Event review: Field Day, Brockwell Park, 2-3 June 2018

For more than a decade, Field Day has been a top dog for day festivals in London, showcasing impressive line-ups year after year. It has always attracted a ‘cool’ crowd and has benefitted greatly from its trendy east London location in Victoria Park. 

This year, the festival relocated to south London’s Brockwell Park, which is distinctly smaller – something that was also reflected in the line-up which did not carry as many big names as usual. 

However, DJs like Four Tet, Floating Points, Fever Ray and Erykah Badu drew the electro-loving crowds to Brixton for this two-day festival. With the addition of lots of exciting, up-and-coming artists (and blessed with sunny skies), the atmosphere was still on point. 

Like its cool-kid crowd, the hospitality and VIP offerings are pretty low key. If you want to treat your music-loving clients, the VIP area had ‘luxe’ loos (anyone who’s been to a festival can appreciate this), a dedicated wine and prosecco bar, and insanely good fried chicken and chips. Hanging out in the VIP bar tent, you could shake it off on the dance floor (complete with disco bowl), or take it easy in the spacious seating groups. 

We weren’t massively impressed though – even though VIP passes gave you fast-track into the festival (and yes, proper toilets are invaluable), there were more impressive food stalls in the festival area (hello, duck burgers!) and the Kraken Freaky Tiki Bar was churning out delicious, tropical rum cocktails. We missed some private outdoor cabanas maybe, or even just some bean bags for people to lounge on. Oh, but it must be mentioned that some performers popped by the VIP area after their sets, so if you’re keen to mingle with the stars, that was the place to be.

There were some teething issues too. The organisers were under strict instructions from neighbourhood authorities to keep the noise and crowd chaos to a minimum, meaning very specific curfews. It also meant that when Eykah Badu, not renowned for her punctuality, was late on stage for her headlining spot on Friday, she was cut short mid-set. On Saturday, crowds went home disappointed when headliner Four Tet was interrupted only five minutes in. His two-hour show was paused for 50 minutes because the throng by the entrance to the tent got too intense. 

Yep, Field Day 2018 had some issues. But we’re sure the team will learn from this year’s hiccups in time for 2019. Besides, if you’re looking for a fun-filled day close to home for you and your clients, Field Day has it in the bag.