Not having been to One Love Festival before I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but on reflection it was a heart warming, joy-filled and spirit-lifting experience. As a man who lives and breathes Reggae I couldn’t have been more excited if someone had installed a porcelain statue of Bob Marley riding a lion in my front room.
The Lone Traveller…
I like to get to festivals early, and leave once all the fun is done, so I made sure to set off early on the Thursday afternoon. Driving is my usual form of transportation when hocking it down to festivals, together with every little thing that I might need, including a whole lot of comfort and my own food to save money. However, after recently taking my car off the road, it was time to go full public style, with a rucksack full of party essentials, on the train – just a tent, sleeping mat, clothes, a few snacks and a load of tunes to keep my soul sustained during this long haul.
Having never been to Upminster, I was quite shocked when I got out of the train station to discover how posh it was, This horror continued as I discovered that the only places to buy food were Marks and Sparks and Waitrose – what kind of middle class wasteland had I walked into? Suddenly my sureity dissolved and I wondered if this was this was going to be the ideal location for a Reggae festival? This sound has always historically been poor man’s music – not the kind of thing you listen to when chowing down on a crayfish tail and rocket mini baguette. Putting my worries to one side I hailed a taxi and made the short trip down to the site. As I’d got there early I managed to dodge through the posts of an unerected fence before setttling down with my tent. The stress of my journey had now dissolved and I finally had a moment to take in the natual beauty of the site – as I lent back and gazed on the beautiful green backdrop that was set to be our canvass on which to paint some fun – I knew I’d definitely come to the right place.
The Roots/Reggae community in England is fairly tight knit, and as such it was no surprise that whilst chilling that evening on the campsite I met up with a whole heap of friends. After a whole bunch of smiles, hellos, warm handshakes and soul affirming hugs I was already beginning to feel that warm party vibe that makes festivals such fun.
Festival goes boom…
Friday started in a very relaxed manner. I dined on a breakfast of strawberries whilst getting to know my fellow campers. Having arrived before the gates were set up and opened, I decided to wander over and get my wristband. This gave me a chance to take a look at the crowd – many of these looked like virgin campers, so I ended up helping a few get set up – unpacking and constructing a whole arrangement of tent origami. As the website had promised, the crowd was really multicultural, which was really refreshing, giving you a chance to talk to all kinds of Reggae and Roots fans from around the country. There were people of all ages, including loads of young unaccompanied teenagers who looked hungry for fun. It was obvious that all had packed especially for the occasion, with a sea of red, gold and green attire on almost everyone there.
It was a joy when finally the doors opened and people began to flow in. The organisers had chosen the weirdest act to open the festival – Moni Tivony, the ginger Jewish guy from Channel 4’s The Voice. He had an okay sound, but it just didn’t work for me, despite the beautiful accompanying harmonies from a Reggae choir. After a day fuelled with a whole heap of hard work on the campsite, I had a huge pang of the munchies and resolved this in the only way possible at a Reggae festival – my first Jamaican pattie of the event. For most people living in England this is not a big thing, but you cannot find a decent homemade pattie where I come from. Mmmmmm homemade pastry, spicy filling and my blood sugar levels slowly rising – I was ready for more fun.
For me, Friday was all about the Dub shack, where I got to hear North London’s legendary veterans Fatman International Sound smash the place with a musical history lesson. In slightly under two hours they played dubplate exclusives from just about every great Reggae artist who had ever laid it down on plastic. I love to dance, but these guys had me skanking so hard I don’t think my feet touched the floor, and I was dripping in sweat by the end of the performance – sign of a good set, guys. This ridiculously smiley father and son team were accompanied by a fellow veteran on the mic, Isaac Natural, and he had the crowd hanging on his every word. Between each track he would demand your response, and you couldn’t help get excited when he asked “all those who love life” to raise a hand. For an act that was on so early in the festival they had set a very high bar for everyone else to follow. By this point I had worked up a serious hunger that could only be met by a healthy portion of Ital Jamaican veggie curry with rice ‘n peas – I love the taste of the Caribbean almost as much as their sweet sounds.
The evening continued with some of the biggest and baddest UK sound makers doing their thing, and I was pleasantly surprised by the selections from Jah Tubbys, Channel One and Aba Shanti – the had me skanking seriously hard as I rocked away the night. I was expecting pure UK digital steppas, but was so happy to hear a blend of classic oldies, brand new conscious Roots and shed loads of exclusive dubplates.
As always at any festival all my plans alongside my carefully decided schedule went out of the window, which meant I missed the big man Rodigan on the main stage, but did however catch Ranking Joe who had some proper jump-up energy for a man of his age. The biggest shock for me was how early everything shut down – the programme promised to have the Roots lab tent running till 4 in the morning, but no such luck. The lack of entertainment just meant the crowds made their own back in the campsite. The other thing that shocked me was the fact that you had to buy a pass in order to use the festival’s showers – a stonking £20 for the weekend, and although I am not overly fussed about being clean when there is music to worry about, I would have liked the option to get fresh.
Warmed up and ready to let rip
After only a few hours sleep, I woke in a sweltering mess as my tent had turned into a greenhouse – a small price to pay for the promise of a day of big sunshine. After rummaging through my limited snacks, I went for a proper festival breakfast – instant noodles. Despite lacking in any kind of nutritional value, it did provide a certain comfort. The music started in pure style with Instrument of Jah playing on their own rig – a seriously heavy selection, but what really made it for me was to see all their kids skanking away up on stage – this was a proper family affair.
I love to talk to strangers and meet new people – festivals are the best places on earth for this kind of behaviour. Yet it was interesting to watch some of the London crowd struggle to shake off their normal “keep yourself to yourself” posture and let go. The biggest surprise of the day, and in fact the whole weekend, was a lovely crew out of Japan called Direct Impact. In the Reggae scene you get to meet a lot of people who talk Rasta, but not all of them walk it, yet these guys have hearts and spirits so big their joy was overflowing. As their set built up they created a crazy vibe in the tent that could only be described as an atmosphere of universal love and harmony. Saturday also saw two of my personal legends take to the main stage. First came Ijahman Levi with his haunting voice, delivering a beautiful set, but then his are tunes that are always going to get me. Next followed Black Uhuru, who lacked their original lead singer Michael Rose. Although they delivered all their tracks with depth and precision, I felt their performance missed the special tone of his voice. The last highlight of this sonic extravaganza was catching my favourite Jamaican producer of the moment, Rory Stone Love, smashing it on the Saxon Sound. This man plays a different blend of music from most selectors I have heard, emanating a whole lot of spirit with his style. Again the early finish was seriously disappointing, but not wanting to give in I went and had a whole lot of fun hanging out with the late night campsite party crowd.
Battered by joy but still up for more
There is no better way to start a Sunday than with a veggie fry up, which totally sorted me out after another night of minimal sleeping. With my calves aching I could really feel how hard I had been skanking, but nothing was going to stop me from draining the last drop of fun from the final day of festival madness – as the man Bob Marley said “when the music hits – you feel no pain”.
Sunday I got to see one of the genre’s all time greats, Al Campbell, take to the stage and in my opinion he still has one the sweetest voices ever. The man has such a discography under his belt – he unleashed hit after hit, including my personal favourites, You Jamming and Dancehall Style. One of the most visually exciting acts of the weekend had to be the mad little French producer Miniman mixing his crazy Dubwise live. The man looked almost possessed with a higher spirit as he lept from foot to foot and hit the mixing desk like his life depended on it.
The icing on the cake was the sweet vocals from Earl Sixteen on the microphone. In terms of programming, I think the organisers got it spot on leaving the BIGGEST treat of the festival till last with the dubplate clash. The clash bought together three old-time veteran sounds – King Tubbys, Coxsone and Youthman International, alongside the new kid on the block, Heartical out of France, to battle it out playing exclusive dubplates only. The calibre of music in the tent was consistently astounding. Unsurprisingly, the final round saw Brixton’s mighty Coxsone meet Youthman International. Like every round, the decisions were based on the amount of noise produced by the crowd, and I personally believe the decision on the final round was wrong as Coxsone were given the cup – but hey apparently, all is fair in love and war.
Time to sadly face reality
Monday was an early start to help with the pack down. I was severely disappointed to hear the security waking up people in the campsite area. They were trying to make tired party-heads leave, telling them they had to be off the site within the hour – not very one love, but I can kind of understand, knowing how much clearing up work was waiting for the festival organisers.
All in all I had an amazing weekend and will be definitely going back for more in future, but hope that things are sorted out to allow the entertainment to go on until much later in the evening. This event also needs harder promotion to get the numbers it deserves, and from what I saw, it definitely deserves some big crowds as this was one festival that managed to get so many things absolutely right.
For more information see our One Love Festival Guide.
Image credit: Jake Darling
