Wildlife Festival

The Wildlife festival was a bit of a surprise when it was announced, just a 20 minute drive from the city centre, and with two chart-topping names as curators and offering a tasty selection of acts on a multitude of stages.
Apart from the infamous Shakedown, nothing like this had happened so close to home since Big Beach Boutique II in 2002. So, I had to gather some mates and check it out, and being a fan of the dance scene I was very excited to see many of the big acts and was nicely surprised to see familiar names at the lower-end of the bill, too.
After the amazingly quick and easy process of taking the festival-provided coach from Brighton beach to the festival gate, we arrived and were greeted with a warm atmosphere and were pleasantly surprised to find that people had already gotten into full party-mode swing by the early afternoon. This was new to me as I haven’t been to many non-camping festivals before; I am more accustomed to crawling out of my tent by about 1 o’clock and battling a hangover for a few hours before addressing the day ahead. This was a vital aspect of the festival which I think gave it a lot more energy from the get-go.
There was a nice mix of musical styles, too; we drank our first beers to the deep grooves of Breach and Skream at the wonderfully imposing Warehouse Project Presents stage, a monolithic outdoor tower where the masters of house and tech reigned. Other notable sets included the bass-powered sets of My Nu Leng & Oneman (always a treat) and Andy C, the blissful Jamie XX and Snakehips, and the legendary David Rodigan, who always knows how to entertain a crowd. Of the two headliners, Disclosure’s set was an intriguing mix of clever melodies and fluffy FX, while I felt Rudimental missed the mark, and didn’t achieve the right sound for a festival show, although I am a fan of their recorded hits.Me and my friends had a great time and for a first attempt, Wildlife really knew what it was doing and did a great job of putting on a show. The whole thing was incredibly entertaining and relaxing at the same time, with great artists on all stages throughout, a pleasant atmosphere (although nothing compared to the utopian likes of Bestival or Boomtown), and not-too-ridiculously-overpriced bevvies. It was a great weekend out, and with a few additions like a third day or camping, it has a good shot at establishing itself as an annual event.

Luke Hemmings