Loop festival: Transforming and falling

It was a hard week with Kerry visiting the hospital and our house plan reaching a critical point so we were looking forward to our most local festival yet. No camping required and even a wrist pass to pop in and out of the Loop festival site in the middle of Brighton.

First surprise was seconds after entering was spotting our old mate, Harry who we haven't seen for 6 years! Now a mini-festival and club promoter, he visits Brighton almost twice a month. The site was compact using the university building across the road for chilled music sets and multi-media art pieces.

First band to see were Transformer, a local unsigned DFA inspired setup. I can see good things happening with these guys who played really well. Let's hope they're higher on the bill next time to match their dirty disco sound.

Second band to see were The Bays. Although local, they've set themselves up a worthy reputation as crowd pleasers across the festival circuit. Their ethos is to play like a DJ and respond to the crowd building the set. By the end of their set we were hooked and wished they would sell their recorded material.

After a bus-ride home for some grub we were ready to see Fujiya and Miyagi. Midfield General was DJing just before and played some nice electro. Although their album's great to listen with their strange lyrics and laid-back beats, I was surprised at how funky they came across. The end of their set (and possibly the reason an encore wasn't allowed) was ruined by some twat climbing the centre pole taking everyone's attention. The security cleared a space around the pole but the guy continued and made it to the top. Not content with his success, he monkey-barred across then dropped in front of everyone. Amazed he lived really. It even made the front page of today's local paper, The Argus. Spotted the band members of F & M and ran up to them to say how good they were. David Best, the lead singer looked like he needed the compliment and asked if the pole-climber was ok.