Crack

With a line-up including Jamie xx, Gonjasufi, The Nextmen and The Correspondents, Simple Things was the new festival on the Bristol roster that had everyone talking.

Mixing a range of genres – funk, electronica, hip-hop, dubstep – and spread across The Old Fire Station, the Bierkeller and Start the Bus, it proved to be an extremely alternative all-day rave in the heart of Bristol.

Being post-Royal Wedding Sunday, and with a hefty celebratory hangover to boot, Crack headed to the festival’s main venue - The Old Fire Station. But there was no time for clutching sore heads or worrying about alfresco disco-inspired vomiting. This was going to be a big party.

Simple Things was not a day for the faint-hearted - well, not in the Fire Station at least. Arriving at five, it was unbelievably hectic – there was barely enough space to drunkenly wave your fag around in the courtyard, the queue for the toilets was huge, the queue for the bar was huge, the upstairs bar was a sweatbox on a par with Heaven on a D’n’B night … hang on, let’s rewind - isn’t Simple Things a festival? Oh yeah, that’s right, it is a festival. Queuing at a bar whilst being showered by elbows and pints is to be expected, as are those twenty-minute queues for the bathroom, holding it in only to finally reach the front of the queue and be struck by the realization that there’s no toilet roll. By six o’clock we’d fully got into the festival headspace.

However, these are logistical points that any fresh festival on the circuit should remedy in their second year of operation. Not dissimilar to the teething problems suffered by Field Day in their fledgling year, you have to learn from your first outing and iron out the creases.

Crack embraced the vibe and got loose. The vast open spaces of the Old Fire Station were heaving with people indulging in Bank Holiday weekendery, complete with the chaos and spontaneity often lacking at smoothly-run club nights. The photo booth in the corner of the courtyard consistently spewed out images of festival-goers sporting mullet wigs and oversized glasses from the festival’s fancy dress box, adding a boutique flavour to the event while the bass pumped from the main room.

After Gonjasufi showed that there is no need to sound anything like you do on record with entertaining, if mixed results, Baths proved to be one of the night’s most popular gigs with an intimate set in the top bar. Will Weisenfeld churned out his synth sounds to a buzzing crowd. A show that may well have graced the Main Room, Baths is a dreamy slice of subtle, melancholic electronica and is likely to get bigger as word of mouth bubbles away. It was a true highlight.

Meanwhile over at the Bierkeller, Bristol’s own Million Way blended electro-house, fidget and techno in a high-energy performance. This set alone proved Simple Things was a festival for emerging bands and enthusiastic audiences.

The nu-house sounds of the Falling Up boys and Floating Points made sure the top bar was a continuous draw, while Crack favourites The Fauns played their beautiful shoegaze downstairs in The Boneyard Bar. As the day progressed the focus on variety prevalent at Simple Things became very evident.

The crowd-puller of the night was undoubtedly Jamie xx, and it’s fair to say he completely lived up to the hype. The atmosphere was electric and the crowd swelled. Playing a set of his more well-known remixes, dipping in and out of dub and tech sounds, as well as playing emerging tracks such as the massive Ye Ye from Caribou’s new alias, Daphni, his stock just continues to rise. A wonderfully unassuming chap, his transformation from member of the xx to arguably producer of the year is nothing short of astounding.

Over at The Bierkeller The Correspondents were doing some festival-inspired party damage on Chai Wallahs stage. Possibly the most entertaining party band since Madness, these guys are the late night festival spectacle, and tonight was no different.

Chris Clark finished things off in the Firestation’s Main Room in great style with his hectic, uncompromising take on techno. Not one to keep it understated, those left at three in the morning were treated to a soundsystem-brutalizing onslaught from the Warp man.

Simple Things was a forward-thinking festival reflecting the direction in which Bristol is moving, free from corporate booze prices and security breathing down your neck. It was a festival in its first year, and the unpredictability of it only added to the buzz of what ended up being an eclectic and ridiculous weekend for Bristol. In a city which hosts more gigs, club nights and festivals than you can buy tickets for, Simple Things definitely earned its place on the calendar.

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Words: Natalie Brandweiner

Photos: Matthew Smith

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