FIELD DAY FESTIVAL (Victoria Park, 11/08/07)


Ah, Field Day! On paper it seemed a nigh-on utopian concept; some of the most cutting-edge bands around playing in a picturesque (for East London) location, coupled with traditional country fete sideshows and perfect weather to boot. Which thus begs the unfortunate question: how could it have gone so wrong?

Their main fault was that they’d simply booked way too many bands. Yes, it meant that you were spoilt for choice, but it also meant that set durations were severely restricted- very few bands were given more than half an hour. Add in the knock-on effect of overrunning performances, and some of the later bands found themselves with barely 20 minutes to play. Then you had the stages - with four of them shoehorned into such a limited space, volume levels were kept so low to avoid cross-over that the sound simply didn’t carry enough to accommodate the sheer amount of the people watching. Even relatively close to the stage, you found yourself overwhelmed by the mobile-phone chatter of less considerate patrons; further back you just didn’t stand a chance. Combine that with overpriced programmes and the frankly shocking paucity of bars and toilet facilities (the world hasn’t seen such queues of hipsters since Broken Social Scene last toured) and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

Nonetheless, with bands that good on the bill there was no chance Field Day was going to be a complete washout. The gravel-sodden rasp of Absentee provided one of the day’s early highlights, and charismatic Beta Band offshoots The Aliens went down well with an unpretentious and thoroughly enjoyable set. Caribou, an intriguing proposition on record fared less well; they undoubtedly had their moments but despite an impressive display from their two drummers, they were too slight to make much of an impression on me. Foals’ hyperactive, oh-so-current synths-and-drums sound initially caught my attention but their lack of variety saw me drifting off by the middle of their set, and Late Of The Pier furrowed far too similar a vein to them for me to give a damn about.

The Earlies on the other hand were a breath of fresh air. Although it’d have been nice to hear some material from the debut, the ten-strong psychedalic-orchestral-prog collective put on a stellar performance, complete with mesmerising grooves, dense instrumentals and a sense of fun that was sorely missing from so many of the acts I saw that day - which includes the underwhelming performance by the festival’s biggest draw, avant-garde New York four-piece Battles. Curtailed to 25 minutes thanks to the over-crowded line-up, they were obviously pissed off, the audience were even more so and although they were as technically astonishing as always, you could tell their heart wasn’t in it. Even the mightly Atlas was emasculated by the volume restrictions, and all you could hear afterwards were the grumbles of punters decrying spending £22 on such a pathetically brief set. Thank God then for Justice, who managed to end proceedings on a high; although the volume issues still reared their head, those who hadn’t opted to leave early were treated to their superlative dance anthems, culminating with a superb singalong rendition of “We Are Your Friends.”

There’s no doubt that Field Day fell far short of it’s incredible promise, but still, full marks for ambition and certainly the seeds are there for a truly great annual event. Scale it down, get fewer bands playing longer sets and for the love of God, cut down the hour-long queues for the bogs and in future years they could have a classic on their hands. But on the evidence of Saturday, they’ve still got quite some way to go.