Field Day 2011 Preview
“I guess I’ve always tried to be on the pulse with new bands and listen to a lot of music. It’s really exciting to have a blank canvas to choose bands I love and want to see.” About to celebrate its fifth anniversary, promoter Tom Baker’s Field Day festival has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2007. Still somewhat in its infancy, the festival has boasted remarkable line ups in previous years and it seems Tom’s pulled it off again with Field Day 2011 sporting probably his most exciting selection of artists to date.
Despite the restrictive single day format of the festival, Baker certainly cannot be criticised for lack of ambition with performances from artists as eclectic as NME’s neo-soul darling Jamie Woon, London producer Actress and hypnogogic standard bearers Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. “I am really excited to see Konono No.1,” Baker selected his most anticipated performance of this year’s line up, “founded back in the 1960s by Mingiedi, a virtuoso of the likembe (thumb piano) in The Democratic Republic of the Congo, they use electrified thumb pianos with voices, dancers and percussion instruments made from salvaged junkyard items.”
Any of you who have had the pleasure of seeing Konono No. 1 before will know already how perfectly their electrifying “tradi-modern” music will compliment a day in the summer sun and their performance will surely measure up to Baker’s previous highlights of the Field Day festival, which he recounted to me; “Grammy award winning Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté was a dream booking for me at Field Day 2009, I had always wanted to book him and Field Day was perfect with the whole tent singing along. For Field Day 2010, girls on shoulders and anthemic sing-alongs to Phoenix was a defining moment. It was a benchmark in bringing everyone together to watch amazing music but also to have a massive party!”
Amidst such a wide range of high quality acts, a few more names manage to standout from the list and Baker continued to select his personal highlights of 2011, “we have some exclusives like the Kieran Hebden (a.k.a. Four Tet) back to back set with James Holden and Carl Craig presents 69. These just can’t be missed!" Being an Oxford boy myself, I was particularly excited to see performances from Chad Valley and Trophy Wife, two of the city’s most promising artists. Having recently released his sophomore EP, ‘Equatorial Ultravox’, Chad Valley’s low key wash of chillwave and Balearic pop will help while away a lazy afternoon, as will the hypnogogic ambience of Oneohtrix Point Never who is also set to perform.
Taking place in the leafy surroundings of Victoria Park, London, it seems Field Day 2011 has fulfilled Tom’s second key to a great festival (after the quality of line up): “a beautiful setting”. The location of the festival has afforded Baker an opportunity to expand the festival beyond just a musical experience, “head to the Village Mentality area on The Village Green for a fantastic mix of traditional side stalls inspired by country pastimes and fete games.” With activities ranging from the bizarre sounding “Blindfold Tea Drinking Relay Race” to a good old splat-the-rat competition, Field Day offers a huge amount of fun for those looking for a break from the music throughout the day.
As Tom explained, the Village Mentality area of the festival holds true to the festival’s roots, “me and my girlfriend Natalie put together a free event a few years back outside The Griffin Pub in Old Street for 1000 people a day over a summer weekend called Return Of The Rural; a village fete with live acoustic acts James Yorkston and Beth Orton alongside acts like Clinic and Four Tet. After the success of this we all thought we should do something bigger and on a grander scale.” Whilst Baker has plans to expand the capacity of Field Day in the future, he remains conscious of “ruining the atmosphere” of his unique event. So expect a lot of great music over the next five years, and a few more blindfolded tea drinking races along the way.