South West 4 2011
SW4SW4 has been a staple part of my summer for a while now and this was my third time of attending the festival. I am not alone, it has long been seen as one of the main ingredients of that all important summer bender commonly known as the August Bank Holiday weekend for clubbers from London and beyond.
The build up to the festival was one of nervous excitement not just in anticipation of all the fun to be had, but the weather. All my previous visits had been blessed with the perfect festival weather you would hope for in late August. The week leading up to the festival was looking to be a total washout.
I spent the days before neurotically checking the Met Office website and the evening before in North Clapham seriously considering building an ark. However on the morning of August 27th (my 29th birthday) I woke up to glorious sunshine and blue skies dotted with clouds. Followed not too long later by a down pour of torrential rain. And so continued the day.
There were definitely some pluses to the rain, my friends and I were almost on site during a down pour and as we hid under a giant tree, grimly contemplating our Converse high tops and wondering what we’d let ourselves in for a magical thing happened. None of us had to queue for more than ten minutes to get into the festival. Surely a first and not something others I know were lucky enough to experience.
Once in we were glad to see we hadn’t made the fatal error of getting there too early. Things were nicely in swing nicely Pete Tong appeared to be having the time of his life jumping around on the main stage and Loco Dice was kicking things off massively in the Cocoon arena, my home for most of the day. And all present were clearly loving it, some perhaps a little too much. Yes I’m looking at you girl I saw peeing in a bottle in the middle of a field. If you think that a day festival would be a slightly less hedonistic affair then you are clearly mistaken, even very early on there were people lolling around on the ground and dancing around shirtless and sweaty.
The site was definitely muddy, hindsight is a wonderful thing and it would have advised me to bring some wellies, but it’s amazing how a few Tuborgs and some festival strength Brother’s cider can make everything seem fun. Plus it wasn’t even nearly the muddiest festival I have ever attended, that honour will hopefully always belong to Glastonbury 2005.
One of the great things about SW4 is how much they manage to pack in to a site that is still easy to navigate and meet up with friends in. Year after year the line up seems to have something for everyone and that’s one reason me and my friends continue going, because we can all agree there will be something we would want to see. This year for me that was mostly the Coccoon Arena which was brilliant all day. Special nods going out to Tiefschwarz, Guy Gerber and Sven Vath who stood out to me.
As with every festival there is always stuff you miss out on and I was gutted I didn’t get to spend more time in the Shake It arena especially since every time I passed by the place seemed to be packed to the rafters with an amazing atmosphere.The day was rounded off brilliantly at the main stage with a rousing live set from dance music stalwarts and living legends Underworld who did not disappoint, firing out classic after classic to a loving crowd.
The only complaint I would have about this set and all the music I heard throughout the day, and I almost don’t want to say it as I’ve heard it said time and again, was that the sound was just too quiet. I understand that Clapham Common is in the middle of a residential area so I assume that noise restrictions apply, but the festival runs from 12pm-9pm so surely you aren’t going to be waking anyone up. Hopefully in future years some way around this will be found because music that good should have the volume cranked up.
All in all I would say I had a great time at a really well planned event with a smashing line up. SW4 keep the good work up, and crank up the bloody sound.
