More about: Visions Festival

A solid staple in any independent music fan’s diary, Visions Festival has become well known for year after year bringing the most interesting new acts to an action-packed one-dayer in East London’s Hackney. Back to its original, full-blown, version for the first time since pre-pandemic, Saturday 23 July saw Visions take over five venues and fill them with performances from 35 acts across all musical genres. Here are a few things we saw and liked, but first let’s talk about the dog show…

Don’t tell my cat I said this, but what’s not to like about a festival that starts with a dog show?!

An all-star panel of artist judges, all warming up before taking one of the stages at the festival later that day, were lined up on the Paddock behind Hackney Church. It’s just after mid-day and you can clearly tell that many festival goers have made the journey down early to catch some of the dog action. This is not any dog show though, with categories such as ‘Waggiest Tail’ and ‘Best Rescue’, and proceeds going to All Dogs Matter and the Red Cross’ Ukraine Appeal, it turns out to be one of the most wholesome ways you can start a festival. Pup after pup takes a spin around the crowd in the attempt to win the judges’ hearts and it becomes clear that the audience is fully invested too when the winner of the ‘Golden Oldie’ category receives one of the biggest cheers we hear all festival. 

The first human performer we catch is the London-based, Yokohama-born, musician and producer Hinako Omori at the Round Chapel. The former place of worship – now an arts and community venue – makes a perfect backdrop for Omori’s otherworldly soundscapes, atmospheric synths and angelic vocals. Layers of ambient electronics grow into waltzing organ-esque chords as we are treated to an, in her own words, “immersive cartography of the mind”. In many ways it’s the polar opposite to the start of the day, but in a wonderfully weird way it is just what we needed.

Reset and refreshed we move on to Hackney Church where French singer-songwriter Léa Sen takes the stage. With only a small glowing moon as company, Sen moves back and forth between her stripped back, guitar-accompanied songs and her more bass-heavy electronic sounds. Although all by herself on stage she has no issues owning the space. A mix of new, unreleased material and songs from her debut EP lulls the cool East London crowd.

On the other side of the church walls, on the lawn in front of the grand entrance, people have gathered in little groups, enjoying a break from the music, food from one of the local food stalls or a beverage or two from one of the independent breweries on site. The afternoon sun is smiling and an otherwise dormant spot has well and truly come to life.

Back in the church the stage has been turned into a forest, with tree trunks majestically lining each side. As producer, songwriter and vocalist Oklou appears on stage dressed as some kind of futuristic Indiana-Jones-explorer-meets-Star-Wars-pod-racer, the sun shines through the giant church windows. The light, almost holy, reminds us that we’re lucky to have the chance to experience music in such an iconic venue, but it doesn’t take long until Oklou has us captured in her very own fantasy world. Dreamy pop landscapes, tastefully auto-tuned vocals and dancy drums – think Bon Iver featuring Grimes – makes for a welcome injection of energy.

For a change of scenery, we stroll over to Chats Palace off Homerton High Street. The Grade II listed library-turned-art centre is the only venue on the bill that isn’t a 3 minute walk from Hackney Central and you can tell that people might have misjudged the distance when the room goes from almost empty to almost full during the first few songs. Like a bubbly whirlwind, London-based songwriter and producer Sans Soucis gets the crowd dancing as soon as they arrive and leaves no-one feeling left behind. The genre-defying poppy RnB feels  fresh, exciting and Sans Soucis delivers every line with a stage presence that is the best we’ve seen all day. 

By the time we exit the boiling hot venue, the sun has already set and everyone is starting to gear up for the evening’s headliners. A queue forms outside of Hackney Church where the biggest name on the line-up – one of last year’s most praised rock bands – Black Country, New Road is set to finish a day of musical adventures. Controversially we venture back to Chats Palace to explore something completely different.

London-based Miso Extra leans heavily on her Japanese heritage when she bounces out on stage and invites us, in Japanese of course, to join the Misoverse. The up-beat, genre-fluid pop, sprinkled with hip-hop influences left, right and centre, is unique, fun and quite unlike anything we’ve heard before. There are inflatable footballs flying around, while Miso Extra fluidly moves between Japanese and English as easily as she moves between genres. Although a bit messy at times, I still leave with a smile on my face wondering where I can buy a Miso Extra football shirt.

As people emerge from the venues and drift into the night, perhaps to go on to one of the official after parties, the atmosphere is on a high. We take a moment to reflect on an action-packed day and wonder what musical paths the happy faces we meet on the street have taken during the day. Whether you’re there to catch your favourite up-and-coming band, or off to explore a day of new music like us, Visions will welcome you with open arms.

See photos from Adam Taylor below:

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More about: Visions Festival