Eastern Electrics 2012 Review

With a line up on paper to rival an Ibizan Summer, Eastern Electrics had all the promise of an excellent one day festival, but had the team behind the genre defying London parties bitten off more than they could chew moving up a scale to a full blown festival?

A late move from its original planned site in Clapham Common to the Greenwich Peninsula was likely to have caused some panic to the team behind EE – especially with the current trend of much hyped and well established festivals closing their gates due to poor ticket sales and tough council legislation. However with a sellout crowd, the sun in the sky and Olympic fever in the air, the day was set for dancing with reckless abandon to some of the best Dj’s and live acts around today.

Arriving at Greenwich North tube station it was clear that the majority of the crowd, like us, had chosen not to get to the event until well after the 11 am opening and with large queue’s at the gates it was obvious that the promoters were mindful of the security issues that caused the closure of BLOC a month earlier.
At the gate the security was not intrusive and the ticketing staff were friendly, however despite their best attempts the flow of the crowd into the event was slow, meaning many of the arenas were relatively empty until around 3pm.

Our first choice was to head over to the 2020 Vision tent where Ralph Lawson was well into the first hour of his set, a brief shower outside meant that the tent filled quickly which Ralph responded to well and held court with his usual style of quality deep and tech house, our next port of call was the Black Atlantic stage to see Detroit legend Kerri Chandler starting his set after MK (Mark Kinchen) who had warmed the crowd up nicely with the atmosphere already in full groove.

Other highlights of the day included the ever exuberant Danielle More and Crazy P rocking the 2020 vision stage despite having sound issues, loud chants and cheers and smiles all round as Greg Wilson delivered an outstanding set and then handed the decks over to another legend in the shape of Andrew Wetherall who seamlessly weaved his way through an eclectic set of electronica, Psychadelic disco and acid tinged house.

Walking round the site it was obvious that there was a clear buzz about the main stage and headliner Jamie Jones who from the reviews of people after his set didn’t disappoint his audience, however it was back to the 2020 vision stage for us to catch electronic collective 2020soundsystem who in my humble opinion are one of the best live dance acts around at the moment inviting the crowd into what seemed like a well thought out live jam session.

As can be expected from it’s first outing as a festival EE was not without it’s teething problems, there was much queuing throughout the day from the initial queues to enter the event to queues at the bars and toilets however these eased as the event progressed, the VIP area lacked substance which raises the question does an event really need a VIP area? however the line up and music was on point and the crowd were friendly and musically savvy, the well thought out addition of a big screen showing the Olympics as a chill out area was where the biggest cheers of the day could be found.

On the whole Eastern Electrics didn’t disappoint and succeeded where others failed so the team should be proud of what they achieved, with the announcement of Eastern Electrics 2013 and a full year of planning ahead this festival will be a great addition to the summer season.


Comments