South West Four has long established itself one of London’s best dance festivals. Held in the capital SW4 brings you the best in dance music without the need to spend the night in a tent.
Tucked in on Clapham’s Common, SW4 is a paradise for all avid dance fans. The small festival can take up to 20,000 punters and offers music on four stages and Sunday they were SW4 Live main stage, Silver City Stage, Amnesia Ibiza and ANTS.
The day started with sets from Cirez D, whom we already saw in Ibiza this year and were not disappointed. Eric Prydz’s alias persona plays a much deeper/harder house and is refreshing compared to his more mainstream work. Cirez D played the Amnesia tent, where the sound was slightly better.
Highlights of the day included the sets of Maya Jane Coles, who always confidently runs her sets and the crowd always responds well to her music commands. Above & Beyond headlined the Silver City stage and played their classic mix of mainstream trance and house, which worked on the crowd of the packed tent. I also enjoyed Paul Kalkbrenner’s set, whose beats were summery and perfect on a day like Sunday.
Club legend, Carl Cox also didn’t disappoint, playing some of the harder tracks and making sure the crowd was ready ahead of the performance most were waiting for, The Chemical Brothers.
Undoubtedly for me the best part of the day was when The Chemical Brothers took the stage. Famous for their light shows, which are only surpassed by the quality of the music, The Chemical Brothers have been mixing beats to everyone’s delight for decades and improved with each record. Their show was exceptional, we were greeted with giant robots, dancing light figurines and the beats were big. The Chemical Brothers played most of their hits, Hey Boy Hey Girl kicked off the proceedings in style and the set ended with Galvanize, which got the whole crowd raving. In between the band played some of their more mellow dance tracks like Swoon, Star Guitar and Setting Sun and all went down a treat.
As the duo closed their set the crowd moved on to after parties or home but all had a big smile on their face and a ton of new memories.
The downsides of partying on your doorstep are that SW4 takes place in a residential area and as such the sound system tends to be a lot tamer and this was certainly the case at South West Four. The main stage was plagued with a poor sound which meant I had to watch the sets from the front or miss out on the good beats.
South West Festival was a good festival, the weather was glorious and 2016’s line-up was one of the best that the festival has ever had. The atmosphere at SW4 was also great, everybody looked like they were enjoying themselves and happy. I would go again any summer’s day.
DJs:Â The Chemical Brothers Live, Carl Cox, Paul Kalkbrenner, Black Coffe, Above & Beyond, John Digweed, Booka Shade, Sven Vath, Jamie Jones & Joseph Capriati, Sasha, Nicole Moudaber…
For full line-up please check out SW4’s website.
Performance date: 28th August 2016
