LOVE SAVES THE DAY
Castle Park, Bristol | May 25th-26th
If last year’s inaugural Love Saves The Day was a success against the odds, where an array of fantastic music overwrote memories of dismal conditions and logistical teething problems, this year’s double-header simply couldn’t miss. Weather was nothing short of glorious for two entire days and nights, drinks were flowing freely, and there was a grin on every face.
Saturday
Arriving around 2pm, Crack made a direct right-hand turn from the turnstiles and hit up one of the Futureboogie stage headliners Deetron. Swiss-born Sam Geiser turned up as a former Lottery-winner Michael Carroll lookalike, sporting hefty neck jewellery and a goatee. His style was irrelevant though, as he defied the relatively early hours by crashing seamlessly through underground techno and house tracks at a rate of knots for over an hour, with a particular highlight coming in the form of Breach’s crossover Dirtybird hit Jack, earning a rousing reception from the dedicated crowd.
Next up, to the Just Jack stage with Futureboogie mainstays Christophe and Lukas teaming up for a controlled warm-up set on the stage which would later host Seth Troxler, Jackmaster, Joy Orbison and a range of dance music heavyweights. We then made the necessary cross-site trek to catch the main stage Crazy P live show, but were happily met by the culmination of an animated appearance from Bondax. As we arrived the sound guys were seemingly signalling them to finish up, which they responded to by dropping Luther Vandross’s Never Too Much, prompting a mass singalong amongst the thousands gathered at the main stage. Crazy P took up that mantle, cutting expertly through their loveable live disco classics, but by this point we’d developed a taste for something a bit tougher, so set our eyes towards Eats Everything. The city’s revelation of the past 12 months, his reception on the Just Jack stage was nothing short of rapturous. Typically bottom-end heavy material roared through the adoring hometown crowd, with an edit of Josh Wink’s Higher State of Consciousness prompting surely the most straight-out insane reactions of the day.
Back to Futureboogie to round things off, first with some more Bristol action via the irresistible Waifs and Strays, followed by a frankly astounding showing from Innervisions co-founders Âme. Some say only labelmate Dixon goes deeper than Dixon, but Kristian Beyer challenged that preconception with a juddering, weighty and pulsating take on everything in and around the deep house bracket. It was fitting to end this triumphant and inclusive celebration of Bristol’s electronic music culture being in the company such a definitive figure, and guess what – we were barely halfway.
Sunday
If Love Saved The Day on Saturday, the weather alone was enough to push Crack’s spirits onto a level approaching bedlam on Sunday, opening the curtains to find sunlight rolling into our slightly festival-strained eyes. Love is just a bonus when the weather’s this good. Crack got some Bloody Marys down and mooched back up to Castle Park for Round Two.
Straight to the Crack stage then, where we were delighted to present a taste of what makes us tick. Early in the day we were treated to the sounds of Alfresco Disco Records’ first signing Forget Me Not, before a very special early debut performance of an (understandably shaky) Eats Everything and Lukas’ collaboration as The EEL. Forged from friendship but built on boogie, theirs was a perfect sunshine-filled set that had all early punters revelling in their enthusiasm and musical reverence for a bygone era.
After rushing over to the the Main Stage to bathe in the sounds of Soul II Soul, who presented a mixture of classics (Keep On Movin’ and Back To Life) and newer, more hypey material, we switched our time between the Main Stage and Crack’s very busy spot at the bottom of the hill. There we witnessed standouts from Artifact, who experted handled the transition from the house staple into his icy techno and back again, ending on a rousing Gangster’s Paradise, and man of the moment Ben Pearce, before a main stage glimpse of Ghostpoet’s dark eclectism and brooding vocal delivery as well as EZ doing the damage on the Trap stage. The highlight of the day came with the transition of Julio Bashmore’s incredibly memorable homecoming set and illustrious headliner, Chic. As Mr Bashmore was gravitating towards the end of his performance, Nile Rodgers appeared on the side of the stage and engaged in a bit of conversation with his onlooking family and took a few photos for good measure. Love Saves The Day feels like a family affair, and its spirit was flawlessly exemplified by this moment.
You can’t be in two places at once, but Crack had a go, missing a bit of the headliners in order to see Pearson Sound and Ben UFO play their increasingly tough Hessle Audio showcase. But in the end it was all about the euphoria of watching Chic roll out the classics such as Le Freak and Everybody Dance before an en masse stage invasion capped a monumental day. This weekend Bristol stepped up, and we were very proud to play our part in it.
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Words: Roya Farrokhian
Photos: Ben Price
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