We arrived on Friday evening and headed to the hotel to check in, we were staying a little out on the centre of town, but a walk away from the site, the lovely Westerpark.
After a couple hours down time, we headed to the old gas works:
Our first act of the day was Leif, I then headed into one of the bigger stages for Mulatu Astatke who was playing with a large band and suitably impressive.
We danced along to a spot of Rustie before sampling some of Mykki Blanco's warm up acts - one was a mermaid-esq dancer who mesmerised the crowd with her/his laser lights, I couldn't help thinking that it might not work in London but in the friendlier, more open climes of Amsterdam, no one batted an eyelid. I only managed to see one of Mykki Blanco's songs before I headed over to the festival's biggest stage to see James Blake. It had been a while since I'd seen him, I was reminded of why I got into him. Excellent set. Afterwards, I rejoined my group and we got hyped for Jon Hopkins who quickly became my festival highlight. We mucked around till it was time for Cyril Hahn but he couldn't quite keep my attention so we wandered home.
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| James Blake |
Saturday - we jumped in a taxi to town and had a wander around the canals and Begijnhof before having a drink on the riverside, a drink at the cavernous Gollem and a quick stop at a cafe. We headed back to the festival site for round two. We spent a little more time by the reedy waterside drinking 0.2l beers and eating falafels and frites but still managed to check out the Syrian don that is Omar Souleyman and Bonobo who were playing as a 5 (?) piece band. I had a mild freak out after Bonobo whilst having a smoke, and had to sit in the shade for a while (I was dressed for less hot weather), luckily after chilling for 10 minutes, I was good and ready to dance to AlunaGeorge, Lukid, Disclosure, Bicep and Cashmere Cat. We had become restless towards the end of Bicep and Cashmere Cat so we decided to leave before Bashmore and spent our last tokens on more frites, a wise choice you might say. We walked home excitedly, running around picnic tables and posing with an array of bicycle carts.
I noticed that there seemed to be a shortage of lighters at the festival, quite surprising for the location. And that sports luxe was big on the scene in Amsterdam
Sunday - it was the day of the Wimbledon final so we hit up a sports bar (Euro Pub) in Dam Square, ie. it was a little dodgy but the only sports bar our hotel knew about. We hadn't managed to watch any tennis before it was time to head to the airport. Beers in the sun wasn't a bad consolation though. Murray won the match whilst we were in the air.
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