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Celebrating
its second year, Bloom seemed to suffer an awful combination
of bad weather and band cancellations.
Initially I thought: why was it moved
from last year’s location Dyrham Park? Located
on the top of a hill, the new site was basically one
massive wind tunnel, and this, coupled with the rocky
ground which made it nigh on impossible to push your
tent pegs in properly, meant the campsite was littered
with dead tents and gazebos by the end of the weekend.
The atmosphere was quite strange due to the heavy-handed
security, they seemed to make the place something of
a ghost town in the day time, with many acts playing
to one man and his dog. Even worse, after midnight the
volume levels were extremely low which led you to dance
away to a bass-less…almost background noise. A
big plus side, however, was the surprising numbers of
punters who braved Saturday’s rain and wind in
fancy dress.
Despite rumours that the Stereo Mc’s had cancelled,
the Stereos turned up and provided the highlight of
the weekend. You possibly have to be of a certain age
to enjoy their baggy era hip hop, but ‘Connected’
is so familiar, even after all these years…New
tune ‘Get On It’ displayed a tougher, housier
edge, while ‘Deep Down And Dirty’ and ‘Step
It Up’ scored big on the nostalgia front.
The beatbox champion that is Beardyman drew a huge crowd
to the Beat Bubble on Sunday night, and the hairy one
man band didn’t disappoint with an unassisted
performance that was nevertheless akin to an MC, a comedian
and a live PA all rolled into one. His truly eclectic
performance took in ‘covers’ from bands
such as Faithless, though the highlights were a mass
sing-a-long to Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’
on a Prayer’ and a self-penned epic odyssey about
cheese.
All in all great efforts from Franc and
Olivia despite all that was against them… and
yes we will be returning next year!!
Written by Berni Adamic |
