Day Two at Clockenflap

Day two began still reeling from a stupendous performance from Saturday’s headline act, Los Campesinos. The young six-piece gathered the remaining festival goers from all corners of the venue to join the already crowded and electrified mass squashed up to the stage for an unforgettable closer.

It would seem that remembering the great buzz from the night before pointed feet back toward Cyberport to enjoy the second half of the festival, albeit slightly dragged and hung over feet. It certainly seemed that many had told their friends as there were lots of new faces, beaming and fresh as if they had not just undergone a fury of drunken musical splendor the night prior.

Much like Saturday, Sunday was also a slow start. The children still had grass space to play on and the groups of old friends and newly made ones were firmly clustered. As the day went on, the crowd merged more into a giant collage of happy faces.

To begin with, there was an array of local bands and DJs that helped ease the audience into comfort with songs that served as aural Bloody Marys. Then came Radioactive Sago Project from the Philippines. All dressed in white, they shook some legs and clapped some hands. They brought funk, jazz and blues, all strung together with lyrics they had found from all over the universe.

Once the ball started rolling, it carried on a-rollin’. The crowd started to let down their hair, and threw their hands up in the air. It wasn’t until this point that we noticed, not only was the area around the stage full, but the whole of Cyberport was crawling with people having a gay old time!

Some folks relished a break from booming speakers to enjoy the creativity that came with the many short films being projected in the film tent. The 48 Hour Film Project, in which the entries had only two days to shoot their film, was a particular delight.

Almost everyone gravitated toward the stage once they realized Yacht had started. With an introduction of where they came from (Portland, Oregon) they brought on the bright lights and started what could be called bedroom dancing for musical scientists. Their eccentric, almost preacher-like singing combined with their “good feelings”  stage dancing created, for the audience, a whirlwind of unexplained excitement and a, “what’s going on? I DON’T CARE, IT’S MY TIME TO DANCE!” type of emotion. It was great.

But it wasn’t over yet. The night was to continue with a smooth Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy DJ set, which only buttered everyone up for the headlining performance that night, Blood Red Shoes. Someone decided to throw beer on them, which they didn’t like at all. Pet Conspiracy enjoyed that type of thing but it’s not for everyone. It didn’t however slow down the runaway train of fun and so back to the dancing everyone went. The show may not have been as powerful as Yacht’s performance, but they still brought forth tides of blissful listening followed by a torrent of cheers from their listeners.

And thus was Clockenflap.

As a parting gift, “Posin til Closin” played a DJ set allowing for some last minute body moving and/or chit chats on the grass. Quite a few chose the both whilst others took their loved ones or themselves home, leaving the remainders to stretch the good times for as long as they could until it was throwing out time.

- Alex Lendrum

Tags: Clockenflap
Posted in Blog