Boy, it's more than I dare to think about

 Final time at Hyde Park for the year!

Another trip in with the lovely Mrs Reed - and we made it in at a decent time, so I've got plenty of acts to talk about...

 

...but not Ella Henderson though, unless hearing "Ghost" from outside the fence counts - I did know quite a few people that were inside at the time though and they assured me she did a great job.

 

So the first act we properly heard was ADMT on the Rainbow Stage and I can report that his Ed Sheeran style numbers were all perfectly acceptable, if not exactly attracting the hugest crowds. I also caught a couple of songs from Tom Rasmussen on that stage later and he was making much more impressive noises - also being viewed by many, many more people.

 

Otherwise, all the action we saw was on the main stage and, after hearing Ella make some fine noises, our expectations were high for Anitta. OK, neither of us had the faintest idea who she was but apparently she's a BIG THING in South America (and she really is, check out her Wikipedia page). However she was not such a big thing in Hyde Park - a palpable air of "meh" greeted her attempts to convert us. It was a decent enough sound, but in a "nice to have on in the background" kinda way and people just didn't engage. I'm also not entirely sure her (repeated) proclamations that "I know you want to fuck me" were ever going to work on an audience that were quite obviously overwhelmingly not that way inclined.

 

Oh well, let's just have a few more beers and move on to the next mononymous act - Marina. I have to declare a certain bias here - she's #3 on my list of "acts I've seen live most often" (ten points to anyone who can guess #1 and #2!). I first saw her at Glastonbury in 2010 where she was wearing a very fetching pair of orange dungarees - it's fair to say her style is slightly different these days. But whatever she looks like, she always delivers and her set here went down very well - but I'm still amazed how well her Electra Heart stuff is received these days.

 

And so, finally to not-quite-mononymous Kylie (Minogue Not Jenner, as several teeshirts in the crowd made clear) - my expectations were that she'd be a bit of fun but not much more than that (and we've certainly got history because I used to watch Neighbours twice a day at uni). But I'm pleased to report she comfortably exceeded them - it was a very decent set with a huge number of hits, which she performed well.

 

And the crowd loved, loved, LOVED her - a huge number of people came dressed to impress in their sparkliest outfits and they were there to have fun. And nothing was going to get in their way - but I suspect that plenty of people like me who were merely along for the ride will have left with increased appreciation of an absolute trooper who put on a great show and left us singing and dancing all the way home. I can also report that my wife needed no such conversion - she was fully bought into the Kylie bandwagon from the first note!

 

So thank you to AEG for my BST tickets because me and the family all appreciated them- they were all fun events but I feel Kylie probably shaded the other two just for the overall level of fun (with added Marina!)