Field Day brought together the best of London's alternative live music and club promoters for a day of music and dancing, with bands such as Mystery Jets, The Aliens, 1990s, Bat For Lashes, Pull Tiger Tail and James Yorkston, and DJ's Andrew Weatherall, Erol Alkan and Jo Jo De Freq, as well as those village fete favourites such as hog roasts, tugs of war, tombola, barn dancing, hoedown tent and a largest marrow competition.
Underage Festival, meanwhile, was hailed as "the world's first credible festival for strictly under-18s", where Johnny Flynn, Lethal Bizzle, Errorplains, Fear Of Flying, The Teenagers, The Displacements, Metros and Blood Red Shoes were amongst the line up.
WE Audio provided an Aspect system for the Radio 1 main stage at both Victoria Park events, comprising TA-890H, and TA-880L and complemented by TSW-218s bass cabinets each side. The Converse Stage was covered with six TA-890H and six TA-880Ls per side, whilst the My Space Stage had four TQ-445 and three TQ-425s per side.
Processing was from XTA DP448s for the main and Converse stages, with DP226s for the My Space. Amplification was via Turbosound-badged MC2 T45 and T25s. Additionally, all stages employed XTA C2 compressors and G2 gates as inserts at both front of house and monitor positions.
Heavy noise pollution limits were the order of the day, as the park is surrounded by housing on three sides. "We had to work within 75db at the nearest sensitive point and we achieved this over the weekend with no complaints at all," says WE Audio's Wayne Barker. "We stacked the system up and pointed it down to keep it within the concert bowl areas and it didn't throw past 100m, which was in the audio spec.
"The fantastic point about point source, if you'll excuse the pun, is that you can point it at the area you want to cover and not throw it further than required, so everyone was happy."
Over in Regents Park, the Innocent Village Fete's totally family friendly atmosphere included music from artists like The Epstein, Ben Westbeech, Grantura, Cut A Shine and London Swingphonia with both nights being topped with an energetic set by the ever youthful Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band plus coconut shies, welly tossing, a tug o' war, ale, cider and, of course, smoothies.
Here, WE Audio again provided Aspect for the main stage comprising of six TA-890H and six TA-890L per side, plus six TFM-420s per side and two TQ-445s for Stage two, as well as a full site public address system.
Again, noise pollution was an important issue, given the event's location in the middle of one of the capital's most expensive residential areas. And once more the event ran smoothly with no complaints or noise issues over the two days.
"Our Aspect system was perfect for both spaces," concludes Barker. "The great audio quality, coupled with its superb directional control, makes it the ideal solution for city centre outdoor events."
(Jim Evans)
