of Love Saves the day was once again blessed blue skies and sun. Saturday had well and truly exceeded my expectations making waking up for round 2 of LSTD was by no means an east feat. The Saturday had well and truly exceeded my expectations, the likes of Hot Chip, Paranoid London, High Contrast and Roni Size delivered perfectly summery sets and had the crowd going crazy when they dropped their best loves tracks. A mixture of house, techno and drum n bass and even actual bands, the Saturday’s eclectic range of music would be hard to live up to.
As I arrived on the Sunday, reggae and dancehall legend David ‘Ram Jam’ Rodigan was tantalising the crowd’s ears with a selection of soulful reggae and dub classics. Protoje’s Who Knows incredibly catchy chorus and a remix of The Fugees 1998 RnB classic ‘Ready Or Not’ had an entire crowd singing along whilst Rihanna’s ‘Work’ made for an unexpected surprise and had the crowd showing off their best twerking efforts. Guys and girls alike, some people can really twerk.
Infusing the day with an hour of music that was played way before the first computerised track were the amply shiny Hot 8 Brass Band. Hailing from the birthplace of jazz in New Orleans they fuse traditional jazz and blues with hip hop, funk and soul. Their rendition of Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing perfectly encapsulated the summery sexy vibes that spread throughout the festival and the crowd sung the love filled favourite with dedication and passion. No matter what music a Bristol crowd listen to, they know how to enjoy it and make the most of it, embracing every genre with an open mind and willingness to boogie.
Everywhere you looked, people were enjoying the sun, music and mouth-watering selection of food stalls. Whether a carb fuelled meal was necessary to soak up the many red stripes consumed throughout the day, choosing between Mac n Cheese or the best homemade chips from the Hippy Chippy was one of the harder decisions of the day. (I went for mac n cheese and didn’t look back).
Over on Cloud 9, Bristol favourites and Love Saves the Day regulars Congo Natty and Shy Fx were bringing the drum n bass and jungle classics to the weekend. Congo Natty’s set held the crowd’s attention by mixing up his set list dropping in a remix of Gorillaz banger Clint Eastwood, whilst the soulful vocals of Shingai packed a punch giving Shy FX’s set a fresh sound.
Photo credit: Hannah Rooke
For me the highlight of the weekend took place on Sunday evening as Egoless stole the limelight at the Brouhaha stage for what turned out to be a truly bass heavy set delighting the sensations of any dedicated stepper. The stage was hosted by up and coming Bristol based record label Hold Tight and powered by the mighty Lionpulse sound system, a collaboration that has previously shown its success. As the sun set, the sky turned a beautiful wash of pastel tones, the fairy lights decorating the stage lit up as dusk fell and there was not a single bad vibe lingering in the atmosphere. It was one of those magical moments only festivals bring where everyone was in the same place, to have a good time and get lost in the dance.
Headlining the Main Stage was no other than charismatic Grime legend Dizzee Rascal. Well known for delivering outstanding performances, his Love Saves debut was no different. His stage presence and enthusiasm had the crowd religiously fist pumping to the beat of the music whilst his best known tracks Bonkers, Fix Up Look Sharp and Holiday had the crowd united in the lyrics.
Over on the Arcadia stage drum and bass giants Chase and Status were providing a different king of hype, closing the stage with an explosive, anthem fuelled set. By far the most visually enhancing stage, what it made up for in theatrics it was let down by in sound quality. Not that it mattered to the crowd who despite it being the last act of the weekend still managed to maintain enough energy to see the festival out in style and partied hard to the familiar favourite Blind Faith.
Photo credit: Hannah Rooke
The entire weekend was a thoroughly enjoyable, exhausting, heart warming experience. Sat on the giant Love sign for a moment’s reflection on the weekend, I thought about how far Love Saves the Day has come in the past 3 years. From taking over castle park where it often turned into a slippery, hilly, mud bath to transforming Eastville park to a partying paradise, Love Saves the day is without a doubt Bristol’s sign summer has arrived.
WESTWORLD 