Lovebox 2010

Lovebox is the festival for Londoner’s who cannot forgo their homely luxuries for the sake of a weekend of music. Everyone there was slightly too immaculately dressed: perfect tousled country girl hair and maxi-dresses were out in force, which was a bit odd considering we were in the east end of London.

The layout of the fairly small camp is brilliant, with plenty of different stages well apart to prevent sound-bleed, a huge and diverse food area, and loads of little nooks and crannies waiting to be discovered. We found the Favela Chic bar, which had some ace little acts playing, and were serving up delicious caipirinhas for the same price as a beer. And just nearby was a little passageway which led to the Hot Blood - nicely empty as you had to look a bit to find it - playing some amazing eighties funk when we found it. We also had a look into the NYC Downlow where, to my total delight, you had to pay £2 for a moustache in order to get in. I cursed myself for not bringing a proper camera to get some snaps of all the ladies in ’taches that were walking around the camp.

So. Music. The Invisible were amazing, as we knew they would be, but I couldn’t get over the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd. How could people be sitting down when one of the most musically talented and interesting bands of the moment were playing? We also tried, but couldn’t get into the Rizla arena to see The Nextmen, so listened from afar for a bit. We managed to get in later when Jazzie B was in there - which I got most excited about, and Wild Beasts, who were on the main stage, exceeded all expectations (yes, the lead guy really does sing like that!) Again, in my own opinionated way, I cannot understand why the whole of Lovebox didn’t descend on that patch of ground to hear them. But then it does make it more of a treat for the audience when the crowd is small. Paloma Faith as you’d imagine looked vintagely amazing and gave a decent show, (half of) Empire of the Sun gave a dash of energy and some truly spacey get-up to the evening and Roxy Music finished on a slightly tired, but nicely nostalgic note.

An eclectic and fun day out, if a little busy for my liking (well, 16 was a long time ago)... If you’re thinking of going next year, keep your eye on: Lovebox.net