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SW4: Reviewed

Reported by Agnes Klos / Submitted 09-09-09 12:45

A festival with a killer-line up, just round the corner from your house? Dancing outside on the August Bank Holiday, a tube or a bus ride from home for most? Every year the end of August brings the close of summer and one of London's biggest and best-loved dance music festivals, South West Four. Agnes Klos went to check the vibe ruling over Clapham Common this year.



For Londoners and party people from all over the South East, not being able to make Global Gathering or Creamfields or any other major festival could lead to stress and withdrawal symptoms but not if you were quick off the mark and got some tickets for SW4, which sold-out a month in advance to the party! If you were lucky like two Columbian guys that I met on the day, you might have managed to buy your ticket by the door from an honest seller. One of the guys, Julien, said: “We are taken to heaven; we paid only £60 while people tried selling tickets for £120 around the park.”

The beauty of SW4 is that it is located in the heart of London, exploding out on one of the nicest parks of the city, Clapham Common, and due to its location the festival attracts a real cross-section of people; from older folks to younger people. In a mysterious way for a bank holiday, the sun shined over the music-hungry ravers, even though the weather was reported to be extremely changeable.



A huge downside to this event is the fact that it finishes at 9pm, which is really very, very early for any festival. At the end I heard loads of moaning and begging for more but guys, tough luck, there is a price to pay if we want a festival on our doorstep;.the gate had opened at noon and if you didn’t come early enough, you missed out a lot of good stuff. You could have seen Scarlett Etienne’s world exclusive debut live show opening the main stage or maybe Anil Chawla and Jim Rivers getting the floor shaking in the Global Underground tent.

This year also saw legends like Dubfire in the electronica and techno tent - Shake It - David Guetta and Eric Prydz on the Kiss Main Stage and Above & Beyond on The Gallery Stage. For me, it was a truly tough choice between staying by the main stage and enjoying music under the blue sky or going to the cosy beat-vibrating tent of The Gallery. Considering the DJ line-up was so good, choosing between Mark Knight and Tall Paul or Sander Kleinenberg and Markus Schulz seemed almost impossible.



In the end I was drawn to The Gallery tent, darker inside during the day and with a more intimate atmosphere. Tall Paul did not disappoint me with his set jam-packed with the best recent hits of the summer and just the lightest pinch of trance music and as he played I could see waves of people coming from every direction; the crowd growing in strength from minute to minute. I was pleased to see that the organisers did not skimp on decorations, providing a huge octopus-like infatable coming from the centre of the ceiling, its arms spreading throughout the whole tent. It looked very impressive and was the biggest decoration compared to other tents!

Apart from the usual festival attractions like funfair rides, clubbers could quench their thirst at the Pimms Bus then get a free massage from lovely Ibiza girls, services most of guys took advantage of. Food was generally good and I found nothing to complain about, from barbecue, to vegetarian to Mexican kitchen. With a ¼ pounder premium burger for £4, a westlers hotdog with cheese for a fiver and chunky chips for £3, you could feed yourself without spending a fortune. Of course queues to the bars were big but service seemed quite efficient. A big bonus was that there were actually three bars on each side of the festival so wherever you felt like dancing you could get a drink quickly without walking a mile.



You have to be prepared to queue for toilets at festivals as well, which can be a real fun-killer if your favourite DJ is taking over the decks or a great tune is being played. Well, what else can you do you if you are stuck in a long line and seriously need to pee? Not much unfortunately except perhaps have more toilets? But on the bright side there were sanitizers inside the cabins which were spot-on with swine-flu supposedly poised to make a comeback. Also, there were staff walking around handing over rolls of toilet paper, making girls extremely happy.

What I really liked about the day was the ban on smoking inside the tents. There were also staff members checking the tents and asking people to go outside if they wanted smoke. It created a big advantage over other festivals such as Global Gathering where it got so smoky at some points that you felt like you were inside a smoke machine, not inside a tent. Obviously, as the day progressed there were instances of people smoking deep inside the tents but it was still good that the team tried.



David Guetta on main stage was welcomed with an enormous amount of applause, especially when he played his newest single When Love Takes Over feat.Kelly Rowland. With the crowd singing every line of the song David knew that from that moment the SW4 crowd would eeat from his hand. Markus Schulz rocked The Gallery stage and when he finished I ran to get the last minutes of the amazing Sander Kleinenberg, as he dropped wicked tune Monster by The Automatic. He left the decks and started jumping in front of the stage together with the crowd, madness!

When Sander finished off he introduced the next DJ who brought us the hits Call On Me and Proper Education, the one and only, Eric Prydz[. The introduction resonated with the crowd and everyone went seriously mad with excitement. Without even two words, Eric picked up from the point where Sander left us and took the atmosphere to an even higher level than before. When the sound of his track Pjano’ filled the ground SW4 was transformed into a real rave.



Eric Prydz told me at the afterparty, “Music has always been a really big part of my life. It is there when I wake up and in my head when I go to bed at night. I played at SW4 two years ago, actually and it was kind of a strange thing for me as I used to live in Clapham, right on the Common so it was basically a 30-second walk from there to the main stage. It was real fun. I had a really good time. I played with John Digweed and Sander Kleinenberg among others.”

Closing the main stage and finishing off the festival in style was a special task, trusted to the hands of Sasha and John Digweed this year. After being stuck in a studio recording their new album for the past three months, they’d managed to drag themselves out and to the decks of SW4 to show off their new sounds. The first part of their set was slightly slow compared to the previous DJs, more for chilling out. But then I think the guys realised that everyone was waiting for a proper kick and started playing harder banging tunes.



Sasha had already told me, “The last set on the main stage when the sun starts to set is a really magical experience. Every time I’ve done that it’s been fantastic.” Digweed added: “Every year it seems to get better, I’m just happy to be back there doing it. It is the first time I get a chance to close the main stage with Sasha so it should be a real highlight.” And it was. With lasers, the sunset, pyrotechnics and fireworks it was a good end to it all, yet I have to say again way too soon at 9pm.

For those who could not or would not go home and were yearning for more, the official SW4 After Party at The Coronet opened its door and promised to be a seriously funky night of hardcore clubbng action. With more Eric Prydz alongside his fellow superstar DJ Sebastien Leger and one of the UK’s hottest live techno acts Spektre, things were only just starting as the last tune was played on the common.. For me it was just a perfect way to close the summer season in London!




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photos courtesy of the HarderFaster archive and Agnes Klos. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Other Features By Agnes Klos:
Back2Basics - 10 Years of Party Productions & Tomorrowland Stage Hosts
Atmosphere Records - The opening of IBIZA 1936
Entering the world of Waldfrieden in Germany with DJoanna
Piracy is not a crime – sail away with Feestgedruis!
Progressive flavours with DJ R'Deem ahead of Neelix party
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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