Tuesday 30 July 2013

Create Music Festival 2013, Ashford

After a pretty grim & grey start, once again the sun appeared and blue skies graced a summer event.  Had never even heard of the Create Festival before, despite this being its 18th year.  Which just shows how many excellent events can happen without you knowing anything about them.

The standard of music was superb and eclectic.  I spent the whole day scurrying between the four stages.  I tried to see every act but missed a couple.  The problem, if such it can be called, is that most of the acts playing were of a standard that you really wanted to watch the whole set, but that was impossible if you wanted to take in as much as possible.

Band of the day, for me, was the fantastic Riskee & the Ridicule.  Definitely should have been the headline act.  To be blunt, they were head and shoulders above Dodgy.  The Riskees are a lot more relevant and should have got top billing, end of.

Also superb were the frankly barking Blacken the Name.  I was literally half deaf for an hour after listening to their particularly ear splitting brand of metal.  This is the kind of performance you want to see as a snapper.  Their fans provided security with a rare bit of activity by constantly knocking down the barriers but it was all in good spirits.

I didn't see one duff band.  Pretty remarkable achievement given the size of the bill.  The dance tent really livened up as the afternoon wore on and I found myself in among a load of (mostly) young ravers at one point.  It was like going back in time 25 years ;)  Good to see the 2013 ravers still throw the same shapes as the elderly used to in the late 80s/early 90s ;) Props to that older guy in the leather jacket with his repertoire of funky moves (lol)

Other notable performances among the many were Him & Her, Dulcie May & the Mystery Cats, Parachuting Monkeys, Adam White, Adam Dowling, Van Susans, Hey Joni and Mooli.

Down sides included the ridiculously small number of toilets for the size of the crowd, many of whom were obviously drinking plenty; and the ridiculously large number of security people.  Next time the organisers should have more bogs and less muscle ;)  But these are minor criticisms (I would be devastated if there was nothing to complain about ;).  Create 2013 was an outstanding event.

Create Music Festival 2013 (313 pics)


1 comment:

  1. Great set of photos and a very good write up of the event

    ReplyDelete