Lovebox Weekender 2010: Rated!

Victoria Park, London - 16-18 July

Overall - 8/10
Lovebox, after seven pounding summers, has become THE outdoor party of the capital’s packed summer season. By focusing on unifying themes and crowd-pleasing acts and eschewing any pretensions to be anything other than a big outdoor fun palace, Lovebox is simply a great place to be. Themed days mean a different flavour in music and crowd every day and that allows diversity, a reflection of our wild, polychromatic, polysexual capital.  Also, no festival-goers could look this good en-masse if they had camped.

Getting There and Back - 6/10
Generally a nightmare for bus travel but anyone with any sense walked from the bus stops and distant tube stations in vast exoduses that made everyone feel they were really going somewhere totally different than just one of London’s largest, but least interesting public spaces. There’s a noticeable dip in police presence from last year when heavy-handedness and an over-obsessive anti-drugs policy mired the freedom on associates with parties.

The site - 8/10
Victoria Park is eminently transformable and no festival it houses colours the place better than Lovebox. Areas sponsored by Gaymers, Rizla and Jose Cuervo more than hint at the level of corporate interest here but their money has been well spent on both the stages, sound systems and décor, flavouring the various areas and creating unique spaces where once there was simply East London scrubland.

Atmosphere - 10/10
Absolutely killer - from the shaded bass-fest under the trees that is the Rizla dance arena to a main stage that allows the whole festival to see the headliners, it’s clear that people are having a blast. The beautiful people with their beautiful bodies are here en-masse and at times it looks like a catwalk where, for a change, all the models are smiling like goons. “It’s the one you gotta be at innit”, says Sally from Limehouse. “I couldn’t afford Glastonbury this year, but I don’t care anymore,” she states wryly. Lovebox is utterly packed and few seem to remember the belt-tightening nonsense that’s going on outside the gates.

Music - 9/10
What a line-up. The bill posters have been screaming classic ever since they started appearing a few months ago. Relying on the main acts as a tagline - Dizzee, Roxy, Grace - Lovebox delivers at least two of the festival performances of the year from the latter two of that list. Elsewhere, supports like Hot Chip, Peaches, Mark Ronson and Noisettes mean that the high-octane vibe is consistent, day in, day out.

Uppers

Roxy Music – 9/10
No one is quite sure what to make of Roxy at the start. Even after 30 minutes of solid late gems from the quintessential art rock band, there’s a restlessness that underpins a general murmur that they might not pull it off. Then comes the imperious filth of, ‘In Every Dream Home a Heartache’, Bryan Ferry’s love letter to modern living and blow-up sex aids. The explosive end passage, if you’ll pardon the expression, pulls in all stragglers and roots the diehards to the spot. Thereafter, the majestic early work of the band gets an impressive, rare airing and Ferry is sensational. Regardless of your sexual persuasion, it’s hard not to fall for his beguiling, snake-like charms that are still intact after all these lounge-lizard years.

Grace Jones – 10/10
Grace Jones is more than a force of nature. Eliminating barriers has been a way of life for her during her whole career and at 61, she can still put on one hell of a performance. Orchestrating costume changes to her impressive back catalogue, Jones powers through a jaw-dropping set that leaves the dazed crowd desperate for more. ‘Pull up to the Bumper’ sees her embrace the crowd, strutting inside the barrier like a tigress on the hunt. Lady Gaga eat yer heart out, this lady is still the queen of the scene.

Chromeo - 8/10
Electro-funksters Chromeo deserve all their recent accolades and are an inspired choice for an early evening Sunday bop. The Gaymers Orchard area jumps, writhes and giggles to tracks from their recent album ‘Fancy Footwork’.

Anything at the Rizla dance area – 7/10
With a sound system that threatened to overpower all others bar the main stage, this was ‘The Glade’ of Lovebox. Dust-kickin’ sets from the likes of Hot Chip to the imperious Horse Meat Disco, this was the place to be and be seen for three daytimes straight.

Cut-A-Shine - 8/10
Cut-A-Shine have dragged the village barn dance into the 21st Century and it’s come willingly and without a fuss. Getting a crowd like this to participate is not easy but the infectious fiddlin’, stompin’ and howlin’ goes down a storm and they batter the dance opposition that clash with them on the line-up into a pulp.

Downers

It’s no-one’s fault, but Lovebox ends each night as if someone flicked a switch and quietly informed the punters that the party was over. Hedonists have to steel themselves for the walk home before they were really ready, but at least they’re going to be able to get up in the morning.

The slowly dawning realisation that however long one hangs around the VIP area drinking G&T’s one is not going to bump into Bryan Ferry or Grace Jones.

Litter. It may be contained and easy to spot, but why so much plastic? With festivals like Sunrise and even Glastonbury making major efforts to get a bit more environmentally savvy, any event in the capital should be leading the way. Dancing through a sea of plastic cups, no matter how good you look, just isn’t sexy at all.

Poor attendance at the Jose Cuervo stage. Tucked away behind some trees, the little, Latin American slice of Lovebox suffers from a distinct lack of attendance which is a bit of a downer considering the music and the number of people packed into the park.

Cut Copy - 4/10
Cut Copy should do better with this slot. Maybe it is the sound or the fact that their nostalgia pop doesn’t fit with the rest of Sunday’s line-up and gets overpowered by the sounds from other stages (organisers take note), but this likeable duo are out of their depth.

Random Events

Watching dust fill the Rizla arena, kicked up by a thousand feet pounding the earth.

Drinking cider whilst going down the Helter Skelter (don’t try it).

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