- I headed to Parklife with no real expectations seeing it was my first time at the event. ‘A smaller Field Day’ is what I had been told but on arrival it felt as if Field Day had come 3 months early as the crowd was quite massive, and the weather almost perfect!
The North Tent was my destination early as Kaskade turned up the heat on an already packed and steaming arena that was quite a scene. They weren’t too bad to be honest, laying down their almost trademark smooth house sounds at a good time of the day, with the sun slowly starting to set. Crazy Penis followed them and although they weren’t too my taste, the very strong crowd who had rushed to see one of the festival big guns seemed to be lapping up the live elements and vocal delights of what Crazy Penis had to offer.
The clock had hit 5:30 so I rushed to the Bedouin Tent to check out the Hybrid duo. Props must go to Fuzzy as Hybrid are a great choice for the festival type gig, and they certainly delivered the goods dropping an absolute host of killer tracks that oozed energy and grit as the darkness set upon Parklife. Highlight moments included the very sinister ‘Ignition’ by Forme and Hybrids stunning remix of REM’s ‘The Great Beyond’. Proper outdoor stuff by the awesome Hybrid lads as they delivered some really chunky breaks filled with driving baselines. My only gripe is that this arena lacked a bit of volume in the sound department.
As the clock hit 7 I hurried back to the North Tent to catch up with Nick Warren, a DJ who is almost suited to the bigger type festivals as he is the perfect party prog DJ. I must confess I had my concerns with Warren playing after DJ Sneak (who by all accounts delivered some top draw house) and playing before Sandy Riviera, but Nick didn’t disappoint, playing some real big time tracks in the perfect environment for it. Some big tracks included the classic Way Out West monster, ‘Domination’, the Jacques Le Cont remix of The Killers ‘Mr Brightside’ and my highlight of the day, the very massive ‘Aftermath’ by Eric Prydz production moniker, Pryda. IT was a typically uplifting and driving set from Warren that really kept the mood and energy high as the event came to a close.
Sandy Rivera finished it all off in the North Tent by playing some real big crowd pleasers which included Deep Dish’s ‘Say Hello’ and some chunky remix of ‘Pump Up The Jam’.
All in all it was quite a great day, with a host of quality acts which made me wish I could be in 3 places at once!