1-2-3-4 Festival Shoreditch Park

Just got back from this rather excellent little free festival in fashionable Shoreditch today. They were helped by the weather which made everyone happy and meant that the day would always really be a success - outdoor events in England are so affected by the weather - lets face it so one of the best days this year made everything seem OK. The organisation could have been better - we were told to walk around the park to a different entrance by a steward when 10 yards away there were at least twenty people hopping over the little park fence and he was doing nothing to stop it - its a free festival so why be difficult about letting people in?
Also there was a lack of toilets - it was alright for the men who had urinal cubicles (once they had realised that's what they were...) but the queues for the individual portaloos suggested that the organisers had well underestimated the amount of people turning up - either that or everyone there had real bladder problems...

So what about the music? Well there were several stages and some good dance music coming from a couple of them but I'll concentrate on the three acts that we properly saw during the day. The Whip on the main Myspace stage were excellent - on in the afternoon and they just happened to be on as we were looking for something to see but their eighties style electro rhythms immediately got us interested and they played 3 or 4 good tunes before going into an excellent instrumental number which went on for a while and had the crowd jumping and waving arms. They carried on for a while after that and we slightly lost interest but they were great while it lasted.

Secondly Bono Must Die on the XBox360 Stage were a must see because of the name - but turned out to be a good choice anyway - I can't help thinking they are going to struggle to actually get anyway with that moniker and it is a shame because their angular guitar sound and engaging front man had the crowd singing along. We even started clapping along at one point and the singer seemed surprised "That's the first time that has ever happened!"
An excellent cover of Justin Timberlake's SexyBack was a highlight.

Finally, and the reason I went to be fair, was Har Mar Superstar - headlining with Fab Moretti from The Strokes on drums (and he did appear to be playing the rest of the backing track from an iPod..)
What a treat to see such a confident performer - although that could have been all the coke he kept referring to throughout.
It was mainly fucking he talked about though - picking out one girl on shoulders in the crowd "You in the white top - I will fuck you tonight"
"Is that your boyfriend?" - referring to the guy whose shoulders she was on and after receiving the thumbs up "I'm sorry dude but I'm fucking your girlfriend tonight".
His dancing and strip tease act were all present and correct and as usual he ended up dancing around the stage in his pants - during EZ Pass he and Moretti did a Flashdance sequence - running on the spot and turning.
DUI was probably the other big highlight but it was an engaging show throughout and the tunes are really an extra on top of the personality and the comedy of the performance.