Camden Rocks is good value for money however, you are paying heavily for alcohol

Camden Rocks 2016

Saturday 4th June 2016
various venues, Camden, Greater London, NW1 8AN, England MAP
£35

Daily capacity: 4,000

This was my first time attending Camden Rocks Festival so I was excited to see what was in store for me. I started going to the Camden Crawl in 2005 when it was over a single day so I thought it would be the same vibe. I have been going to The Great Escape Festival for 10 years so a multi venue wristband is no shock to me and I have seen it work but also seen it fail. How would Camden Rocks fare?

I arrived at 12:00 and walked straight in to The Worlds End to collect my wristband. It was painless and quick as there was no queue. The staff were pleasant but couldn’t answer my question about getting some ear plugs. In fact all the security I spoke to suggested I go to Boots to buy some. Luckily a bar tender in Electric Ballroom offered me a pair.

As this festival is over various venues there are no set places to buy food and so you rely on the high street restaurants or stalls of which there is massive options and competition. Wether it’s a Chinese buffet at £7.99 or pizza slices, burritos or your fast food outlets. Luckily the food is reasonably priced as you are going to get hammered on drinks. Pints started at £4.80 but averaged at £5.20 which is ridiculous, although this hasn’t been enhanced just for the festival, it’s London’s going rate and a reason I don’t live there. Would have been a good gesture to get a brand to offer reduced priced cans/pints for wristband holders.

The festival itself has 20 venues running from The Barfly to the North down to The Crowndale near Mornington Crescent station. It’s a long walk so I recommend using the bus or tube to make it quicker and being a single day means you can get a travelcard. With 200 bands playing today I knew I would be running around all over the place but ensured I visited venues en-route there and back.

So due to rail problems (no change there) I missed the first act at 12:00 but caught As Lions which has Bruce Dickinson’s (Iron Maiden) son on lead vocals. I heard a clip online which I didn’t like but had to see what they were like live which is heavier and livelier but still not my bag.

A good fun act to watch was Nottingham’s Evil Scarecrow at The Electric Ballroom. With their theatrical make up they were more Kiss than Slipknot and entertained the early audience some of who said later that they were the highlight act on the day.

My favourite act played 3 times on the day but, his first set was plagued with technical issues with his guitar. Ginger (The Wildhearts) opened with ‘Forget About It’ which had the audience singing along in the filled out ‘The Forge’ . Trying to get a comp beer from the bar he was witty and totally worth the trek down from The Barfly. His set changed at each set which meant his fans got value for their money following him around. His set here included; Forget About It, The Pendine Incident, No One Smiled at Me Today, Mother City, Top of The World, Maxel Tov Cocktail and 29x The Pain.

Time for some Grrl Grunge and a fun band Hands Off Gretel delivered what I needed before grabbing some food. Lauren Tate (vocals) looked amazing with her colourful hair and star-like personality. The songs did what it said on the label and would easily have fitted in back in the 90’s but has enough to carry them in the 10’s. I would like to see them again on a proper stage rather than downstairs at the Barfly.

I managed to walk into a band I hadn’t intended on seeing Reckless Love whose set was going off like a gig at Wembley Arena. H. Oliver Twisted the perfect rock frontman who could easily have modelled himself on a glam band from the late 80’s. The crowd reacted as if they were the headliners and the band as if it was the last date on their world tour. A pleasant surprise and would catch them again.

All in all the £35 ticket was good value for money however, you are paying heavily on alcohol which you need to factor into the day. Good variety of rock on the day. There was acoustic through to banging walls and windows. Would I attend again? If there was a deal on 1 of the beers or ciders then yeah, maybe.