Festivals are back – and better than ever

No summer has ever carried so much pressure as 2021’s. Months of lockdown gloom were made bearable by the promise of an upcoming “summer of love” characterised by freedom and “normality” in abundance. 

The reality has been slightly different. We have had the “plandemic” (not being able to so much as step outside of your house without booking in advance), the “pingdemic” (test and trace wiping out socialising almost as effectively as the first lockdown) and a couple of weeks where it felt like almost everyone in London had Covid. 

There have been festivals cancelled by the organisers, holidays taken off the cards by the ever-changing traffic light system and “staycations” marked by rain and muggy weather. The summer of love quickly became a summer of cancelled plans and disappointment.

That is, until this weekend. The sun (sort-of) shined, live music played across the country and we had a three-day weekend jam-packed with events and celebrations. At least eight festivals took place across the UK; Reading and Leeds, Creamfields, Lost Village, Maiden Voyage and Victorious, to name but a few.

Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets, East London had perhaps one of the busiest weekends of all. Friday, Saturday and Monday saw All Points East festival take place with headliners such as Jamie XX and Kano performing, with a quick interlude on Sunday for Field Day festival to take over the park with some of the biggest electronic music acts on offer. 

I headed down to Field Day on Sunday for my first festival since July 2019, fairly certain that I had forgotten how to dance. Proof of negative lateral flow in hand, my friends and I got there early so as to avoid the winding queues that no amount of time away from festivals could make you miss and enjoyed the first hour or so in a relatively empty park.

This slow initiation into the festival helped ease the flicker of anxiety at the prospect of being around 40,000 people when, until relatively recently, we had been allowed to socialise with a maximum of six at a time. But as the park started to fill with people, any nervousness quickly dissipated, overridden by the inescapable atmosphere of sheer joy, excitement and relief at being able to attend festivals again.

And what a festival to return to. Field Day was immaculately organised; no overflowing toilets, friendly and efficient bar staff, brilliant sound systems and plenty of space for all 40,000 festival-goers to drift between the six stages listening to the well-known (Hot Chip, The Blessed Madonna) and the worth-discovering (TSHA, Bearface). 

This entire festival carried a sense of a giant reunion between the crowds, acts on stage and the festival organisers – all strangers to one another but made familiar by the palpable glee at being able to be there. The dancing might have started off a little stiff, but like riding a bike, muscle memory takes over and the brilliant music made it impossible not to enjoy yourself. 

After a year and a half of isolation, it felt fitting for the entire crowd to come together for electronic music duo BICEP as the closing act. Performing for the first time since 2018, the music was accompanied by custom-design LED screens with hypnotic visuals illuminating the stage. The 90-minute set was finished by their popular tracks “Apricots” and “Glue”, as the crowd gathered close, transfixed by the music.

The headlines in the days to come will undoubtedly talk of rising Covid cases as a result of these festivals and scaremongering over this inevitable outcome. Whilst Covid did feel like a distant memory during the festival, the precautions (proof of immunity, negative lateral flow or double-vaccination) were in place to minimise the spread of the virus and those who attend festivals are aware of the risks. 

We are lucky enough to have access to the vaccines, and now we can truly reap the benefits. For a little over ten hours on Sunday, it felt like we were finally living the summer we have been dreaming of, and what a brief relief from reality it was. Festivals are back, and I hope they never go away again.