LooseFest 2022 Review

InNewcastle 7 August 2022 Latest News No Comment

This past weekend we were fortunate to be invited to the very first LooseFest Music Festival at Newcastles Town Moor. Along with approximately 60,000 other music fans, we came to enjoy a weekend full of amazing acts, spread over four stages accompanied by fun fair rides and bar and food options to keep you going through it all.

How good is it that after all that Covid had brought that we are now being able to gather again and enjoy events like this. I know there may be some that complain about festivals like this and noise complaints, however for the city I believe these events help hugely to bring together community, tourism and a sense of togetherness and just a really good time.

Set over two days the Saturday got off to a bit of a slow start due to some technical delays. This was unfortunate as many had queued early to see Joel Corry perform an early set before he flew off to Berlin. However, due to these delays the schedule had to be changed and Joel was unable to perform.

Nevertheless there were many other names to perform and we headed over to see hometown lad Patrick Topping perform a wonderful set. The tent was full and you sensed that many knew him from his days at club-night Motion at Digital. A big following supported his appearance and you could see from his smiling face how good it was to be back performing on home soil.

Other acts such as Shane Codd, Jess Bays and Low Steppa performed on the main open air stage in advance of the likes of Example, Clean Bandit and the Black Eyed Peas who all brought great performances of their own.

Sunday started off a little quieter but slowly gathered pace where we had the likes of Ollie Holmes opening up, with the evening bringing Sigala, Disciples, Mabel, and headliner AJ Tracey to perform also.

I have to say the megadome where we proceeded to see two of my favourite sets of the weekend in Phats & Small and Tinchy Stryder, although compact brought an energy and atmosphere unmatched. We also saw local legend Paul Thomas with his Ladebare set. Other acts such as Big Narstie and Filp’n’Fill also had the crowd squeezing in.

Food and Drink was plentiful, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of bar space dedicated to the festival, which meant queues were kept to a minimum. Pricing was reasonable and what I’d expect to pay. Toilets were also freely available and again well set up. The fun fair rides provide a great distraction also if you are waiting in-between acts and seem to be appearing more across festivals that I attend.

Overall despite a few teething issues at the start of the weekend this felt like a great festival and success. The attendance just proved that also. Nothing rivals it in music style. The acts that were brought to Newcastle were superb and had something for everyone. This is a festival that Newcastle needs and I sincerely hope that this is the first of many we see on the Town Moor.