Originally published at kemptation.com on 28 May 2015. Words by Richard Kemp
Another year, another venue, the same zesty mantra: Love Saves The Day. Now in its fourth year, the Bristol-based festival for all things electronic, hip-hop, dub and drum ‘n’ bass returned with a glittering, all-star lineup, which included the likes of Groove Armada, Roni Size, Grandmaster Flash, Jessie Ware, My Nu Leng and Four Tet. There was worry of it being a rain-drenched slopfest this year, but the event, moved to new location Eastville Park, proved itself a veritable suntrap, the sun’s dazzling rays roasting the heads of anyone who had neglected to bring a hat (or at least a welder’s helmet like one forward-thinking party-goer).
Walking through the gates of Love Saves The Day (LSTD) on Saturday was an instant shot to the senses: multi-coloured balloons and bunting decked the vicinity, as did pillars painted shocking pink, a ferris wheel, an old-style horse carrousel and a giant inflatable chapel (devoted, of course, to dance and spur-of-the-moment marriages of convenience). There was even hula hooping all day long, a big cuddly playpen for the kiddies (most of whom were all wearing construction-site ear mufflers) and an enormous robot structure under which sat a full-size wrestling ring dedicated to the many high-octane dance-offs that would ensue all weekend. There was no way around it: LSTD was a colossal adventure theme park built specifically for adults; adults who had all come to get drunk on dance and high on love.
Eastville Park seemed the perfect setting for such an event: a great rolling hill of lush green played below a wondrous blue sky that gave way to nine different stages, each one decked out more majestically than the last. The gurning and face chewing started early here, with many punters running themselves into the ground unable to calm their chemical jitters. A good thing there was so much to keep people active, then, from the aforementioned dance-off wrestling ring to the Bump Roller Disco arena, which featured a proper ‘90s-style roller disco but without the skin-crawlingly bad commercial radio music. Instead, the skating was soundtracked by live DJs all weekend (the likes of Dirty Thoughts, Lee Pattison and Hot Buttered Soul to the rescue). The hulahooping stand encouraged much entertainment, too, not just for the people doing it but for those watching who got to see numerous fest-goers, clueless of what to do with their bodies, spend 20 minutes simply gyrating at thin air – this, of course, at a dance music festival, where that sort of behaviour is nigh-on compulsory!
It was nothing short of impressive to see how much effort each company had gone to in order to set up their stage for just two days of partying. The robot above the dance-off ring was staggering in its size while even the tiny (relatively so) Cocktails and Dreams stage was covered in bamboo canes, floral strings and juxtaposed with a full-size clamshell for any festival mermaids who wanted to climb inside and bob away to their own meditative beat. Every stage was dressed to the nines in rave colours – pinks, yellows, greens – even the bazaar burst with colour.
And then, of course, there was the music. Hard to avoid it, really: thunderous basslines collided into one another like confused bulls in heat as DJs in every corner of the park threatened to drop any beat they were currently holding, resulting in screams of euphoria from the audience when they finally did so. People piled into every tent, venue and stage, excited for everything around them, though, unlike your average rock or pop festival, there was actually room to move. Even at the front of each stage, where a crowd might normally concentrate most of its energy, there was plenty of space to flail away. Perhaps this is the nature of electronic shows: after all, you’re there to get wild and have a good time, not necessarily stare wide-eyed at the band on stage while yelling the lyrics to every song in your neighbour’s ear. There was never any reason for artists to introduce themselves either since, for most of the time, people weren’t paying that much attention anyway. They were more interested in exploring and marvelling at their own bodies as the chemical-induced imbalances began to kick in.
This fourth year of LSTD had plenty of big-name acts to draw in crowds – your Groove Armadas, Roni Sizes and Azealia Bankses – but there was a mass of new music to discover, too. The Just Jack stage played host to a great many contenders, from funky disco outfit Soundstream to an entire Sunday curated by Teachings in Dub, which included an especially chilled set from Channel One. The Cloud 9 stage, meanwhile, boasted some of the strongest acts of the weekend, including Gorgon City, My Nu Leng and the soon-to-be-huge Tourist. Pop sensations Rae Morris and Indiana urged Saturday’s main stage crowd together early, both backed up by full bands to prove you didn’t need tables of decks and MacBooks to get a gig here while Futureboogie brought a bevvy of delectable delights to the Apocalypso stage in the forms of Maxxi Soundsystem and Ame, among others. Crack Magazine, ever the purveyors of quality music you wish you were cool enough to have found on your own, did not disappoint with a stellar cast of heavyweight beatsmiths, including Floating Points, Daniel Avery and bedroom nerd / heartthrob Four Tet. The London DJ graced the Paradiso tent at 9pm to rapturous applause and hollers from a crowd that could not have been happier to see him. He repaid the respect by ending his two-hour set with a couple of dub-fused numbers to mollify the Bristol locals. The set seemed to end rather abruptly at this point, though, as if the DJ hadn’t completely thought it through. No matter, though, as the LSTD audience had moved on to exploring the inner workings of their own legs by this point. They were just happy to have something to move to as they fell deeper into their Four Tet vortex (fourtex?).
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