50,000 festival goers witnessed one of the first major festivals opening again after a long 18 months of we all know what. At Watergate Bay, the excitement for this moment was reflected in the audience’s enjoyment, the artist’s emotions on stage, and the hard-working production teams and crews all putting it together. Post-pandemic, the atmosphere amongst festival goers is livelier than before. The shuttle bus that rides back and forth between the town and festival are filled with young people who have never been out before, all singing tracks from the artists playing in the next few days.
Across the town at Fistral Beach, the Boardmasters OPEN also took place, an action-packed weekend of surfing competitions, enjoyed by surf lovers, as well as those new to watching, the commentary openly explaining a lot of the competition lingo for us all to understand. Congratulations to Thursday’s winners Alys Barton and Stanley Norman, Mystic Junior Women and Men’s Champions.
Picture credit: Jason Feast
On Friday, the main stage at the festival began with three seriously good singer songwriters Olivia Dean, Holly Humberstone and Jade Bird. Each of these women are smashing it in their own respective genres.
Olivia Dean, ex BRIT School graduate, has really effortless, soulful vocals and refreshing production which has developed throughout her singles in ‘The Hardest Part’ and ‘OK Love You Bye’. She starts off her set with ‘Echo’, her live band including fellow Brit student Finn on bass. Olivia’s got a confident quirkiness about her. A way of relating to the crowd, connecting through expressions while she’s singing, keeping her chat brief, while her vocals are just gliding through the tracks. The crowd is filled with 16-20 year olds all singing her lyrics with her, yet it’s surprising they’re struggling to know the lyrics to her cover of Senorita – Justin Timberlake. The crowd are just clearly here for her. ‘Crosswords’ and ‘Be My Own Boyfriend’ is a favourite of theirs, she finishes with ‘Hardest Part’, and ‘Reason To Stay’.
Holly Humberstone has had an incredible year, garnering huge support across the board on her earliest releases, which came out only as the pandemic started. She starts off her set with Overkill and Deep End, reminiscing of her first release last year. Holly’s got a calm coolness about her on stage, switching from guitar, drum pads, synths and keys for in-between the number for “Please Don’t Leave Just Yet” proving to everyone her one-woman band set up is effortless. “Falling Asleep At The Wheel is one of my favourtie tracks to play live” Holly explains it reminds her of the start of this journey. Finishing with ‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’.
Jade Bird is another ex-BRIT School graduate; and part of a new wave of country blues artists. There’s something about Jade that separates her from other key artists in this sound: Kacey Musgraves or Mabes. Jade starts off her set with Headstart from her new album ‘Different Kinds Of Light’, and later plays ‘Candidate. What sets Jade apart is her hard hitting, belting vocals, she’s a loud bundle of energy that carries through when she’s speaking to the crowd too. She goes on to play ‘Houdini’, “this one is dedicated to anyone with a s*** dad”.
I caught up with Jade before she went on stage, she expressed her support for fellow BRIT graduate Olivia Dean “she’s been killing it this past year, and her latest EP Growth… I love the visual influencers there, the Frida Khalo influence there”
She then plays ‘I Get No Joy’, “this one has a new meaning after 2020…” and Lottery, the lyrics in this one reveal the address of a bar we both love, and a favourite in the grass roots blues community, Spiritual Bar in Camden. She finishes with ‘Going Gone’.
Later on the main stage is Lianne La Havas, who plays a striking blue and purple hollow body guitar, it fits beautifully well with her whole look. She plays a number of her classic tracks ‘Green & Gold’, ‘Paper Thin’ and her cover of Radiohead’s ‘Weird Fishes’.
Many of the artists this weekend felt emotional about being able to perform again after 18 months of restrictions. Mahalia took this as a moment to give heartfelt advice to the youngest festival goers “I know I’m still a baby, but I’m looking at you guys, I can see how you’re my age and younger and I’ve got two pieces of advice I’d love to give you. Boys, I love my boys, I tour with boys, I have tracks about boys, and one thing we need to emphasise is talking about mental health in young men. First of all, boys please talk to each other more, second of all: cry more. And girls, having confidence in your self and your body and beauty is hard, stay as far away from social media as you can, believe in yourself, you’re so peng! Be who the f*** you wanna be”.
Friday’s headliners Foals and Kano delivered incredible sets, Kano including beautiful visuals of the Marcus Rashford mural and the notes left on it gradually appearing after the Euros vandalism. An incredible shot of Foals walking past the crowd, as if they’re marching to battle was captured by Josh Harkon.
Picture credit: Josh Harkon
The point stage has a stunning view overlooking Watergate Bay, perfect for those early evening DJ sets from the likes of Jaguar and TSHA. Jaguar has just started a new free programme ‘Future 1000’ to introduce 100- female, trans and non-binary students into electronic music.
TSHA is absolutely killing it in the UK electronic and dance scenes right now, receiving huge support from Annie Mac, Bonobo and Saturday headliners Gorillaz. She’s creating a sound for herself which is emotional and relaxing, her DJ sets are perfect for those early evening sunset slots at festivals.
Picture credit: Joanna Leila Phillips
Becky Hill takes to the main stage on Saturday, and she really does take to it “18 months I haven’t been able to jump into the crowd and have a dance with you”. Here she is leaning over the barriers, she’s excited to be back playing live, and sheds a few tears from the emotion.
Picture credit: Laurie Griffiths
She shares a new single from her debut album out this Friday, a body of work she’s been writing for 9 years, something few current artists are able to say they have had the time to develop an album for. She then sings ‘Gecko (Overdrive)’ her 2014 single with Oliver Heldens, it’s hard to believe it was released 7 years ago. Moving onto ‘Remember’ which is her first single (not collab) that’s been top 5 in the official single charts.
Ashnikko has created an army of young women, armed with empowering words that they chant back to her as she performs on the Land of Saints stage. It’s her first show in 2 years. ‘Stupid boy think that I need him’ the lads are singing along with this one too.
Loyle Carner’s live shows are always heartfelt, my favourite set from Glastonbury 2019, this time he’s on the main stage, playing the sunset slot which starts to drop over the bay. For ‘Loose Ends‘ he invites a keen audience member on stage called Finn who atempts to sing Jorja Smith’s part, but actually he knows the rap far better.
Gorillaz’ set was an audio-visual spectacular, screening their classic music videos alongside their classic tunes. Front man Damon Albarn expressed his frustration for the cancellation of Notting Hill Carnival “We wanted to release a few tunes just before it a year ago, but couldn’t because of the pandemic, we wanted to bring those back this year but it’s been cancelled, so instead I bring the Mangrove Steel Band to perform with me at Boardmasters instead”
Boardmasters 2021. The perfect festival weekend we all needed after the last 18 months. Especially for those 16-18 year olds celebrating GCSE and A level results and for most of them, experiencing their first live show moments ever.
