Wide Awake 2023 review: an essential London festival
Day festivals are a brilliant concept. Spirits are high, and the threat of looming hangovers and sleep deprivation is significantly less compared to a multiple-day event. There are plenty of great one-dayers that have emerged over the past few years, but Brixton’s Wide Awake Festival is quickly becoming one of the most impressive.
The festival enjoyed its first run in 2021, with acts such as Black Midi, Dry Cleaning, IDLES and Shame gracing Brockwell Park with plenty of success. This year’s lineup boasted a mix of talented up-and-comers and established icons, and the promise of a headline slot from psych/garage legends Osees, alongside some of my favourite modern acts, such as Gilla Band, was all I needed to get myself down to London.
After taking an inexcusably early train from Leeds to Kings Cross, I headed down to Brixton and made my way to the festival. As crowds of people flooded through the streets, I observed your average KEXP-listening, Doc Marten-clad groups wander alongside those who take festival dressing incredibly seriously, and I wondered how a woman in a long red leather jacket would possibly survive the sweltering heat.
Luckily, the queues were fast and efficient, and I made it inside the venue in time to catch Nuha Ruby Ra – an artist who really knows how to command a stage. From there, I wandered around the site, which offered plenty more besides music, including workshops, talks, amusement rides and local food vendors. There was a real communal atmosphere in the park, and most people I found myself interacting with, from the caterers to those in the toilet queue, were incredibly friendly.
At 3pm, I was torn between seeing The Bug Club and Cou Cou Chloe – both incredibly different from the other. I decided to start with the latter, intrigued as to whether her electronic club-ready tunes would translate into a big tent during the middle of the afternoon. Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that the setting was completely wrong for her music, and I fled after a few tracks to join the burgeoning crowd over at The Bug Club. Their endearing garage indie rock proved popular, and my friend and I wished we’d caught more of their 45-minute set.
A quick pitstop at Glass Beams’ set provided the perfect slice of summery goodness, with the masked trio performing an enthralling set of psychedelic-inspired instrumental songs. Armed with canned cocktails, we headed over to catch some of Alex G’s performance, choosing to sit down and observe from a slight distance. I was concerned that his sound would be too intimate for such a large, open stage, and, unfortunately, my suspicions were true. There is no doubt that Alex G is a talented performer, yet the 4:50pm set failed to capture the warmth and depth of his sound.
Nevertheless, we soldiered on over to the Moth Club X DMY stage to catch Jockstrap. They proved far too popular for the tent, with people spilling out in masses, attempting to catch a glimpse of their infectious energy as they performed crowd-pleasers such as ‘Concrete Over Water’ and ’50/50′. The latter saw the audience let loose, with choral shouts of “I gotta go, gotta think about that!” echoing through the tent.
The same tent housed Gilla Band’s set – again amassing far more people than the tent could hold. After singing every word to ‘Post Ryan’ like I was doing bad karaoke, I engaged in some light moshing (a rare feat for me these days) as they brilliantly performed the intense ‘Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage’ and ‘Backwash’.
While Black Country, New Road enticed a large crowd over on the Bad Vibrations X Desert Daze stage, demonstrating themselves to be just as successful in their new iteration, I instead made my way across the site to catch Warmduscher. The band were in top form – even bringing out Nuha Ruby Ra for the danceable synth cut ‘Disco Peanuts’.
However, the night ended with a glorious one-and-a-half-hour set from Osees, who were, quite frankly, insane. I’ve never seen a band play with such stamina, with the two drummers often playing in perfect sync. A few technical issues couldn’t have mattered less as the band powered through effortlessly, performing headbangers such as ‘The Static God’ and ‘Toe Cutter-Thumb Buster’ to a receptive and excitable crowd.
Meanwhile, alt-pop icon Caroline Polachek dominated the Wide Awake Stage. Although I was far too captivated by the Osees to witness her magic for myself, my friends reassured me that her presence was magnetic, with Polachek cementing herself as an essential modern-day pop performer.
My time at Wide Awake couldn’t have been better – after all, how often do you get to witness a handful of your favourite bands within the space of a few hours? My only issue was the size of The Moth Club tent, although, despite the masses of people attempting to squeeze in, the venue never felt unsafe. Hopefully, such established acts will be granted a larger space next year. Otherwise, I have few complaints and will undoubtedly make the arduous journey down to London for Wide Awake 2024.
