LIVE / FESTIVALS
The North East's largest music festival, Loosefest, delivered a triumphant return for 2022, this time hosted at the brand new, much bigger venue of Newcastle's Town Moor right in the heart of the city. With close to 60,000 attendees over the weekend, over 70 artists over 4 stages including a huge open air arena, fairground rides, incredible choices of food stalls and insta-ready art installations, Loosefest truly upgraded for this years extravaganza!
Being a fairly new festival on the scene will always come with some technical difficulties, on this occasion meaning the festival doors could not open in time for the highly anticipated set from chart-topping sensation Joel Corry, but all is forgiven when the festival gets into full swing and the drinks start flowing.
Catching a mainstage set from Irish producer and DJ Shane Codd was definitely a must do. His radio ready anthems went down an absolute treat as he played through a mix of tracks including originals 'Always On My Mind', 'Get Out My Head' and recent single 'Rather Be Alone'. Local lad Patrick Topping played his set an hour later than scheduled and you can just see on his face how much he adores playing to his home crowd, throwing in a load of New Monkey Makina in for good measure.
Jess Bays and Low Steppa proved they are destined for the main stage, warming up the building crowds perfectly with dance bangers as Yousef and Waff packed out the Kaluki tent and Dimitri from Paris and Mousse T played Glitterbox. With the stages being relatively close together, it wasn't hard to catch multiple sets from the stellar roster even with clashes. The town moor provided the perfect venue.
Example played a rain-drenched set of his absolute hits, but the weather didn't dampen spirits and it's said that echo's of 'Kickstarts' and 'We'll Be Coming Back' could be heard from all around! Clean Bandit were the penultimate act of the evening on mainstage as the rain went away and a gorgeous sunset could be seen over the site as they played through the classics.
New name onto the scene Belters Only closed out the smallest stage of the Saturday, which had played host to local resident DJ's as well as Kenny Allstar and Big Narstie. Loosefest provided a line up to cater for all music lovers, no matter what age or music preference - there was something for everyone. DJ duo Solardo headlined Kaluki with an insane performance of tech house, ending with their smash hit single 'XTC' as Roger Sanchez finished the night at Glitterbox.
Que Black Eyed Peas - the excitement on social media when the group were announced was overwhelming and they certainly did not disappoint on the evening. A fun, wholesome sing along was what everyone needed to end a busy day of two-stepping in the sun and Black Eyed Peas catalogue of hits provided just that. 'I Gotta Feeling' and 'Where Is The Love' provided so much fun for everyone in attendance, ending with a spectacular firework performance to end the first day.
Sundays proceedings kicked off with a banging set from Detlef and Latmun on the Repopulate Mars stage who played B2B tunes of solid techno tunes, followed by Christoph who's set included his collaboration of 'Breathe' with dance legends Camelphat. Sigala played the main stage, one of the leading names in commercial dance and we can see why. Flames and confetti were just part of the show as he played through the hits followed by Disciples who always put on a good show with tracks such as sing along anthems 'How Deep Is Your Love' and 'On My Mind'.
The Megadome certainly isn't mega in size but although compact, it provided some excellent entertainment for a Sunday afternoon with notable performances from Tinchy Stryder (who could have perhaps packed out a bigger tent as fans spilled out onto the moor), DJ legends Phats & Small and an insane performance from Ultrabeat!
Worried About Henry hosted every DnB fans dream with an incredible list of the leading names in the genre. Bru-C was a definite highlight of the weekend as Alan Fitzpatrick took to the Repopulate Mars stage at the same time - both packed to the brim. Jonas Blue was a firm favourite on the main stage until it was time for female icon Mabels' slot.
It was so refreshing to see a female solo artist high up on the bill as only 13% of UK festival headline slots are female for 2022. She played through all of her anthems with highlights such as 'Let Them Know', 'Finders Keepers', 'Boyfriend' and of course 'Don't Call Me Up'. With such an incredible list of names taking the headline slots of each of the stages, it was insanely difficult to choose who to see. We managed to catch most of Hybrid Minds and Wilkinson as they closed out Worried About Henry and they provided the energy from the off, 'Afterglow' is one of those songs that is on the soundtrack of everyone's summer.
AJ Tracey is one of the leading names in UK music right now and was definitely one of the most exciting artists on the bill. I don't think there was one person who wasn't singing along as he played 'Ladbroke Grove' and the night again ended with some fabulous fireworks and an abundance of confetti.
Loosefest 2022 was a true success and the city centre venue upgrade was a hit for festival goers. I think we can definitely hope for an even BIGGER 2023!
Keep up to date with Loosefest!
The Lowdown is an online blog & print entertainment platform for music discovery featuring the very best in both established and upcoming talent. Find the latest news, reviews, interviews with your favourite artists and grab tickets to upcoming gigs & tours.
Komentáře