Now in its second year, Vince Power's 'no sponsorship, no branding' Hop Farm Festival is truly a chilled out music fan's delight. Small capacity and plenty of bars means less time queueing and more time rocking out to the likes of Ash who seem to be improving year after year. Tight as hell, they combine old classics 'Oh Yeah' and 'Kung Fu' with recently released dancy-electronic 'Return of White Rabbit' and the sweeping epic 'Twilight Of The Innocents'.
Stellar performances over the weekend come also from Editors who showcase new material including the 80s-tinged bizarrely-named 'Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool'. Its the old favourites that get the crowd going of course but previews show their next album to be a departure from their usual guitar driven sound into synthy dark pop which suits Tom's voice perfectly.
Disappointing however is Kiwi electro-poppet, Ladyhawke. Poor sound – one ridiculously loud keyboard and vocals so low that The Fly’s tuneless singing all but drowns her out for the rest of the crowd – and the possibility that she might not actually be a good singer makes for an utterly underwhelming show.
There’s plenty of straight-forward rock and roll from The Rifles and The Twang amongst others but they are completely outshone by the ethereal wonder of artists such as Florence And The Machine. She rises up on stage like Lady Lazarus, flame hair and dress catching in the wind – it would be easy to dismiss her as eye-candy if it isn’t for her equally beautiful other-worldly voice - ‘Dog Days’ and new track ‘Drumming’ stand out above all others.
Scorching sun and high temperatures mean that the cool refuge of the dance tent is often welcome. More often than not packed full of pre-teens and families, DJs such as Alex Gopher and Kissy Sell Out find themselves performing to Mum, Dad and the 3 kids going nuts with glowsticks. Electro-folk Dubliner Jape takes advantage of the early hour and small crowd to go experimental with some clever reworkings of his material. A passionate performer, Jape is always a joy to watch as he acts out the lines from his unique stories of love, sex and getting messed up. We love him.
It’s obvious Hop Farm has fallen far short of its capacity although headliner Paul Weller seems to encourage a bigger turn out on Sunday… but its true what they say: size doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with it that counts.
And yeah, we’ve come away fully satisfied.
4 and a half out of 5.
The Fly - the-fly.co.uk
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