Review: Mutiny 2017

May Bank Holiday weekend saw the return of Portsmouth’s own Mutiny Festival. In its fourth year but hosted for a second time on King George’s Playing Fields in Cosham, the two-day event boasted a reputable lineup with headline slots from RnB stars 50 Cent featuring G-Unit and drum & bass legends, Chase & Status. Performances from Lethal Bizzle, Majestic, Roni Size, DJ Hazard, TQD and many more filled the weekend with a variety of electronic, dance and RnB music. The festival also revived the camping option, which was tested out back in 2015 when the festival took place down the road in Chichester. This time the campsite was a short ten-minute free shuttle bus journey away on Farlington Playing Fields and gave attendees the option to crash after the twelve hour day of raving.

Due to the recent Manchester bombing, security levels had increased for safety reasons and the queue for general admission swamped around the perimeter of King George’s Playing Fields, giving punters a two-hour wait at some points to get into the festival site. Although long, the queue for VIP Admission took considerably less time, which makes spending the extra £45 almost worth it. Security gave a thorough check with the presence of search dogs, which was reassuring to see after recent events targeting concerts.

Once inside the festival, it was visibly busier than last year’s event, with Mutiny Festival selling around 95% of tickets in comparison to recent years. The increase of attendance was accommodated well with more food vans, bars and toilets than before. It also appeared there were more venues, tents and things to do in comparison to the previous year, with the new Concrete Music Tent, which hosted the likes of TQD and T2. There was also a Love Amplified Big Top, MTV area and the new Funktifino Secret Disco, showing how much Mutiny has progressed with brand recognition, sponsors and more content for the audience.

The Saturday (27th) of Mutiny was packed full of a young audience dotted about between the different tents, stages and areas. We checked out DJ/Producer/MC Majestic on the main stage, the ‘Raised In the 90’s’ producer energised the crowd with upbeat bangers which kept us dancing for a good hour and a half straight. After this we checked out the layout of the festival, peering into the VIP area which offered luxurious toilets (in comparison to portaloos) and a seated area. We watched and listened to FooR on the main stage whilst we queued for drinks at the inevitably overpriced bar, the squad from Southampton laid in chirpy tunes whilst we shrugged at the £5 price tag that was handed over with a 330ml bottle of Bulmers. Holy Goof played at the Concrete X Butterz tent, the “true connoisseur” of UK Bass never disappoints with his energetic and powerful sets, dropping the wobbliest of beats- if you haven’t seen him live yet, do.

After a short while, we headed to the main stage to see the big headliner, 50 Cent and G Unit. The massive name Mutiny had announced back in 2016 had caused a big conversation, and arguably attracted thousands more people to gather to see the living legend in none other than the small region of Cosham. It was unbelievable, the ‘Candy Shop’ rapper was there playing all the hits with G Unit for the UK exclusive show, Mutiny smashed it with the big name and saw a massive increase in sales and publicity because of it, making it one to remember for sure.

We managed to catch the end of TQD’s set in the Concrete Music tent, after seeing them several times in the past year. The mix up of Royal-T, DJ Q and Flava D playing 2B bassline did not disappoint. Their sets are always great fun if you want to dance and sing along to the frequent bass drops, they work well together and you can never be bored during their fast paced B2B changeovers. Although their set was somewhat different and they’d adapted their sound to a slightly more commercial house vibe to appeal to the audience, they still put on a great show- another must see performance.

Sunday (28th) saw the back of the nice sunny weather, pouring it down for the second day of Mutiny Festival. This didn’t stop the punters from having a good time though and coming out to rave in force. The lineup boasted Chase and Status (DJ Set), Pendulum (DJ Set), Tough Love, T2, Big Narstie, MJ Cole, Rude Kid, Friction, DJ Hazard, Mollie Collins and many more.

As we arrived slightly later than the previous day, queues were less and the festival seemed only slightly lesser well attended than the Saturday. We dived straight into the On a Mission Big Top to see jump up hype squad S.A.S.A.S.A.S, it was my first time seeing them and it definitely won’t be the last, these guys provide constant energy like no others and had the whole crowd skanking to their hearts content, making it one of the best sets of the whole weekend.

Shortly after, we checked out a bit of Tough Love to pass the time, singing along to ‘So Freakin’ Tight’ and ‘Pony’. We wandered around, peering into each venue to see the array of dance acts Mutiny had managed to pin down before heading to watch the Pendulum DJ Set, the Drum and Bass band gone DJ. Their DJ Sets are again, always great fun and give us a taste of the electronic mixes and tracks they love playing the most, alongside the old tunes which bring us back to our school days. After they finished, Chase and Status took to the stage to deliver another fast paced, energetic set which had the whole crowd skanking, singing and pumping for hours, a great way to end the two days of astounding performances.

This year’s Mutiny Festival was a head and shoulders above the 2015 and 2016 events, although prices have increased, it’s definitely worth the money with a number of top quality performers, DJ’s and venues to experience. The only problem with the festival is it ends way too early (12am approx.) with the site location making it difficult and long for the audience to get into Portsmouth city centre for a mad after party. Apart from the curfew and expensive drinks (typical festival prices we know), Mutiny is smashing it as a small, relatively new festival, and with a line up like that this year, who knows what they’ll bring to Cosham for 2018. Mutiny- we take our hats off to ya!

THE FESTIVAL IN REVIEW

Overall Score – 54.0/70.0