Escape Into The Park. Felix checks out the biggest dance festival in Wales
Godskitchen stage.
Finally it’s summer, the end of term and we’ve found our first opportunity to get wasted and party in the name of journalism, in the form of Escape Festival in Swansea.
For those of you who don’t know, it’s a one day dance festival organised by Godskitchen, and pretty dam sweet it is, running for its 7th year in a row, the place was packed out and considering the line-up, it’s not surprising. It’s not every day that so many world class acts turn up in Swansea, nope. Only once a year and we were there.
The festival being in Wales, and us being in London unfortunately resulted in us starting our mission at the obscenely early hour of 9am. Setting off from Euston station, with only a bottle of vodka to keep us company we gradually watched the train fill up with more and more festival goers, all wearing sunglasses and most of them babbling in some form of incoherent Welsh accent, but that didn’t matter, it was great fun. 3 hours later and we were there.
The first thing that struck me about the site on arrival was how full of people it was already, after only being open for 2 hours, obviously it was pretty popular with the locals. The second thing that struck me was the temperature; it felt like my face was about to evaporate whilst my skin caught fire it was so sunny. Perfect conditions to dance in for 8 hours straight!
The acts we were planning on seeing didn’t come on until in early evening, so we explored the site, checking out the different stages. The site is basically on a huge hill, with two fields in it, with the Radio 1 stage at the bottom of one and the Godskitchen stage at the bottom of the other with Raveology and Urban Arenas in covered tents half way down, and random attractions (fair rides, stalls etc) dotted around the place.
With 4 or 5 beers in me it was about time to check the place out, We caught the end of Akira The Don on the Urban stage which was great, despite the crazy heat in the tent, the lead singer kitted out in orange jump suit with orange goggles to match, they also had the honour of being the only act with a guitar at the festival.
Getting more into the party mood when Tall Paul came on, where we felt a lot more compelled to join the ranks of the dancing. We finally did when Marco V hit the stage and began to blare out some beats that we couldn't resist, everyone was enjoying every minute! Yet our time at the Radio One stage was soon to end, for the Raveology arena was calling us. The late afternoon sun brought with it the start of a packed night of raving, the time for some Drum 'n' Bass was upon us.
The Raveology arena was a slight surprise but mostly a good one. It wasn't quite as full as I expected, yet it meant like all the other stages you could freely get right to the front and have room to dance and enjoy. In effect it had exactly the right amount of people to give it the atmosphere needed and not feel at all claustrophobic. We were there to catch the beginning of Pendulum, one of the acts at the top of my list and they really didn't disappoint.
The final plan for the evening was to catch the end of Erol Alkans set, even though we see him every week at Trash, his set here was largely more electro in style (predictably) and followed on perfectly to Mylo where we could catch the last of the summer sun whilst enjoying some well needed relaxed and funky beats. This truly was one of my personal highlights, as again we strolled right to front of the crowd to join the masses. The sun, sound and setting were perfect for that point in the evening and I'm sure all those in attendance would agree.
We then caught the end of Armin Van Buuren, Groovrider and Fabio, and the rest of the night till close was lasers, bass and air horns galore, what else can I say? Not much! I was enjoying myself too much at this point to note anything more.
As all good things do, it all had to come to end. With most people having vacated the site by midnight in a manner that has been applauded by the police, which is a credit to everyone. So off it was to busses, taxis and the like, with many heading back to hotels. Or for those like me who forgot (or just didn't want to) to book one, it was off to a club to continue the party until 4am, before strolling the cold streets of Swansea until the first trains.
In summary, I have not one bad thing to say about this event, for me the whole day built perfectly up to what was an awesome finish. I'd definitely endure the streets again for it. So Swansea, I'll see you next year! On a final note thanks to those who entered our competition and to our winner, I hope you enjoyed it every bit as much as we did!
Pendulum set.
