BLOC Weekender 2009

Butlins Holiday Centre, Minehead - 13-15 March

BLOC Weekender 2009

United Kingdom | 18 March 2009

Was it a BLOC party or one set for the chopping BLOC?

Overall - 8/10
BLOC is only in its third year but chatting to the regular ravers, word on the street is it has already improved vastly with the move from Pontins to Butlins. At the moment it is limited to 5,000 tickets, which is fairly small for a festival, but this means that the crowd which spread between the four stages, seemed a little on the small side.

Butlins held back on letting out a lot of the accommodation this year, so there is plenty of potential to become bigger and better as the years go on, increasing the crowd size and attracting more big acts. Without advertisements plastered on every wall, the festival proves a welcome change to the sponsorship that constantly screams at you during the summer events - definitely one for your diary in 2010.

Getting There and Back - 6/10
For the party animals that only had to travel across from Devon, the train ride was really simple. But the (very busy and long) connecting bus journey was a bit of a nightmare running only twice an hour. For those travelling from Bristol or London there were handy pre-book-able, and frequent, coaches.

The Site - 8/10
The site is very clean, which makes a lovely change from the usual grime and slime found at camping festivals, while the large coloured symbols on the paths make it easy to stumble back to the chalets.

The festival boasts four stages, all of which are situated in the same area, making it easy to navigate the site. Eateries and bars remain open all day and even though the food is below Claridges’ standards, festival-goers clearly appreciate being able to sit on chairs and eat at tables.

Although the fun fair was free to use it never seemed to open (suspicions were that this was something to do with the majority spending the days sleeping), however, the swimming pool was a great hangover cure.

The accommodation was comforting: hot shower, heating, kettle and complementary tea and coffee. Plus the first come first serve allocation seemed fair and if you were lucky enough to be allocated self-catering you could avoid eating out and save money for partying.

Atmosphere - 8/10
During the day there was a desolate zombie town feel about the place, but the atmosphere in the venues during the evenings was on fire with really friendly crowds and little evidence of rowdy drunken behaviour. The fancy dress on Sunday also gave revellers a good chance to chat to strangers.

Music - 8/10
The sound quality was generally good and the few line-up changes were clearly advertised. BLOC has a wide selection of DJs to choose from including heroes such as Altern8, Aphex Twin and Afrika Bambaataa as well as some fresh faces. This kind of music always has the power to excite, with thrilling build-ups and heart pounding beats set to put everyone in a good mood. The only disappointments were the sets finishing early on the Sunday.

Uppers

Aphex Twin - 8/10
Creating an instantly electric atmosphere, even the odd surgery visuals couldn’t bring the electronica DJ down. Then again, what else would you expect from this musical magician?

Afrika Bambaataa - 7/10
The hip-hop and breakbeat pioneer provided the soundtrack to the 80’s themed night as well as throwing in party classics from the past 40 decades. His set was so infectious some of the crowd invaded the stage.

Beardyman - 8/10
Although now without beard, the beat boxing champion has to be seen to be believed. The crowd pleaser often records the audience, (much to their delight) to layer into his music and brings a cheeky sense of humour to the weekend.

Modeselektor - 8/10
The electro duo played a dirty set, with hardcore beats and slick vocals. A big favourite with the crowd, they left them wanting more.

Altern 8 - 7/10
The rave legends have such a huge back catalogue it’s hard to go wrong - hardcore breakbeats and techno at its best.

Downers

Jamie Liddell – 5/10
There is no arguing that this boy doesn’t have talent - he beatboxes to create melodies and percussion and then uses his contrasting live soul vocals over the top. However, he ruined the set by appearing very smug towards the end, which is always an unattractive quality in any musician.

The Future Sounds Of London - 3/10
The breakbeat and electroinca duo's set was highly anticipated but playing by satellite link up left the show feeling empty. Especially annoying as they were billed as ‘live’.

Cliché - 3/10
The DJ collective played some decent tunes and edgy mixes but their prancing around on stage dressed as Cowboys and Indians was intended to be funny, but instead was just annoying.

Long Queues
Unfortunately, with the festival being indoors, very long and slow queues tended to form with a one in one out door policy enforced on more than one occasion. This could mean missing about 3/4 of a particular set waiting to get in or sacrificing the act completely.

The Bar Staff
These guys were generally grumpy, which is understandable when you consider they were all Butlins workers who weren’t allowed on site unless they were pulling pints.

Random Events
The venue hosted a lovely little chill out section featuring a load of audience participation hi-tech goodies. A particular favourite was the Digital Graffiti wall - two virtual graffiti canvases that encouraged the Banksy in us all to come out and play.

Another highlight was a group of break-dancing friends who broke out during Carl Craig's fantastic headlining set. Break-dancers win, every time.

By Kerry Mason.