It was my first year going to the festival Field Day and I am so glad I chose to do so. It normally is homed at Victoria Park but this year it moved to Meridan Water, a short walk away from my house in Tottenham. Never have I had the ability to be able to walk to a festival before and easily walk home after one too and it was a wonderful experience to be able to do so (another reason to live in London, easy access to a number of genres of music in legendary music venues across the capital on a daily basis).

The line up over the weekend was incredible, with one of the pioneers of grime, Skepta headlining the Friday night, and new soul and RnB artist, Jorja Smith headlining the Saturday night. As soon as I found out Jorja Smith was headlining the festival, I immediately bought a day ticket to the Saturday to see her live. Her smooth sultry tones melt with her raw storytelling behind tracks like “Blue Lights”, “Where Did I Go?”, “Teenage Fantasy” and her collaboration with Stormy for “Let Me Down”. She is most well known for her song with Preditah “On My Mind”, but I’d hope more people recognise the real soul and emotions she has behind her music. Since 2016, she has already won a Brit award and has been nominated for a Grammy too, which is no surprise when you hear her music Her set was beautiful and whilst my friends went elsewhere to enjoy other stages, I stayed and enjoyed the whole of her set listening wholeheartedly to the emotion in her voice in each song.

I could have easily still enjoyed the festival even if Jorja Smith wasn’t playing due to the fantastic stages there as well. Printworks recreated their iconic staging at the festival and pulsating beats with high energy ravers stayed there the entire day, entranced by the lights and the feel good atmosphere. With a line up at Printworks of The Black Madonna, an incredible DJ who mixes all genres of music with ease and iconic house and techno DJ Seth Troxler, it would have been easy to stay all day there too. Boiler Room, home to emerging artists and connecting club culture and underground DJ’s and talent to a wider audience, also had a stage too, which have been easy to not leave on a Saturday with acts like Octavian, the grime artist with insane flows, FLOHIO who combines electronic music with rap. Not forgetting Bulldog Yard with Denis Sulta getting the whole festival dancing with his variety of tunes and house extraordinaire Todd Terje.

As well as the varying stages with stellar line ups of artists varying in genre where most definitely one can learn of a new DJ and fall in love them, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and energy of the festival. It was filled with real people who weren’t there to pose on their Instagram or be there to “see people,” but filled with people appreciating the music, which I loved. Most likely, see you next year Field Day!