- It was while the sun set on the final day of Outlook 2011—as Phaeleh delivered an onslaught of Bristolian bass music to a beach full of nearly a thousand people—that I realised the event has been through more than just a simple renovation. This festival, which began as a mere 1,000 person party just four years ago, has grown and matured into a 10,000 strong, full-impact bass attack of immense proportions.
Everything has been expanded carefully: The campsite, with its impressive sound-system and rocky beach front has been used as the epicentre of the day events, hosting mornings of reggae vibrations and afternoons of weighty low-end manoeuvres. At night, the fort and dockside are all open-access, with nine areas to choose from. The entire festival hosts a total of 600 artists from across a wide spectrum of reggae, dubstep, drum & bass, techno and house.
Photo credit: Marc Sethi
The campsite now seems to stretch for miles, as every available space has been taken. (Tents, motor homes and caravans all get in on the action.) In order to spread the throbbing mass of people that are in constant movement throughout the day, the Outlook crew have added another daytime stage, "The Basketball Court."
Situated on the opposite end of the campsite are two genuine, concrete basketball courts lined with makeshift wooden huts, bars and food stalls. The DJ booth is made up to resemble a '80s boombox, the DJ slotted into the space you would normally put your cassettes.The small, flat area acts as a nice departure from the rough terrain of the rest of the festival, as DJ's like Brighton's Unlikely play a slew of summer-tinged dubstep and UK garage.
There were other changes too: Where once the dock was a barren concrete outpost, spotted with 30 foot piles of crumbling debris and large metal containers, the newly christened Harbour Area now wouldn't look out of place at any number of festivals throughout the world. A mammoth main stage played host to both contemporary artists like The Bug—who incited the crowd to near riot with "Poison Dart"—and dub music legends Horace Andy and Johnny Clarke—who romanced their mixed crowd of young kids and aging roots rockers with classic reggae anthems.
Photo credit: Marc Sethi
The Dockside, a small area powered by a mighty O.B.F sound-system, had been built directly opposite the main stage. It hosted sound-clashes throughout each day—the most memorable of which was Hessle Audio vs. Swamp 81. Each label had roughly fifteen minutes for each of their DJ's to show what they were made of. Oneman, representing Swamp 81, initiated a rapid fire disco attack, giving Hessle Audio and the crowd barely a moment to breath before each new hook was seamlessly blended into another.
Hessle proclaimed that "school disco vibrations would not work here," before Ben UFO embarked on an excursion into '80s underground, dropping the instrumental of Shirley Lites' "Heat You Up (Melt You Down)," causing the small crowd gathered on the dock to spontaneously convulse in time to the surging rhythm. Sergeant Pokes got on the mic as Hatcha, Pangaea, Space Dimension Controller and Ramadanman all made appearances behind the decks, while a sizeable contingent of DJs and producers lurked in the background. It was a scene of old friends with busy schedules on holiday together and enjoying each other's company for a short time—amidst a festival dedicated to the type of music that they themselves had pioneered.
At night, the path that led from the Fort to the dock acted as a main artery, a constant flux of people moving relatively easily between the ruined castle and the main stage. The changes at the fort were quite subtle; more food stalls, clearer pathways and more space. The concrete shelf that looked over the Mungo's HiFi arena, once only accessible to VIPs, was opened up to the public—again providing the festival with a chance to breath and allowing for the increased numbers of people to move, dance and pass out.
Photo credit: Marc Sethi
The Moat, however, was a distinctly noticeable improvement—its vast size a gaping wound on the side of the ancient walls. A roofless, cavernous hallway, roughly 300 ft long and flanked on either side by concrete that reaches up into the sky. This imposing space acted as the perfect setting for some of the best music of the entire four days. Boddika delivered an hour's worth of rough rhythms, including Instra:mental's "When I Dip," whose 808 kick drum and evil synth stabs emanated from the huge stacks strategically placed along the length of the Moat.
Oneman kept people adrift with a lightning fast mix of dubstep and grime, his set going from the rugged, rhythmic violation of Girl Unit's "Wut" to the euphoric heights of Katy B's "On a Mission." It was the best set of the whole four days, with Oneman serving up equal measures of raw sub-bass and sparkling female vocals to 1500 people, causing the vast number of bodies to vigorously dance in a space that last year would have been unfathomable.
It's clear that, in its fourth year, Outlook has reached maturity. It has overcome the teething problems induced by noise complaints, limited space and the mammoth task of hosting a festival so far from its home shores. Previously the event has had its ups and downs, but Outlook's transformation from a low-key party into a spectacle of bass and soundsystem culture is now complete. Quite simply, it's the best bass-centric festival on the planet at the moment.