LIVE REVIEW: Farr Festival
Farr Festival is in its sixth year now, but you wouldn’t suspect its youth from the unbelievable scenes; cast away to rural Hertfordshire, a stones throw from central London to the middle of nowhere, fields of green bathed in sunshine and saturated in good music.
A house and techno affair, Farr has seen some huge acts over the years it has been running with the likes of Jackmaster, Eats Everything and Bicep having graced the stages. 2015’s edition was no different and provided a strong team sheet with no weak links.
Split over five stages, the entire festival was in close proximity with Corsica representing with their own stage, and Phantasy taking over with incredible visuals in the ‘Badger Hole’. The main stage ‘The Shack’ was in the middle of the woods with trippy props hanging from trees. Next up is ‘This Must Be The Place’ which was filled with NTS Radio regulars. The Love Lounge was the fifth and final stage, which was tucked away with sofas and seats for achey legs.
Outside entertainment for those feeling too ropey to dance was perfect. An outside cinema handing out free popcorn and chill out zones with sofas and ice cream vans throughout the festival provided for all levels of partying, with music playing from 1pm everyday.
There were inevitable clashes but the closeness of all stages meant it wasn’t hard to dart between artists and hear them hard at work. Corsica boasted a large crowd in the afternoon on Friday as the sun set we headed over to check out Ghost Culture’s live at the Badger Hole. An impressive set, armed with more electronic instruments than your local music shop, James Greenwood played to a bustling crowd setting the evening off perfectly with his eclectic style.
The evening’s entertainment carried on until 4AM with Waze and Odyssey, Heidi, Erol Alkan and Roman Flugel carrying the biggest crowds until the earlier hours. There was a slight hiccup with a power cut however in the middle of acres of forest they managed to get everything up and running within a matter of minutes. This was actually quite a relief, allowing the audience who didn’t want to miss a beat of music to pop for that wee they’d needed for the last 4 hours.
Saturday arrived, hangovers subsided, and at it was straight to This Must Be The Place which was packed from when the first DJ’s of the day kicked off, until the evening. The 80’s disco laced with sunshine was enough to pull anyone out of a their tents and to their their feet again. Bradley Zero, Charlie Bones and a host of other DJ’s set the mood for the day with some infallible sets. A quick trip over to ‘The Shack’ (which was already renowned campsite wide to be the place for reggae, basement, jungle and drum and bass) was packed full of people waiting for Toddla T, surprising at a festival that stuck around 122 BPM. It was one of the best multi-genre sets I’d witnessed to date, with a healthy dose of UK grime, highlights of techno, house and ending in jungle. He won over the masses in an energetic set, not playing a song for longer than a minute or two.
After all this jumping around and citing lyrics from my proud grime upbringing, it was time for another one of our ‘One’s to Watch’, Moxie, whose enticing set pulled not only me, but a full capacity tent as the sun went down. A set jewelled in disco bangers expertly mixed was just the right medicine to get everyone dancing. As the evening drew to a close, stand out sets from Hunee, Ame and a seamless vinyl set from Prosumer made for a fantastic close to an amazing festival.
Overall, the crowd, the weather, the location and the music were all knockout. Farr provided all and more with an unforgettable weekend.
Words by Mark Campion
