More about: Visions Festival

Saturday 7 August saw the triumphant return of Visions festival—Hackney was filled with great people, wonderful music and an atmosphere like no other. Visions Festival itself is spread across three venues in the London Borough: Oval Space, Pickle Factory and Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. Three superb venues in the very heart of one of London’s most desirable locations.

The festival kicks off with Kai Kwasi in the suitably sweaty Pickle Factory. Kai’s unique brand of off-kilter RnB is a wonderful opening to a day of great music. Then it's a short walk to Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club - a fabulous venue, kitted out in sparkly ribbons, love heart lights and disco balls. Venues like Bethnal Green WMC are few and far between these days, but the owners have done a wonderful job in maintaining the soul of such a great building. 

Here, Martha Skye Murphy brings her unique stylings to the cramped stage. Without a doubt Skye Murphy is one of the most talented vocalists on the scene right now. She uses her voice to great effect: beautiful harmonies sharply contrast with screams and soaring wails that draw from Bjork and sound similar to some of the wilder cuts from Squid or BC,NR.

Visions is well and truly underway now: a wonderful mix of people are milling about with food, cans, programmes, merch and there is a distinct feeling of joy and good nature. Visions requires a negative test for entry but the punters are considerate and polite: people give you space and respect that for many mixing with this many people can be an anxiety nightmare. 

The good feeling continues post-haste with Girl Ray who take to the main stage, greeted by a mixed crowd of fans, friends and people just looking to groove (including various members of Porridge Radio). Their sunny indie pop fits the vibe of the day down to the ground: people are so clearly thrilled to be at a live music event again. 

Visions have picked another superb venue to house the bigger bands on the bill: Oval Space is a multi-layered building with food, beer and a huge main room. My only criticism is that the main stage is kind of top heavy with all the bigger bands in the same room. No bother, because between intermittent rain showers, the venue is packed out by the time Yard Act take to the stage. 

The Leeds lads are a real highlight of the day—Yard Act get it, whatever it is. They throw some London-based insults to the crowd between new and old songs and completely tear through their set, barely giving you a chance to catch your breath between tracks. Yard Act have a style like no other, cutting punk tunes are matched with James Smith’s forked tongue - The Fall and Half Man Half Biscuit come to mind.

There's a short break in proceedings before the legendary Billy Nomates bounds on stage—her shaggy mullet and boilersuit are thrown around the sparse stage as she dances, jumps, and sings from the floor. Her eponymous debut album is a year old to the day and the crowd are treated to album cuts, as well as a couple of tracks from her latest release Emergency Telephone. Billy has such a fearsome 'I don’t give a fuck' attitude, which is conveyed in her punky beats and defiant lyrics. 

Porridge Radio are the perfect band to headline a festival like this: their post-punk-indie-pop goes down a treat, and the Hackney crowd can't get enough. Once again, Visions have killed it with the bookings: Porridge Radio are a band on the up and up, you’ll see them playing much bigger rooms than this in no time.

Overall, Visions is a resounding success. The atmosphere is like nothing I have felt before - many people were enjoying their first gigs back since you know what and the crowd was overwhelmingly positive and buzzed. A great selection of food and beer helped to get the crowd on side, but fantastic bookings and venues made this an unforgettable day. 

More about: Visions Festival