Photo: WENN
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Wireless Festival took place earlier this month at Finsbury Park in London.
Originally geared more towards fans of the rock and indie genres, artists such as New Order, LCD Soundsystem, Echo & The Bunnymen and The Who were amongst some of the names featured on the festival’s early lineups. Now more of an “urban” festival dominated by hip hop, R&B and house music, it’s the closest thing the UK has to popular American festivals Rock The Bells and Made In America.
This year’s Wireless came with an additional date to celebrate its 10th birthday. So besides the usual three day event, the preceding Sunday saw Drake headline (as he did on the Friday of the main festival) with the likes of Public Enemy, Chance The Rapper, Kid Ink, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Rita Ora, Boy Better Know, Jhene Aiko and more on hand to support the festival’s favourite Toronto son.
With the main festival’s other headliners being Kendrick Lamar, Avicii, Nicki Minaj and David Guetta, tickets for this year’s Wireless Festival were sold out way in advance. So what’s all the fuss about? Let us break down 10 of this year’s best moments in celebration of its 10th anniversary.
1. Flava Flav of Public Enemy deciding to jump off stage at Wireless 10 and run through the crowd giving high fives, hugs and taking selfies all while still rapping.
2. Celebrity sightings galore, including Taylor Lautner, Jada Pinkett-Smith and making his festival debut, Brooklyn Beckham.
3. Def Jam rapper Logic’s performance on the festival’s final day on the Pepsi Max stage was electric, especially for someone who had reportedly not slept for two days due to various cancelled flights.
4. Drake bringing out hometown hero Skepta for a very hyped up version of ‘Shutdown’ quite literally shut down Wireless Festival on the Friday.
5. August Alsina’s dancers on Sunday doing their best to outdo Nicki Minaj’s much talked about booty shakers.
6. Kendrick Lamar’s video editor deserves an award for the crisp visuals that accompanied his performance on Saturday. #Trophies
7. Teddy Riley-championed Boston band Bad Rabbits getting everyone in the crowd to do an electric slide-esque dance move in front of the Capitol Xtra Re:Wired stage.
8. Mary J. Blige proving her queen status showing the youngsters how it’s done, getting her groove on throwing a few shapes to the intro of her classic hit ‘Real Love’.
9. Childish Gambino getting really into his insanely energetic Because The Internet set. “Are you eating though!?”
10. The guy without a ticket who climbed into a tree opposite the Pepsi Max stage to watch Public Enemy’s Wireless 10 set, while also posing for pictures. Salute!
