Freeze moves sixth festival from Battersea to Clapham

Freeze Festival 2013

Wednesday 27th November to Sunday 1st December 2013
Clapham Common, Lambeth, Greater London, SW4 9DE, England MAP
£54 season ticket

Daily capacity: 10,000

Waking up on one of the coldest mornings of the year I was pretty excited to be heading over to Clapham Common for Freeze. I didn’t quite know what to expect, however being a keen boarder and Snowbomber I hoped a winter sports festival in its 6^th year would be delivering a decent helping of music and entertainment plus a good vibe.

I decided to go on the Saturday, thinking this would be the best day in terms of line up. I also figured the ‘Hail the Rail’ competition finale would pull in a decent crowd and was keen to see the set up after hearing about the 100 metre slope at last years event at Battersea Power Station. Upon arrival I was surprised at how quiet it seemed, there was no queue to get in and the Metro Bar (first bar at the entrance) was pretty dead. Three animal onesie-clad ravers occupied the dance floor with a few people scattered around the edges listening to the electronic beats of London based duo Boean.

After a quick reccie we discovered a further three alpine-themed bars and not too many more people around. Those that were there however seemed in pretty good spirits, many of which had turned up in loud ski suits, animal hats, bad Christmas jumpers and faux fur galore. We stumbled upon the rail and were pretty disappointed to see how small the slope was! Considering this was the UK’s biggest winter sports event we were expecting a little more height, needless to say there was no big air comp this year.

We wandered over to the Main Stage to catch Idris Elba, who kicked his set off to the funky soundtrack of Shaft and the crowd seemed immediately warmed up and ready to go. I was more than curious to see what sort of music Luther star and the man who flew Prometheus would be delivering, and was even more surprised to hear him flit from funk to grime to trance within the space of ten minutes. An interesting if a little confusing set, not too sure I’d be in a hurry to see him again, and judging from the near-stationary stance of his audience I’m not convinced many of them would either.

Other than the Ibiza Rocks bar and smaller Relentless bar there was the Alpine Shopping Village, a tent selling the usual snow clobber and equipment, and a few food stalls trading Bavarian treats such as bratwurst, fondue, and crepes. Mulled wine was on the menu at most of the bars and very welcome given the bitter conditions! Promo girls wandering around giving out free hot chocolate was a nice touch, and the staff seemed pretty friendly and happy to be there.

The musical highlight for me was surprise guest Zane Lowe who played a secret gig in the Relentless Bar. His unbounded passion and enthusiasm was infectious, and combined with a stomping mash-up set was more than enough to get revelers stomping. The 20-minute queue to get into the tent was well worth the wait. Lowe was intense and energetic, spinning a set heavily influenced by hip-hop but never staying still in one genre for long. Spanning indie, rock, bouncey house with a few bootlegs thrown in for good measure, he crafted a high octane performance and packed the tent inside and out.

Having had a great day more down to the company rather than festival itself, I’m not sure I would return to Freeze unless there was more going on. The line-up for me was not hugely inspiring and I was expecting more in the way of things to see and do. We often found ourselves just wandering from tent to tent, nothing particularly grabbed our attention and the atmosphere in general wasn’t as buzzing as I expected from the crescendo to a big five-day winter sports festival. Decent day out in general but not hugely impressed, I’d give it a 5/10.

review by: Carrie Tang