Parklife

Review: It seems that every year the weather accompanying the start of the summer party season is turbulent. This year was no exception. Parklife, held over the October long weekend, brought with it a very wild meteorological mix to accompany the eclectic musical line-up chosen by the Fuzzy festival team.  
Our day started with Belgian electro legends Soulwax on the Sahara stage. The group's set was every bit as sharp as their dapper steel suits. With no time awarded to foreplay, the boys jumped straight into their dirty electro set, giving the poncho-ed crowd a taste of some new material. Not even the heavy mid-set downpour could dampen the crowd's elation, which was pushed to its absolute limit when blue skies emerged for the ‘NY Excuse' finale.

An even bigger crowd gathered at Sahara for Ed Banger main man, Busy P. His Busy Pictionary show, complete with cheesy track choices and cheesier jokes, went down a treat with revellers. And while the music was far from best in show on the day, the man must be given props for his spectacular showmanship.

Following the king of French electro was the queen of female hip-hop, who took to the stage as the sun went down. Missy Elliot, one of the key headline attractions, had a great live set-up, but gave a frustratingly uneven performance. With a football team's worth of backup dancers (complete with appropriately sporty outfits), Elliot had more bells and whistles than good old-fashioned face to mic time. And while it was fun hearing her perform her hits ‘One Minute Man', ‘Work It', ‘Pass That Dutch' and ‘Get Ur Freak On', almost every song was cut short - some by more than half.

Next up, Soulwax's Dewaele brothers returned to stage in the form of 2 Many DJs and their performance was every bit as good as their earlier Soulwax showing. The pumping set was brilliantly timed for the second last slot on the main stage and the out-there visuals perfectly complimented the boys' brilliant mash-ups. At the same time, over on the more niche Atoll stage, Ed Banger boy DJ Mehdi delivered a high energy electro disco set that climaxed in his label mates lifting him high above the modest stage.

Closing the festival at Kakadu, the more Indie of the Parklife stages, was 90s Portland favourites The Dandy Warhols. The oddest Parklife billing of the year delivered a great set spattered with hits like ‘The Last High' to an extremely modest crowd, but didn't quite hit the last-act-of-the-night spot. And we must admit: at the end of a long and varied festival day, their extended psychedelic jams between hits left us wishing we'd seen Groove Armada instead. Erin Moy