- As if the Frankfurt club and label, weekly parties at Amnesia, Love Family Park and Green & Blue festivals weren't enough for Sven Vath to curate at this time of year, July 9th saw his latest venture turn a ripe old three. Even more remarkably, for the third year in a row he managed to host Cocoon in the Park on a day that dodged torrential rain by but a few hours.
The festival site itself was immediately impressive. Entering past the regal Temple Newsam house, you saunter down a rolling green hill toward just one stage. Set against a 180-degree backdrop of dense forest, the site is enclosed with food stalls, bars, Red Bull drinks tents, toilets and medical posts. New for this year were two giant Funktion One stacks 50 yards back from the stage which, at the time of arrival around 11:30 AM, seemed optimistic. As the sun slowly arced above us and the afternoon passed on, though, a reported total of nine thousand people convened on the hillside. Despite there being a somewhat remarkable 50 percent increase in attendance on last year, it did little to betray the (relatively) intimate vibe overall.
Photo credit: IGR Photo
More unsettling on the day was the new drinks token system. Designed to speed up trips to the bar, it rather turned into a guessing game as to how many tokens to buy—not enough and you're screwed, too many and, well, you're screwed again. But contend with that stumpy hurdle and attention can turn to the music. Music, it must be said, which bled from the giant Funktion One towers almost as cleanly and clearly as it does from those found in the city's sonically excellent Mint Club.
It was Seth Troxler who opened proceedings around 11 AM, a time so eye wateringly early to be out partying—if you aren't still out from Friday—it's no wonder he initially favoured low-slung deep house to get the punters going. Dressed almost in uniform, said punters wore vests (if any top at all), sandy shorts, tapered jeans, JFK-style Ray Bans and had universally Brylcreemed hair. But whatever, alongside the promiscuously dressed ladies they punched the air and wooped just like any other. Moving from slow and dragging organ lines through bigger electro basslines, quirky leftfield pop and passages of more complex tech, Troxler duly deserved the applause which came as Reboot took over. Though the German was performing live, that shouldn't excuse what was rather a lifeless set. Not helped by a number of technical issues, his loops rarely connected with those on the scorched grass in front of him; instead rather drifting off into the blue sky above. The closest he came to a real "moment" was a DC-10-style sit-down, but even that ended unceremoniously with people standing up at totally different moments.
Photo credit: IGR Photo
Asserting himself much more was penultimate headliner Ricardo Villalobos, who instantly set to work (ahead of schedule) with a much more chattery house conversation. Mixing (or fading in some cases) big, bold, attention grabbing sounds, it was just the requirement needed to re-tune the audience's collective ear and get it going once again. Once back on track, the Chilean headed off through peppery minimal grooves, his own twisted anthems ("MDMA") and a sure-to-be-debated-forever inclusion of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love." Personally, I did feel love—when the track's surging synths and bassline appeared toward the end of a deeper, druggier section, it seemed to shift the whole mood from one of burrowed intensity to one of more outgoing celebration.
And so to the final ringleader of the day, Mr Cocoon himself. Starting with an inspired choice in the form of Caribou's glistening "Sun," Sven set off down a house path that was littered with much more melody and groove than you might expect (thanks to Azari & III, Benoit & Sergio and Todd Terje), before later turning to more shadowy and faceless cuts that pummelled as much as they pleased.