This would be my first year at the
Relentless Freeze festival and i had heard many good things about it. Stepping out of the station and walking down Battersea Park Road i spotted the massive snow jump and see a skier about 80feet in the air doing a back flip. Mental, this is going to be a good day!
From the moment you walk through the gates you get that festival feeling 'chilled' but ready to go nuts at the drop of a hat and believe me it did not disappoint. With the ramp in the middle you look round to see an array of shops and bars, with an apres ski bar situated at the bottom of the slope(ramp). The line-up looked immense alongside the Freestyle Skiers flying down a 150 foot slope doing incredible tricks!
With the 1st round of the freestyle ski jumping over we headed into the main tent to see who was on. It was a band called
Pocket Lips whom i had never heard before but on entering the tent i couldn't help but start nodding to there upbeat and uplifting sound so we stayed for the whole set. Glad we did, it was superb. 2 vocalists, a drummer and a DJ who’s scratching was awesome. There were probably only 70 people watching but they were so lively on stage it felt like hundreds as everyone was going mad. It was brilliant! At one point they jumped into the crowd taking a girl’s camera and filming a little video whilst running round the crowd still performing. Everyone loved it as we all got involved!
After grabbing a beverage we headed straight into the smaller tent where Jettblack were playing. It was rammed, and not hard to hear why. Their old school style and classic tunes along with their own stuff were a great mix. There was some serious head banging going on in this tent. It was a great atmosphere with everyone jumping around like lunatics purely because they were doing it on stage. I can definitely remember standing there thinking, I wish I could play the guitar like that it was superb.
Just outside the tent were the trail riding ramps where freestyle mountain bikers were doing bunny hops, tail whips and Indian airs down ramps built off the top and side of big vans. It was precision stuff by all, there skill and balance was amazing to see and not the sort of thing you see everyday.
There was plenty going on for all to get involved in, gamestations, little bars banging out funky music, and even an ice bar!!
It was time to get back in the main music tent just in time for Shy FX and Stamina MC. I had never seen them before but loved all the old school jungle since 1993 onwards through to drum n bass tunes they do now so I was quite excited. That excitement kind of boiled over when they started playing classics like Original Nutta, Chopper and Shake Your Body.
There performance was superb with everyone singing and dancing.If you were standing still you had no chance. You would get lifted just from everyone around you jumping up and down having it, LARGE. This did not stop for the entire set. Beers went everywhere! Brilliant!My highlight of the day so far.
There were ibiza girls on hand giving massages to those who needed some relaxtion therapy, and whilst debating if we were to partake there was a sudden rush of heads, nearly everyone at the
Relentless Freeze Festival was heading towards us. This meant only one thing,
Pendulum were about to headline with a DJ set. So we done what anyone after a few beers would do, and got involved. From there first tune to the last I never stopped jumping up and down like a complete mentalist. There were mosh pits popping up all over the place with everyone going crazy. I have never seen anything like it other than when they played at Reading Festival this year. Extreme!
They played everything from Slam and Tarantula to Hold Your Colour and some DJ Marky. Mixing in dub step, house, old school and back into drum n bass. It was a mixing master class by the guys everyone were there to see. Believe you me they did not let the side down. They were immense!
That’s what it’s all about, everyone going mental, even the local constabulary popped in for a watch, Quality! They just need to have a little dance, a bit more head nodding required chaps.
After all the absolute madness of the days events it was time to head off, really looking forward to next year’s event.
Would I be going?
I know so!
All in all a quality day that comes highly recommended, don’t miss out on next year’s. I’ll see you there, hopefully for the whole weekend this time!