LIVE REVIEW: Bingley Music Live 2018
On the surface, Bingley Music Live is much like other festivals: good music, good weather and a good atmosphere.However, big name artists and an electric crowd in a smaller venue creates a fast paced and exciting weekend.
The weekend began on a Friday Night, with a headlining performance by Shed Seven. The band played classic 90s alternative rock, to a large crowd for an opening day. Due to scheduling issues I could not see the earlier acts, but overall Friday was a good start to the event.
Saturday began quietly with a performance from The Ego States, followed by amazing acts such as No Hot Ashes. The secondary Discovery stage offered some interesting sounds, especially from indie acts such as The Brummies. However, the surprise act of the day would have to be Elvana, who combines the sound of Elvis with the tracks of Nirvana creates a cover band like no other, and the frontman (dressed as the King AND Cobain) had excellent chemistry with the crowd.
Saturday revealed a strange problem for the festival. Whilst there were many famous acts such as: Melanie C, The Cribs and Jake Bugg, nearly every performer before these headliners seemed to be yet another guitar band. This is not to say there was no diversity; bands such as the Marmozets and the aforementioned Elvana were standouts on the main stage, and the Discovery Stage was filled with unique acts like Queen Z, but these were surrounded by seemingly homogenous rock performances.
Sunday was a perfect send off for the event and highlighted the best parts. The day started off with an enthusiastic performance by Critical Reaction in the morning, followed by high quality rock and metal acts such as Pulled Apart by Horses, Peace and Marmozets. The Discovery Stage had its fair share of great bands too, with Black Honey and Kilnsey Green standing out for me for their strong vocals. To no one’s surprise, the greatest performance of the day, if not the whole festival, had to be Noel Gallagher, who definitely knew how to excite and entertain the crowd.
Sunday night definitely exemplified the atmosphere of the whole event. The crowd at the main stage, mostly teenagers to young adults, provided a powerful backing track to the high profile artists on display, with the smaller (and generally older) crowd at the Discovery Stage responding well to the upcoming and local artists. The event seemed to be a fantastic experience for all involved.Overall, Bingley Music Live 2018 was a great event, filled with great international and local bands in a scenic setting, with talent and drinks to spare. Despite some hiccups in scheduling causing delays on the discovery stage (at some points running thirty five minutes late) and lack of genre diversity besides the headliners, this is an event definitely worth looking out for next year
