On Sunday 24th June 2012 I headed over to Hackney for day two of Radio
One's Hackney Weekend. This was a festival designed to give something back to
an area that will experience a lot of disruption with the forthcoming Olympics.
With the overwhelming presence of Dance / Grime/ Dancehall/ Pop/ Hip-Hop, the
head honchos at the Radio One had clearly decided to try appeal to the local
(ethnic) demographic and so I was happy to grace this event with my presence.
The fact that it was free helped considerably.
Green
Parka - New Look
Checked
Shirt - New Look
Grey
Tunic - Dorothy Perkins
Black
High Waist Leggings - New Look
Neon
Paisley Willies - New Look
Bird
Print Scarf - Peacocks
Bag
- H&M
Festival Chic
Unintentionally
my outfit was a New Look Love-in.
I opted for a light layers and wellies; trust
me these babies were a must as the heavens had opened overnight. The
lightweight parka afforded me protection from the rain, the tunic covered my essentials
and the leggings provided ease of movement - the mud was serious in parts! I'm
an old raver at heart and so wanted to be able to dance. If you follow me on
Twitter (@BLKMimiLDN) you will know that my bag broke as soon as I passed the
six rounds of security - it was in Hackney- and I was less than impressed *side
eye to H&M.
Fortunately I
was a Girl Guide in a past life and so put my knot badge to full use, managing
to salvage it for the rest of the evening.
The Event
Highlights of
the day included seeing Tinie Tempah and Florence + Machine. I think I scared
my friends and I went hard during Tinie's Set, I felt positively euphoric after,
it was that good!
Sadly I had
wanted to see Nas but he came on late and found that half of the assembled crowd
had got bored of booing and walked over to see Rihannia. Note to any 'artist': it is extremely disrespectful
to leave your crowd waiting and come on without so much as an apology. Rihannia was quite good and I spent a pleasant evening dancing with my girlie's to a selection of her songs.
On a whole I
was so glad I went, excellent company and decent artists allowed me to enjoy
this event. I have attended a few festivals in my time but increasingly find
that they are fast becoming unaffordable and appeal to a certain demographic;
having acts that I listen to on my iPod was a step in the right direction and
so thumbs up to Radio One. Hopefully they will do something like this again and
soon.
Have you
attended any festivals lately, aside from wet wipes / anti bac gel what are
your essentials?
*My thanks to Tam & Sash for taking photos throughout the day xx
