31 July 2009 (gig)
19 August 2009
As you may well know, Tiësto took over Victoria Park on July 31st. What I didn’t know was that the organizers used the set up for the Field Day festival, which pretty much meant that there was a whole festival to be had. There were 3 tents and a main stage. The tents played allsorts of old school music that I’m sure we all partied to back in the day. Which, I suppose, is exactly what you would expect when you have paid £36 to see the most famous trance DJ in the world.
Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get to the festival until around 4:30pm. However, this did mean that I was in time for Calvin Harris. I have never been much of a fan but he did put on a great show. You could see that people had a genuine love for the songs he was projecting across a full field of music lovers. I witnessed a swam of people running to the stage as Calvin Harris came on stage, something I haven’t seen for a long time.
I visited all of the tents during lulls in the music at the main stage. I was really impressed with the music around the whole event. It was a shame that more people didn’t take advantage of the decent music hidden in the corners of the park. I particularly took a shine to the House Rules tent, in which tunes from my Gatecrasher and God’s Kitchen days blasted out into a sizable tent partially filled with around a hundred people
Some people had paid more to be in the 'Gold Circle'. This allowed them to stand right at the front of the stage, which obviously gave a better view and allowed them to get more involved with the action. Well worth doing if you want to dance the day/night away.
After a short wait, Victoria Parks’ security gates echoed with roars of excitement as Tiësto walked onto stage. It was a lively show throughout the rest of the night. It included huge lights that lit up the whole of the festival, bursts of flames from the front of the stage, new and old remixes of thumping trance tunes and explosions of tremendous proportions. The music was refreshing and obviously popular with the ladies. As soon as the more famous tracks (such as: a dub remix of La Roux – In for the Kill or Tiësto’s mix of Delirium) came on, girls appeared on people’s shoulders and covered the horizon for the duration. I’m sure there were so many boyfriends with neck ache out there just from holding their partners and friends in the air. It was a quality day and night all round.
The only thing I would say is that the promoters should have advertised the event as a festival really. I believe that they undersold themselves. I had a great time in an event that I thought would be based around one DJ. In fact, it was a huge event with some great DJ’s that deserved some recognition and should possibly have been on the poster that had been spattered all over London and the internet.
Pictures by Belinda Larter
