This weekend the BBC put on two days of free music at hackney marshes. As local (ish) residents we managed to wangle tickets. We were attending on the Sunday where Rihanna was headlining. Saturday night was headed by Jay-Z.
The weather has been nothing but awful in the last few months. Rain rain rain. Apparently the wettest June in 100 years. Hello global warming. Therefore outfit selection is crucial. Hunter Wellies were a must, as was the new lacey white number I bought the day prior.
Boots, black tights, jacket...not exactly summer attire.
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Dress - Warehouse
Jacket - Zara
Boots - Hunter
Bag - Michael Kors
Shades - Ray Ban |
On arrival we were ticket checked no fewer than 4 times, and had to go through airport style security. Seriously?! Eventually we got in and headed to the one extra tent. In there were a boy band, so cute their voices hadn't even broken yet. We pulled some wicked shapes laughed our heads off then darted out.
The first act we were going to see on the main stage was Plan B. I can't say I'm a massive fan and I couldn't have named any of his tracks beforehand - and cant remember any now! He had a beat boxer on stage in between songs, he was really getting the crowd going, we loved it...honestly this beat boxer was better than Plan B, so we took the opportunity to catch up with some other friends we had met...
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| ...and check out the mud situation |
One of the acts I was really looking forward to seeing was Jessie J. Her tracks are so catchy and some of them are on my running playlists - much fun. She also seems like a gorgeous person. We were looking forward to seeing the outfit! She didn't disappoint, belting out all the hits from Man Dem to Price Tag and Whose Laughing Now. Finally we heard the opening notes on Domino. Cracking summer tune. The party had started.
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| Not sure what happened to this pic, but I like it |
Next up was Tinie Tempah, Florence and The Machine and Lana Del Ray in the New Music arena. In between this we popped to the food vans for some much needed, over priced, terrible food. After Florence we decided to go to the Dance Tent, for the first time that day where David Guetta was pressing play on the Mac to deliver the tunes. It was honestly one of the highlights of the day. Dance music isn't really my thing. Don't get me wrong I like some David Guetta tunes, but they are all the ones with vocalists and a catchy hook. Just 'doosh, doosh, doosh' isn't for me. Maybe it was the mud or the shades inside (a tent) but we really got into it. It was almost a shame to have to leave and meet our new friends who were hooking us up for Rihana.
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| Tinie getting the crowd going |
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| Lana Del Ray looked hawt |
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| Serious 'do and eye liner |
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| Flo looking like she would have a boob incident any second |
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| My David Guetta pics kind of suck... |
When we disappeared for the aforementioned over priced food we got chatting to one of the security guards. He was a marine and this was the first time he had worked a concert. He said he would hook us up, we kind of took it with a pinch of salt and thought we'd try our luck but didn't hold out much hope. At the allocated time we went to meet him at the platform that was directly opposite the stage and raised above the crowd where the camera crew were and also some guests with special requirements. When we caught up with our man and amazingly, he came through. We were waved straight up onto the platform and the view was cracking. We did a little victory dance and then realised we were out of drink. C (for Crazy) was dispatched to the bar...
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| Hello view |
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| Ri-Ri's set up |
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| The woman herself. Hot (but no Beyonce...) |
When we had been 'downstairs' with the masses for every other act that day it wasn't that busy and we got kind of close even for people like Florence who we thought would be packed. The crowd for Rihanna was no joke. I don't know if all the other tents pretty much shut down but it felt like the whole of east London had descended onto Hackney Marshes. The crowd was insane. Cue another victory dance...picture flailing limbs, high tenning (five just wasn't enough) and general hyperactivity.
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| Thank god we're not down there |
As soon as Rihanna came on the air was electric. You cannot recreate an atmosphere with photos or videos. They do not do anything any justice. The first track was Only Girl in the World. Amazing. She did some of the best hits including my favourite, What's My Name. I made a video of this moment...which when I watched back I had completely ruined by my dreadful singing. Honestly when you're there you can't hear yourself and think you sound amazing. On reflection I wanted the sofa cushions to swallow me up and make it stop. It's unfortunate because otherwise I would share!
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| The Umbrellas came out for all the right reasons...the song. Electric |
The pièce de résistance was when Run This Town came on. Our new best friend (who had seen the show the previous day) Whispered 'this happened last night' at which time we speculated until we needed to no more. Jay-Z comes out on to the stage and the crowd literally went wild. If you thought there were a lot of cameras in the air before (from our vantage point we had a gorgeous view of this) the whole crowd was one big phone screen. Although I captured some footage and photos I was determined not to see the whole thing through a small screen and just focused on singing and dancing very enthusiastically. Serious shapes were thrown. What a work out.
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| Ri-Ri and Jay-Z |
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| Ohhh Snap |
The final song was We Found Love. Again my 30 seconds or so of video is just me singing, like a wild woman. I love the tune and it's another on my running playlist but live? Oh My. Next time I run and that comes on I will literally have goosebumps. Amazing.
As this wrapped up we heard England had gone into penalties, cue some spontaneous EN-GER-LAND, EN-GER-LAND chanting, especially when Italy missed. Honestly I think the euphoria would have been too much for us had they won. A bit of a come down that they crashed out of the Euros, but what did we expect?
Overall, that's what I call Sunday's...
Thank you BBC Radio 1.
Thank you Hackney
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