Featured Review: Love Saves The Day

Ever since the announcement back in January we have been excited to explore the musical lineup at Eastville Park, Bristol. Love Saves The Day festival hosted an array of musical talents that explored a range of different genres. The late May bank holiday weekend consisted of the festival new timer Sampha headlining the Sunday. But, to kick the festival off on the Saturday was veteran DJ/producer Fatboy Slim, who excited the Bristol crowd of the Main Stage with his high beat set. Playing original songs from his back catalogue of albums whilst mixing into other party anthems, such as Wildchild’s infamous ‘Renegade Master’ and crowd pleaser ‘Seven Nation Army’ by The White Stripes, which roared the crowd into singing the beat throughout. 

Before Fatboy Slim’s Main Stage set was a vibe like no other with an early Denis Sulta set warming up the Centre stage. Tom Misch also made an appearance on the Main Stage playing for us tracks off his debut album “Geography”. Playing after on the Main Stage also with a new album, ‘All That Must Be’, was the English DJ and Producer George FitzGerald.

Heading over to the Centre stage; this was a tower of art itself. The architectural design of the stage created an even higher feeling of magic in the crowd, with one side all white large blocks and the other sporting a large stepping stone design of coloured blocks. The stage was perfect for the Disco/Tech DJ Mall Grab who heightened the bar for the best DJ set this summer. The pinnacle moment of the Saturday was when the Australian born twenty-three-year-old dropped the up and coming summer song “Neutron Dance” by Dublin native Krystal Klear, getting the whole crowd on their feet and arms in the air with the sun gazing down. Truly a masterpiece. 

Back at the Main Stage saw UK’s favourite House/Tech DJ’s Bicep perform their live set with of 2017’s debut self-titled album, but also exploring a range of their remixes of songs. The set was all round superb with a Bicep loving crowd, though what brought the experience down was the volume. With such a low sound the whole vibe was lowered, but with such love for Bicep, the whole crowd were still able to dance along.

All this was before Fatboy Slim’s set, which followed Bicep on the Main Stage. But, to finish the night on an ultra-high was the genius himself, who released his “New Energy” album back in 2017. Four Tet played his live set at the Paradiso Stage, with a limited capacity. He performed a masterpiece of a set, which included old and new songs, and teases of remixes. The crowd danced throughout the hour and a half set, even to the most relaxing of songs as standing still was near impossible with Four Tet himself laying down the beats and grooves to such an enthusiastic Bristol audience.

The non-profit Community Interest Company, The Loop, returned to the festival this year providing revellers with professional drug safety testing, welfare and harm reduction services all throughout the two days. With high variable MDMA tablets being tested on site, The Loop and the festival were able to call out alerts throughout the two days to warn the crowd on the risk of these tablets. With such crucial services, we believe it is time that more festivals and councils to consider hosting the non-profit at every major music festival.  

Returning for the Sunday of the festival was no less impressive than the Saturday. Even with the morning thunderstorm setting the festival back a couple of hours, revellers continued to congregate at Eastville Park to continue the party. The festival’s reputation was always specialising with House and Techno on the Saturday and Drum and Bass on the Sunday. This year was no different. Highlights of the day were Dimension and High Contrast on the Centre Stage dropping their well known tracks throughout their sets. The Centre Stage sound quality got everybody enjoying the music even more, which meant the energy was ecstatic.

Other highlights include Loyle Carner’s brilliant performance on the Main Stage and his remark about Tom Misch not coming back for the second day to perform with him, which would’ve pleased the crowd with both of them performing crowd favourites “Water Baby” and/or “Crazy Dream”. Jungle king Shy FX played a rowdy set towards the end on the Brouhaha stage with dnb mogul Andy C closing the night on Centre Stage. For a day festival there was so much to see and do, including having a break in the ball pit or even moving the party to the Roller Disco. With university students and locals alike this was one end to the exam season and the beginning of summer celebration. There’s an array of festivals taking place on the same weekend across the country, yet facing tough competition, Love Saves The Day pulled everything together with a lineup hard to beat and a performance of a lifetime. 

 GUEST WRITTEN BY EVAN HARRIS