Glade Festival 2012 Reviewed

Glade festival has come a long way since its roots as the scrappy little cheesey quaver brother of the rock 'n' roll juggernaut that is Glastonbury. Taking up residence in the grounds of Norfolk's Houghton Hall for the second year running, the UK's definitive dance music festival is now in its 9th year, and has matured like a very, very fine wine indeed.

Glade started as a germinal stage at Glastonbury, dedicated to fringe electronic music and celebrating rave culture, before spinning off into a festival in its own right in 2004. Since then Glade has weathered an infamously choppy ride, moving from site to site, first facing accursed weather (2007's washout must go down as the wettest festival in history, with vehicles in the car park ending up flooded under 3 feet of water; several stages melted into the ground and accessibility problems decimated the artist rosta), and then later from meddlesome authorities trying to price the festival's license out of existence. Finally, the growing population became increasingly difficult for the small scale festival to manage, and the usual issues with overcrowded facilites started to rear their heads.

However, the festival's plucky spirit always shone through, and the good times haven't been allowed to fade for a second. Despite all its issues, Glade managed to grow year on year, and has turned all of its troubles into positive lessons learned. By 2012, they appear to have found the perfect mix, and Glade has matured from a defiant, grubby teenager, mixing beats in their bedroom, into a confident, self-assured producer, ready to take the electronic world by storm. They have found a location that understands the festival's needs, and the local authority seems happy to meet them. Better still, Houghton Hall is the holy grail of sites: Not only is it stunningly picturesque, but the Norfolk watertable is so porus, the site is practically weatherproof; no matter how much rain comes down (Thursday night's cloudburst would have caked any other festival up to its knees), the entire site is bone dry minutes later. Finally, and most importantly, the organisers have made the ultimate mature decision and decided to scale the ticket numbers back, and team up with the now legendary Secret Garden Party crew to dedicate maximum effort to making the festival experience as slick as possible for the dedicated campers who know where the best parties are. It's this kind of dedication to pure vibes that makes Glade stand out amongst other, more commercial ventures, and this year it shone through (as did the sun from Friday afternoon!).

While the Glade stage (this year hosting floor-filling behemoths like Vitalic, Sven Vath and Andy C) provides the meat, and the Origin stage (proudly brandishing the festival's psy-trance roots) provides the vegetables; what really turns Glade into a digital aural connoisseur's feast are the myriad satellite stages & bizarre antics going on; spending several days meandering your way through forests and fields, constantly tripping over new experiences and genres is core to the festival's appeal. This year, they were re-joined by the always outstanding Overkill (a huge variety of left-field talent from breakbeat to breakcore), Bassment (bass music until the wee hours, for the dedicated massive), Liquid (for the Tribal hardcore who always see the sun rise), ETA (house, garnished with the finest laser show this reviewer has ever seen) and nine other official stages, covering everything from Detroit techno (Gouranga stage) to the fairground dub of the Feast of Fools, and even a bigbeat party in a modified ice-cream van down at the I-Scream stage. The Pyromid stage was home to the festival's triple-A sound system, encircling the central dance floor with a whopping, 6-way stack, but it was disappointingly spent on assorted filler DJs and an often poorly balanced feed, typically cranking a grating midrange and not enough low-end punch (having said that, it made a uniquely fresh experience of FSOL's Cascade on the deliciously sunny Sunday afternoon).

There were also innumerable pop-up systems, playing hip hop, grime, party beats and - my favourite - the Mobile Gabba Disco, driving speakers on the back of a miniature tank and a whole posse of gabba honies in full cammo, handing out mind-bending missions to passers by. The breakthrough stage of 2012 was the Meteor stage, which suspended an array of up-and-coming acts within a UFO above a bowl shaped dancefloor, deep in the forest, and keepiing everyone dancing 'til silly downright stupid o'clock. Somewhat out of place, however, was the Rabbit Hole stage, which generously demonstrates the festival's inclusivity by giving the handful of Camden-style hipsters who have somehow been drawn into the bright lights a familiar hole to hide in, via some (admittedly incredibly tight) more traditional five-piece bands.

Friday this year saw (amongst many others) Foreign Beggars, Krafty Kuts and Vitalic take the Glade stage; Foreign Beggars getting the afternoon crowd bouncing and excellently fired up for the weekend, Krafty Kuts proving himself yet again as a party master, while Friday headliner Vitalic put a disappointing appearance in, seemingly unable to find a decent footing with the crowd. The legendary Si Begg rocked a surprisingly quiet Overkill stage in the early evening with a devastatingly bass-heavy and brilliantly tight set. Later, SL2 did what they do best and put a solid boot in the party's arse, while Remarc was there to convert any remaining part-timers into full-on all-night ravers with a typically rock-solid, Amen-driven set. Special mention should also go out to the afternoon's Mutant Bass showcase, where Kanjii Kinetic, Rrritalin and their whole rag-tag scally-wag crew bounced around on stage like hyperactive kids full of blue smarties, dropping rump-rattling rave bass, in a seriously infectious display of energy.

Saturday allowed dedicated techno heads to tick off an entry on the musical "bucket list", when System 7 aired the seminal Alpha Waves as the highlight of an otherwise cheesy, reverb soaked live performance. Otherwise the day was thin on names (if not great tunes) until 10:30pm, when DJ Rashad warmed the crowd up ready for a machine-gun line-up starting with the inimitable Dillinja shaking out any fillings in the house, Raiden took over and stormed into a hardcore Jungle set that was just too tight to miss, so sadly I couldn't tear myself away to check up on Sven Vath's set down at the Glade stage. French amen spammer Krumble took over, and deftly and somewhat altruistically cleared the room of any unsuspecting drifters with a minute or so of white noise, before dropping an insanely tight ragga breakcore set, which perfectly walked the tightrope between awesome and ridiculous. Finally, the main part of the night was tied up by Dutch Gabba legend DJ Hidden, who BOING took BOING care BOING of BOING any BOING remaining BOING teeth BOING in BOING the BOING house. Saturday's breakout shout goes to the Senseless All Stars - Deville, Sasquatch and Sarantis - who knocked out solid live perfomances all afternoon down at the Meteor stage.

Sunday started off chilled, the Meteor stage winding down and hosting a range of skweee and purple sound throughout the day; Boss Kite and Grinel both flooded the floor with funk, and are definitely deserving of more air time. Meanwhile, down at the Glade Stage, Drumsound & Si Bassline Smith gave the speakers a spanking, paving the way for Rusko and finally Andy C to explode onto the stage ready to close the weekend off. Andy C certainly knew how to whip up a frenzy, hitting the crowd with a wall of noise, but my weekend was ended back at the Overkill stage, where the Californian electronic overlord Daedalus gave an absolutely masterful performance; all live, always surprising, at times challenging, but thoroughly outstanding. I was genuinely lost in the quality, technical perfection and intrinsic soul running through his music, and, regardless of taste, that feeling is how everyone should end a weekend like this.

Finally, a nod to the food and facilities; I played food stall bingo throughout the weekend, and every stall in my full house was outstanding; falafel, pizza, pie, jerk, pancakes, curry - all cooked to a very impressive standard, reasonably priced and not a single greasy burger stand in sight. The festival's indelible crusty roots also guarantee vegetarians and vegans an easy ride. Facilities included flawless festival toilets, regularly cleaned and always stocked up, and Poshwash cabins provided delicious, steaming hot showers throughout the weekend for those who prefer glamping to camping.
 
This year was easily the best Glade to date, and that is saying something; the vibe, the activities, the crowd and the music gel together at Glade in a way that no other licensed festival has acheived, and I have no doubt that the Glade crew can maintain this plateau for years to come. If you're dedicated to any form of electronic music, be prepared to sell your grandmother in order to make it to Glade 2013; you really can't get any closer to rave perfection than this without facing very, very serious criminal charges.

Written and Reviewed by CheShA