The Relentless Wakestock Festival Review, 2009

 

Despite some pretty dreadful weather for the first two days of the festival, the atmosphere was buzzing with excitement, love and anticipation for the acts, the world class wakeboarding competition, and the thrill of the nights to come. Headlining the first night, and setting a benchmark for acts to follow, was Moby, playing a mesmeric set with incredible performances of songs such as ‘Trouble so hard’, ‘Extreme Ways’ and ‘Lift me up’ mixed with a few of his new songs from the album, Wait for me. The stand out song of Moby’s new album was a performance of ‘Shot in the back of the head'. Moby really knew how to work the crowd and had every person hanging on his every beat, Kelli Scarr, Moby’s lead singer vocals were mind blowing.  

 

Headlining the Friday night with Moby, was the chart topping Calvin Harris, whose performance was a explosion of amazing dance tunes, and an incredible show. Calvin Harris kept everyone dancing and singing to his most popular songs such as ‘Acceptable in the Eighties’, ‘The Girls’, ‘Stay up for the weekend’, and the most anticipated song of the night ‘I am not alone’. Calvin Harris oozed confidence, fun and excitement that rippled through the crowd as soon as he played the first note on his synthesised keyboard.  

 

Saturday night brought the headliners, N.E.R.D and The Pigeon Detectives, but it also brought the rain, festival goers were either loving it or loathing it trying to not get wet or having mud fights in the downpour. N.E.R.D brought the best hip hop, rock to the stage and the smooth, cool, internationally known Pharrell Williams.  Chart topping classics such as ‘Rockstar’,’Everybody Nose’ and ‘She wants to move’ kept everyone dancing, all night.  The crowd were entranced by N.E.R.D’s incredible showmanship and excitement within the crowd.   Anyone prepared to make a quick dash across a treacherous muddy field might have been lucky to enough to catch both N.E.R.D and Leeds rock band, The Pigeon Detectives, whose catchy songs and uplifting music brought the house – ok, tent – down. By far the biggest anthems of the night were ‘I found out’,’Take her back’, ‘romantic type’ and the highly anticipated ‘I’m not sorry’, which brought the Saturday night to a climatic end.

 

As the rains cleared in the early hours of Sunday morning, the revelry of the festival was revealed. A unique setting by the sea must have motivated the crowds to flock back for a day of rides, the wakeboarding finale and a final fling in the mud. Sunday was a brilliantly sunny day and really topped off the whole of Wakestock with performances from Tynchy Stryder and the most waited-for headliner of the festival, the astounding Mr. Dizzee Rascal. Tynchy Stryder was a performer of the highest calibre, showing the talents of a seasoned hip hopper who pulsed energy through the crowd, with his number one hit, the chart topper ‘Number 1’.

 

Dizzee kept the crowd waiting, but when he stepped on stage to a packed main arena, he was greeted with the biggest roar of the weekend. Starting with Dizzee’s remix of the Ting Ting’s hit ‘That’s not my name’ and following with his own huge hits, such as ‘Just a Rascal’ and ‘Fix up, look sharp’ he rocked the mass of people surging together to get closer to the action. Dizzee broke every expectation of being the last headliner of the whole festival, and the showman shattered the sound and dance barrier, with his final song of the night, ‘Bonkers’ which shook everyone and everything it it’s path, a truly extraordinary and incredible performance.

 

Andy Mitchell