Saturday 13 July 2013

Festival Review - Mainsquare Festival, France - DAY 2


Day 2 started a bit later for me due to a bit of sunstroke, so regrettably I missed the likes of Local Natives, Kodaline, Of Monsters & Men, and 80s supergroup, Mike & the Mechanics. I entered the arena to the strains of French indie rocker, Asaf Avidan. He has a very unexpected but strangely hypnotising singing voice which carried me over to the Main Stage to where I had gingerly rocked up ready to see Swedish band, the Hives. From start to finish they whipped through their set like a runaway train, expertly turning the crowd into a partying frenzy and throwing out a string of recognisable hits including “Hate To Say I Told You So” and “Die, All Right!” Their frontman, “Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist” is was a rather endearing loon, strutting and hurling himself around the stage and into the crowd like a young Mick Jagger. The crowd lapped it up.

Back on the Greenroom stage Alt-J had begun their set to a sizeable, but slightly distracted, crowd. However, by the time they got to “Breezeblocks” the crowd was listening intently, and they ended with a good reception despite the fact that much of the crowd had vacated over to the Main Stage for the start of Sting’s set.


Sting swept onto the Main Stage to a massive crowd, striking into “Englishman In New York”, and it seemed that everyone in the crowd was singing along with him. He interspersed his own hits with those of the Police, with the crowd eagerly singing along to the likes of “Roxanne” and “Message In A Bottle”. However some of his set was rather subdued, “Wrapped Around Your Finger” seemed to be too slow, and the heady atmosphere began to dip before it waned completely due to more sound issues. In places it was difficult to hear what was going on and then deuS struck up on the Greenroom stage, completely drowning out what little sound could be heard. The final blow was dealt by Sting himself when he introduced his band, with the long self-indulgent instrument noodling and drum solo that followed causing the crowd to lose interest and wander away. Even ending the set on “Every Breath You Take” failed to recapture the unified awe of the crowd from the start of his set, and so another great performer had fallen victim to the sound gremlins of Mainsquare Festival.

Meanwhile Belgian rockers, deuS, were capitalising on Sting’s loss by drawing in his departing crowd. Their brand of rock lifted the sombre mood and they received a great response as they steered their way through the penultimate set of the Greenroom stage, warming up the festival goers in preparation of the final Main Stage act of the day, French turntablists, C2C. As expected, C2C’s set to their home crowd drew in the masses, recreating the party atmosphere as they danced their way through C2C’s fantastic set.


But the day’s prize for the most engaged crowd goes to the Greenroom’s final act of the night, French house producer, Madeon. He blended his own tracks with some ingeniously mixed up crowd pleasers including “Song 2” by Blur, “Around The World” and “Aerodynamic” from his fellow French dance producers, Daft Punk, and tracks by The Prodigy and Pendulum, and the atmosphere was stratospheric. At one point I looked around me and could not see a single person in the entire arena who wasn’t dancing. At only 20 years of age I think the best of this brilliant dance producer is still to come. He has certainly started on the right foot.

Click below to see my reviews of each day, and my verdict of the festival as a whole.

Mainsquare Festival 2013, Intro

Mainsquare Festival 2013, Day 1
Featuring Candide, Twin Forks, Balthazar, Rival Sons, Haim, Biffy Clyro, Modestep, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Bloc Party, Green day, Enter Shikari, The Prodigy and Netsky

Mainsquare Festival 2013, Day 3
Featuring Feini X Crew, Charles Bradley, Left Boy, Volbeat, La Femme, Puggy, Lou Doillon, Stereophonics, Kendrick Lamar, Archive, Wax Tailor and The Dusty Rainbow Experience and Indochine

Mainsquare Festival 2013: The Verdict

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