Crowds flood to South Facing Festival to a fun, diverse lineup

South Facing Festival 2021

Thursday 5th to Tuesday 31st August 2021
Crystal Palace Bowl, Crystal Palace Park, Anerley Hill, London, SE18 2BA, England MAP
early bird from £35 per show

After a mental day of flash floods all morning despite it being supposedly a hot August day, and after a mental two years of you know what - gigs are creeping back into happening and South Facing Festival is here - in Crystal Palace at the legendary Bowl (Floyd and Bob Marley have played here!)

Enclosing the main part of the park, with a makeshift stage on the moat erected in front of the famous "rusty laptop", South Facing managed to tweak the balance just right in terms of people to bars to toilets ratio. Ample toilets and ample sized bars meant queueing was non-existent throughout, and the food choices focused on quality as opposed to bog-standard "sausage and chips"; though this was reflected in the price. Whilst the weather oscillated wildly from quite hot to freezing cold and damp, the crowd were spared any major rain; a miracle considering the floods that besieged London in the morning.

South Facing Festival crowds 2021

Like most festivals and concerts, proof of vaccination status was required at the gate. But this was pretty seamless and staff were very friendly. Generally, for a few hours, it was possible even to forget that a pandemic ever existed. Thanks to a fun, diverse lineup as part of the Heavenly label roster for this Saturday edition.

Katy J Pearson, and Jane Weaver warmed up the afternoon crowd during a few spots of actual sunshine, and The Orielles certainly threw in some dancier numbers for the delighted audience, with Disco Volador (Space Samba) and 7th Dynamic Goo verging on disco.

Fat White Family exploded onto the stage and sent lightning bolts through the crowd, just as the thunder and lightning dissipated as a threat to the weather. Before you know it, frontman Lias Saoudi is undressing, wading through the Crystal Palace park moat and being carried by the delighted audience! And whilst the frontman often gave the crowd more than eyeful whilst parading in his briefs, suddenly it was the Old World (TM) and we were all back in old concerts and old festivals where we didn't worry about hand sanitiser or facemasks or social distance. Fat White Family served up just what the current climate of festivals desired. Quiet, middle-class Crystal Palace didn't know what hit it.

Baxter Dury: South Facing Festival 2021

And then Baxter Dury, sub-headliner and popular with the crowd, also stripped, this time from his Orange bliler suit into aesthetically deliberate scruffy grey suit. His tongue-in-cheek anger and diverse musical styles were a nice in-between for the frenzy either side.

Frenzy was certainly what headliners Sleaford Mods brought to leafy Bromley borough; suddenly the sun had set and the night was upon us and the neon strobe lights and raw venom of frontman Jason Williamson are down our throats. This brings out the lively in the crowd, and even a converse trainer is thrown at Williamson at one point - prompting a comment from the Sleaford Mod that the crowd would be advised to stop throwing brand new clothing at him. Further pleas from the band to go easy on the security guards due to over-exuberant dancing/crowd-surfing mayhem/delight banished any notion that this was just a light and breezy re-entry into the world of gigs and festivals.

Sleaford Mods: South Facing Festival 2021

In all, aside from the barmy unpredictable weather, South Facing Festival is a success and welcome addition to the London festival routine .A lovely location (would be even more splendid on a hot summer's day), a good balance of facilities and a brilliant, diverse range of acts at reasonable ticket prices earn a thumbs up. Other acts to headline range from The Streets to Max Richter to the English National Opera! Check it out.

Read more about Supergrass + The Cribs on 20th August 2021 and The Streets + Greentea Peng on 22nd August 2021 and Max Richter Ensemble + Lucinda Chua on 28th August 2021

See part 2 here >>>

review by: Raph Pour-Hashemi