![Somerset House Series 2010 - around the festival site](https://cdn.efestivals.co.uk/photos/2010/somersethouse/site-SomersetHouse2010-TS14.jpg)
Somerset House Series 2010
Thursday 8th to Sunday 18th July 2010Somerset House, The Strand, London, WC1 1LA, England MAP
£20 to £27.50, per day depending on the event
It's surely London's most central festival. Somerset House, less than half a mile from Charing Cross, from where all distances to London by road are measured, has been holding summer music festivals for 9 years. It's an impressive building and somewhat of a cultural hub, the courtyard houses one of London's most popular ice rinks in winter, while the building homes contemporary art exhibitions and also has some office space for the Inland Revenue.
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Tonight's headliners, Air, broke through in 1998 with Moon Safari, a top 10 album filled with chill out tunes. It was perhaps somewhat of a surprise for them to headline on a Friday night their music is more suited to a lazy Sunday evening, or perhaps an afternoon slot at one of the recent one-day festivals in nearby Hyde Park.
Certainly, the weather was perfectly suited to the music. Unlike last year, where some of the nights were hit by torrential rain and thunder, the weather this year was perfect - a balmy summer's evening with barely a cloud in sight.
First up were Olof Arnalds, more of a lie-back-and-slowly-fall-asleep band than a warm-up act. Their music was more incidental than being the main focus, with everyone sitting down on the concrete floor concentrating more on enjoying the conversation and the beer. They would have been a perfect background band for a summer's day picnic and worked well as the support act for Air, but would have struggled to have fitted the bill for a more energetic band.
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Air started off slow, perhaps waiting for the sun to set and the lights to have their full impact, with some mostly unforgettable numbers from their most recent album, Love 2. The crowd were generally appreciative, although the music was pretty flat and didn't really contain enough for those who were unacquainted with the latest album to get people moving around.
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![around the festival site](https://cdn.efestivals.co.uk/photos/2010/somersethouse/site-SomersetHouse2010-TS14.jpg)
review by: Tim Smith
photos by: Tim Smith
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