Essential Festival 2002

Today all roads head to South West England and Wales for a concoction of shows, a football cup final, a horse-riding show, a dwarf throwing contest and most importantly part 1 of the Essential Festival 2002. After taking the obligatory miss turning we arrive in sunny Bristol. Ashton Court is situated on the peak of an almighty great hill… after a lengthy, fairly peaceful walk up the hill, the drum beats get louder and the marquees come in to view.

First off, inside the Mixmag Arena - the Hip Hop beats and vocal scratching talent of The Roots member Rahzel (New York City), utilising his literally breath taking ’human beatbox’ talents and scratching and mixing skills to entertain the crowd.

Norman Jay’s simultaneously keeping it funky in the Blowpop/Jockey Slut Arena before posing for pictures with Jules for their adoring fans.

The Legends Of The Dark Black Arena was kicking off to the Drum & Bass sounds of old school maestros Kenny Ken, Randall, Adam F and Andy C all tearing the place to shreds.

Jon Carter and the Stanton Warriors played exceptionally well in the Jockey Slut tent while we checked out Andy Weatherall (appropriately named for British festivals) in the Slam/Elite Arena. He started off funktified and progressed to harder sound in preparation for DJs Slam and Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman) later.

Up at the Barcardi Bar (a 100ft x 600ft inflatable house, with stage set like walls) Ross Allen, Phil Asher, Simon Lee all graced this area with a Latin feel.. Basil Isaac (Black II Basics) plays live percussion on bongo-ish drums, rhythmically pounding away while accompanied by a flute player all complimenting the sexy soulful house grooves.. With the colourful surroundings, party vibe and filtered house sounds it could easily of been mistaken for Space (Ibiza).

The Radio 1 lads, Dave Pearce and Judge Jules were up in the Pussy Cat Club/Scream Arena dropping a selection of more upfront hard-trance tunes for the glow stick waving masses who like it banging. Then next was the Orbital DJ set. The brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll played a uniquely typical mix, with techno breaks and beats galore mashing it up ‘Transpotting’ style for the eager masses…

One of most vital acts at this festival for me was De La Soul, with Orbital playing an extra 30-40 minutes it wasn‘t looking good for the trio… after the brothers retired the stage remained empty, a loop was played continuously in the back ground, the time was approaching for fellow US head-liner Busta Rhymes… the crowd were getting restless as the loop changed to some Ibizan chill-out mix (still no-one on stage at this point)… after at least 50 mins of the same tracks standing around for Busta feelings were running high, bottles of water were now being thrown on stage.

Finally they announced Busta‘s arrival and along with fellow Flipmode Squad member Spliff Star they got full crowd participation as they encouraged ladies to get naked and made jokes about the state of the crowd which just hyped us all perfectly. They rocked the hip hop crew with tracks from the new album "Genesis", including "Break Ya Neck" and "Pass the Courvoisier" as well as classics like "Woo-Hah", "As I Come Back" and "Gimmie Some More". Coming on at the end of the 12 hour event, after everyone was standing around for an hour I think the crowd may have been slightly lacking in the usual energy normally felt from the punters but he was definitely worth the wait and everyone left smiling.

All in all, not as busy as I expected and any quality event finishing at 11-12pm is always a crime. A fantastic line-up (shame about De La), quality music, excellent varied Essential crowd, good festival vibe, cool security, no mud, choice facilities and lots of messy people.

That’s what Essential Festival’s are all about.