Sorry? How long?!?

 My first festival day of the year!

I missed out on BST this year (but the girls loved Noah Kahan) so I took the opportunity to visit the first day of All Points East - without really knowing much about the headliners. I knew that Sault are a shadowy music collective (who we've met a couple of times on here) but I wasn't aware of Cleo Sol or Chronixx so I wasn't sure what to expect. However, whatever I might have been expecting - I REALLY wasn't expecting what transpired...

...but let's start at the beginning. I enjoy All Points East because it's set in a lovely location (Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets) and there are six or so stages of varying sizes which I enjoy wandering between to see various artists, most of whom I have no knowledge of - some of which work out well, some not so much. And so this is how the afternoon began (under some very hot sunshine) 

Gotts Street Park

Some smooth soul/funk sounds which worked well in the sunshine, but was somewhat inessential. They brought Pip Millett on stage as a guest vocalist at one point and people were VERY happy to see her. 

Yves Jarvis

He was one man and his guitar making some impressive noises - much better than I was expecting this early in the day. He was however playing to, ooh, tens of people!

Safii Koii

She had a nice voice doing kinda jazz/funk stuff - she had a slightly larger crowd because her stage had some shade, but it was still boiling.

Mariah the Scientist

And we finally saw our first big crowd of the afternoon - she had a nice voice, a very decent band and a very appreciative crowd. And amusingly, the first thing she said to them was “You didn’t tell me it was going to be this fucking hot”. I enjoyed what I saw of her but I do have to report that I'm not sure she's actually a scientist - there was no sign of either a lab coat or safety goggles.

Ms Dynamite

I was enjoying Mariah, but left before she finished to go and see if Ms Dynamite was gonna play her hits (I really like "It Takes More"). Well, no she didn't but it was still a fun set and a LOT of people were having a really good time there - it seems like it was a mistake to put her on one of the smaller stages.

Sasha Keable

She seemed to have a nice voice but the levels were all wrong, so I really couldn't hear the sound she was trying to make. 

Fliss

Nice guitar based funk with a decent voice and decent tunes and she gets bonus points for the Shania Twain cover!

Kirk Franklin

OK, so I really only went and saw him because he’s mentioned on Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation Of... album (“There's no song called “Love”. Yeah - it’s by Kirk Franklin!”), but I'd heard he was pretty entertaining. And, let me tell you, he was WAY more entertaining than that. He's a contemporary gospel artist, which is a style I don’t really know anything about but there’s no doubting those who loved it, absolutely loved it and it was hard not to get swept along in the joy (and I didnt resist!). And for a 55 year old, the man sure can move and he absolutely owned that audience - the atmosphere in the tent was one of pure joy and it was just great. 

OK - we've got to nearly 6pm (and the temperature has dropped to merely pretty hot) and it's all going well so far, so who's up next? Errr, that's odd - there's Sault, Cleo and Chronixx on the main stage (already?!?) and that's your lot. I guess I'm off to the main stage then...

Or should I say stages, because it appears that some kind of weird pyramid thing has appeared in the middle of the main audience area. They were scheduled to be on stage at 5pm but at 5:45 there are a load of people (in biblical robes) on stage, they don't appear to be doing an awful lot - but at 6ish, "it" all kicks off. Now, how best to describe "it"...

We start with some (admittedly quite impressive) orchestral music which is a cue for everyone to start wandering around the stage - which, given the size of the stage(s) takes quite some time. And then when they've got to where they seem to want to be, they turn around and head back again. Avoiding the martial arts going on for no obvious reason, of course - you wouldn't want to get caught up in that. This then leads to some African music and dancing, which is then followed by a very speak-y section. VERY speak-y - it all seemed quite Biblical and absolutely incomprehensible. At which point, someone in crowd behind me went "I don't have a clue what's going on but I love it" - to which someone somewhat less charitable said "Let's see what you think in three hours" (OK, OK - it was me). 

To be fair, things did improve and we did get some music from the band and some singing from Cleo and some dancing from a whole load of random people and it was all very well done (and the sound was particularly good). And there was an awful lot to admire here - you could tell an huge amount of skill, creativity, ambition and preparation had gone into the show. But...

...well, where to start? I think my first comment (for fairness) has to be a lack of cultural appreciation on my part - I have to say I'm not 100% convinced that everyone else knew what was going on, but I feel some people MUST have had more of a clue than I did. At times I felt that maybe they were trying to educate me, but that wasn't quite the positive outcome that you might have hoped for, all feeling a bit lecture-y. 

My main area of concern though is the starting time and consequently, the length of the set. I have to admit that I gave up and bailed after 90 minutes - it wasn't that I wasn't enjoying it and the general vibe was a pleasing mix of enjoyment and awe (it was Sault's second ever gig, so it was viewed as pretty special by those in the know), but I was just intimidated by the fact that it was only 7:30. And yes, apparently they did play a five hour set - by which time I was safely home and not at all regretting the fact that I left. I'm sure a lot of people found it be an epic evening, but it was just all bit too much for me, I'm afraid. I mean, FIVE HOURS!!!

I had an enjoyable (if truncated) day though and I absolutely loved Kirk Franklin - he was easily the high point of the day for me.