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Field Day

Description: One day indie and rock event featuring Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Cocknbullkid, Ducktails, Electrelane, Factory Floor, Gruff Rhys, Hype Williams, Jamie Woon, John Cale, Matthew Dear, Mount Kimbie, Oneohtrix Point Never, Roska, Sun Ra Arkestra, The Coral, The Horrors, Tortoise, Trophy Wife, Wild Beasts, Willy Mason and many more.



Rating: 3 out of 5 André Paine's rating
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Friendly Field Day despite the drizzle

Field Day
Groove-based tunes: Yannis Philippakis of festival headliners The Foals

By André Paine
11 Aug 2008


The inaugural Field Day was a chaotic affair, short on toilets, bar staff and decibel levels.

A year on, and the organisers lived up to their promise to do a better job on this festival of left-field music but the rain meant some acts would always struggle. Noisy US band Les Savy Fav cavorted on the main stage in a state of undress but really needed some anthems to rally the crowd.

The damp did hold off for a while, allowing Lightspeed Champion to make an impact with his awkwardly epic tunes and indie interpretation of the Star Wars soundtrack.

There was plenty worth seeking out on the other stages, too. King Creosote had a shocking, multi-coloured cardigan at odds with his terse, brittle folk, while the harmony-heavy Efterklang from Denmark were a revelation. Under cover in the Bloggers Delight Tent, Brooklyn electro-pop trio Telepathe made up for a lack of presence with abundant percussion.

Oxford band Foals were also big on clattering drums during a set of smart, groove-based tunes. "Thanks for staying, it's pretty ****ing miserable," said frontman Yannis Philippakis. They also had to compete with Simian Mobile Disco playing a packed dance tent.

Nevertheless, Foals were worthy headliners, drawing on art-rock and punk-funk for churning, rhythmic songs such as Cassius and Balloons. They got a decent-sized crowd dancing, too, despite the conditions.

Perhaps it needed a couple of bigger cult acts. But Field Day is one of the friendliest festivals I've attended and deserves another outing next year.

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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It's a real shame the weather was so awful because field day would have been really fun had the sun shined- but as it was the cold and wet killed it some what.

Also there were still issues with the toilets, although a few of these were ironed out later- but basically there weren't really enough.

Also and it seems odd to say this but for my money a lot of the music wasn't loud enough especially on the mains stage.

- Will, London, 12/08/2008 04:06
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The organisers failed to provide enough toilets - the queues to get to the toilet were far too long - poor organisation!

- Anon, London, 11/08/2008 14:46
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