LeeFest 2012

We’ve all done it. Our parents have gone away on holiday and left us in charge of the house, under the premise that there will NO house parties. This happened to 17-year-old Lee Denny, but instead of directly flouting these rules he flaunted a loophole and organised a last-minute festival in his back garden. Seven years down the line, this impromptu shindig has flourished into a two-day extravaganza, having garnered support from a plethora of acts, including The Futureheads, Starsmith and Sam Duckworth. 2012’s bill is peppered with equally as exciting names, with Mystery Jets, Slow Club, Urban Nerds and Summer Camp giving us the adrenaline to battle the Friday night rush hour, board the bright yellow LeeFest shuttle bus and arrive at Highams Hill Farm, Surrey, excited and eager to start the party.

Here are DIY’s top three picks that you just shouldn’t have missed:

JakwobOk, I’m taking a deep breath. Why? Because I’m venturing into unchartered territory and making a U-turn, David Cameron-style. After seeing Jakwob support Wretch 32 at Shepherds Bush Empire a few months back, I wrote a review on this here site claiming that, despite being talented, the dubstep aficionado was not a brilliant live performer. However, I like to give people a second chance, so along I went to the main stage on Friday night, to see if Jakwob could pull it back.

It was obvious from the opening bars that this performance was in a far higher league than the one I had witnessed a few months previously, with the opening bars of ‘Electrify’ slapping us in the face like a blast of cold air. ‘Let it Fall’ and ‘Rolla’ are equally as stunning, with the dubstep bass wobbles sounding remarkably crisp and reverberating through our bodies as if we were stood two, not 20, metres away from the speakers. And it wasn’t just the sound that was superior to my previous Jakwob encounter; the presence of powerful stage lighting made his set all the more epic, with intense yellow lights sweeping from the front to the back of the crowd at every drop.

The Shepherd’s Bush aural experience had been tinny and unfulfilling – a bit like watching The Dark Knight on a 15-inch black and white TV – whilst the LeeFest experience was like watching a 3D film at the IMAX – a sensory spectacular with bells and whistles. This is how dubstep should be heard. The only thing that would have put the icing on the cake, would have been the young producer’s stunning remix of Lana Del Ray’s ‘Video Games’, which in my opinion, is his best rework. However, this is just a minor gripe and certainly doesn’t detract from the stunning set Jakwob pulled out the bag. This was the first act I caught at LeeFest, and my, what a blinder.

BastilleIn an age where it’s so easy for people to flaunt themselves via social media and the interweb, it seemed strange, yet intriguing, that information on Bastille (aka South London’s Dan Smith) was so sparse. His website homepage is a montage of missing person newspaper clippings, with few photos and no bio. Hence, I had put him at the top of my list to this weekend, so I could see the man behind the mystery.

As we wandered over to the main stage on Saturday afternoon, drenched in heat, we heard the opening bars of a song I’d heard for the first time over a decade ago and brought back memories of playground sing-alongs. When the vocals kicked in, the crowd sprang to life, yelling ‘What would you do if your son was at home, crying all alone…’ etc etc, pointing at their neighbour as if they were demanding an answer, Jerry Springer-style. For so many people that had, just a few seconds ago, been lying motionless on the grass, dizzy with the summer sun, they were surprisingly mobile.

This was followed by the musical rays of sunshine that are ‘Adagio for Strings’ and ‘Of the Night’, with older material, such as ‘Flaws’, allowing a few sober moments to permeate the pop chirpiness. Bastille’s set was like a childhood blanket, filled with familiar sounds that take you back to simpler times. It was with great pleasure, complete that I sang ‘what it love? Baby don’t hurt me no more’ (from ‘Adagio for Strings’) at the top of my lungs with a few hundred other people. Looking round, I saw they all had the exact same smile I had plastered on my face.

Santiago Street MachineSantiago Street Machine are exactly what you need to bridge the gap between the day’s indie rock and dance acts, combining synths and powerful drum beats to create a set that makes you want to grab a glowstick one minute and play air guitar the next. ‘Face Your Fear’ is a gorgeously misleading track; lulling us into a false sense of security with dreamy strings, it then, out of nowhere, drops us right in the middle of a 90s rave, with the orchestra colliding head-on with raging synthesizers to create an apocalyptic musical meltdown. Follow-up track ‘Shut This Down’ is also on the epic end of the musical spectrum and is probably what Bon Jovi would have sounded like if they’d messed around with house and subwoofers instead of messing around with all those guitars. Despite their slot being early afternoon, the Prodigy-esque ‘Noisemaker’ gets the crowd dancing like it’s the closing song of the festival; even the security guards were tapping their feet to the electro goodness.

Now hands up, who’s ready for LeeFest 2013?