Best. UK. Fest.
Just those three words sum up our experience this past weekend at We Are FSTVL. Now in its second year, We Are FSTVL is one of the few festivals available for edm fans in the UK. Beforehand, we were nervous – the biggest question being whether or not the weather would ruin the whole thing. It wouldn't be England without a spot of precipitation – queuing up for entry in downpour was misery. The music, however, more than made up for the wait.
The LineUp was *insane*, and we were fighting over what we'd see first. Our must see list included:
Knife Party, Chuckie, Thomas Gold, Hard Rock Sofa, Annie Mac, Route 94, Lee Foss, Syn Cole, Jamie Jones, Shadow Child, Disclosure, Fatboy Slim, Tiga, Marc Kinchen, DC Breaks, Danny Byrd, Delta Heavy…and by God we were committed to seeing them ALL.
Pros: The mood was lively, a great crowd, and as we sprinted from tent to tent I couldn't help thinking that the area was laid our pretty damn big. Maybe a bit too big for the amount of people there, particularly around the main stage. The tents at certain points were definitely cozy. For instance, the Defected tent was slammed with people jamming, super high energy. FSTVL also had a drinks token system, which for us meant that we were served at the bar much quicker. I've heard some people complain but I have no idea where they were standing – we never waited more than 10 minutes. Outdoor pissing stations eliminated queues for the toilets, which was a major plus. We spent a lot of time also in the VIP Village, and it was a awesome. To us, veterans of several festivals both in the UK and in the US, this was one of the most organized we'd been to this year. One of our writers also noted that the women at FSTVL were insanely hot… at some points he seemed dazed – “Is this still England?” sort of rambling. He doesn't get out a lot. We loved the chill attitude though, super friendly, we made lots of new friends. Our favorite act of the weekend was Marc Kinchen, whose set just beautiful. It was pure sweet house and the crowd was grooving on it. It was good fun and the other acts we saw (all 10 of them) were amazing. It was one of the writers first time seeing Knife Party and even though he normally listens to basically only house music, he is now a fanatic. The energy of their set was through the roof.
Cons: Could definitely have used more space with which to flail about in the tents. Given the rain though on Saturday, that might account for why this was this case – no one wanted to be out in the drizzle. It was slightly weird that we (and many others) didn't get gift bags – we were also given a playlist for Saturday but not Sunday when we arrived, so we had to look up information about Sunday online.
Conclusion: We would without a doubt go again.
Super huge thanks to Freya from ListenUp who introduced edmsauce.com to We Are FSTVL. If you didn't make it this year, you can still check out the recorded sets from We Are FSTVL here.
