The Sundown Festival is one of the newest events to arrive on the UK festival scene. It’s a two day event that’s held in the Royal Norfolk Showground (which is just outside Norwich), making a change to the usual cow, pig and tractor displays they have up there. It featured two days packed with some of the biggest names in urban and club style music, including Wiley, Olly Murs, Labrinth and Katy B.
We couldn’t make the Saturday, so we arrived Sunday. We were feeling fresh and raring to get down in the sun and find out what was on offer from this much-hyped recent addition to the Norfolk music scene. We had clearly picked the right day for a rave up, with the likes of Sub Focus, Zane Lowe, Chase and Status and old skool legends The Ratpack all on the bill. Being local, we were looking forward to being the smug bastards who only lived half an hour down the road for a change instead of being the ones who took three days, two clutches and four tyres to get there, a la Glasto 2011.
The day
We arrived to the sounds of main stage opener Molly, who had managed to draw a sizeable crowd considering the time of day she’d been scheduled. It was early and consequently there was a relatively chilled out atmosphere, with most people spread out on the grass catching the occasional ray as it struggled through the greyness. We brought our first pint of the over-priced, mass produced, chemically ridden piss on offer and joined them in this communal lunchtime lounge on the lawn.
After a couple of songs, we all agreed that something a bit more lively was needed to satisfy our desire for decadence, so we headed to the massive cow shed that’s been converted into a purpose built club style venue. Once inside, it was not too dissimilar to The Sanctuary, the famous Milton Keynes venue that was home to nights like Dreamscape. This was a chance to relive our Ayia Napa/West End/Malia glory days with the big room electro tunes spun by Kiss FM’s Charlie Hedges, and it didn’t disappoint.
For most of the afternoon and early evening we bounced between a few different areas. We took in local house boys The Groove Establishment, doing their funky thing at the Dannoff stage. Then we found our way to the Red Bull stage, which was cranking out a mix of clunky dub step, bashment and electro beats. This was a bit too urban for our tastes, so it was back to the aforementioned cow shed, for the likes of DJ EZ and MJ Cole who were rinsing the old school garage classics.
The night
As night fell, we headed back to the main stage to catch the end of Sub Focus’s set, and then it was time for Radio 1’s favourite New Zealander, Zane Lowe to whip up the crowd into a mosh-pit of mayhem. Last on were D&B duo, Chase & Status, who we’ve seen a few times now, so we thought it would be good to hear their new school Drum and Bass sound whilst suspended upside down, at G-Force 5, on some of the many fairground rides inside the festival.
After regaining our land legs, we lumbered our way back to the big cow shed for the final time, to check the party where The Ratpack were billed as the main attraction. We were made to wait while they did their sound check, so we amused ourselves by discussing the moralities of signing-up ketamine-addled teenagers to the forces with some RAF recruiters who’d been working on site for the day.
We were just getting on to how the image of their machine guns and amphibious warfare vehicles fitted in with the whole peace and love vibe so commonly associated with festivals, when they opened the after party flood gates. Politely we made our excuses from our conversational partners and left for the festival finale.
Back in my ‘too-cool-for-school’ raving days I used to consider The Ratpack a bit of a novelty act, however over the years they have become something of an institution for both rave veterans and new recruits. I couldn’t wait to hear their old school hardcore classics being played out again over a proper sound-system, instead of one of my decaying umpteenth-hand-me-down copies of a Fantazia TDK (that’s a cassette tape kids) that we used to listen to back in the day.
This was one of the high points of the whole day, as The Ratpack certainly didn’t disappoint. We got our cheesy raver moves out and threw a few shapes like the best of them, determined to prove that we still had it before finally running out of steam and taking the smug half an hour taxi ride home back to our nice comfy beds.
Final word
As we only went to the second day of the festival, we can’t comment on stuff like the camping or the overall feel to the event, but we can tell you about what we experienced on the Sunday.
The promoters had clearly done their homework on what works in Norwich, as they’d put on a line up that would have worked well in any of the larger city clubs. It was all fairly mainstream stuff, which appealed to a large audience and hence there was a good turn out. However, if you were looking for a musical event that pushed your boundaries and presented you with a musical experience you’d never had before, you’d be a little disappointed. That’s not to say that the younger, cooler crowd weren’t catered for, as there was plenty of dub-step and urban beats that would be credible in any of the capital’s Shoreditch venues.
All in all, it was a good day out that we all enjoyed greatly without too much hassle (other than the usual troublemakers you sadly get at many similar events in the UK). No under fives were allowed in the site, which did mean the day lacked the family feel, but on the other hand this did allow for a bit more fun and crazy behaviour on the site. Would we go again? Absolutely, and we’d even consider making it down to both days. Well done to the Sundown organisers who saw this gap in the East Anglian festival market and plugged it effectively.
For more on Sundown Festival click here.
