Review – David Rodigan headlines Outlook Festival Launch Party

After months of waiting impatiently for festival season to begin, finally we kicked off a summer of sunshine, smelly tents and great music at the Outlook Festival Launch Party held in Norwich at the weekend. A huge coup for the city, organisers of the regular reggae and bass nights across Norwich were given the chance to host the event, with the one-and-only David Rodigan set to headline. Put simply, the event was a huge success with a great turnout and perfectly captured the spirit of the Croatian festival with everyone in the festival and holiday mood after a day in the sunshine. Taking over one of Norwich’s newest clubs, and giving me the opportunity to check out Wonderland for the first time, it was a perfect venue for such an event, with two huge rooms dedicated to a collection of incredible local talent pitted against top UK DJs.

After seeing Rodigan live at Secret garden Party and Hideout Festival last summer, within the space of a few weeks I went from having never heard of him to a massive fan – his sets are amazing for those who haven’t seen him –  perfect for summer festivals or lazing around in the sunshine. The whole venue was buzzing with excitement as we waited for the DJ to take to the stage as crowds flooded through the doors and between the two rooms. In the second room there was plenty to keep you dancing as T>I and Tango & Ratty took over with some serious jungle/drum & bass beats and a fire-dancer.

Another DJ I was just dying to see live and have done ever since catching his remix of Rudimental (see above) is Phaeleh (pronounced Fella). He’s an incredibly talented DJ with a totally fresh sound and I love his music, which I have seen described as “cinematic electronica, but his roots are in dubstep, garage and house” – I have no idea what that means but I know I like it! His set was just magical, and all my friends who had never heard of him were all impressed – I was just over the moon to have finally seen him live and so close to home. His set was perfect right before Rodigan’s – chilled us all out right before we kicked off the dancing again for the reggae master.This is the only good picture I managed to get from the night – the others are just a touch too blurry thanks to my awful dancing. Rodigan smashed on to the stage and the whole room went wild, his set was incredible as usual – I would expect nothing less – and played all of our favourites with plenty of “Pull upppps”. I can’t describe my happiness when he cracked out My Boy Lollipop – always puts a huge smile on my face and I love it when everyone starts singing along. The crowd was filled with all ages, and everyone was singing and dancing along. I go out in Norwich quite a lot and I have to say this was the happiest and most chilled out event I have seen there yet. After such an amazing night – I just wish I was going to Outlook Festival to see the full line-up in action! I’ll definitely be looking out for further Bassjam events in Norwich. Organisers BassJam said: “Wow what a night!! Was an absolute honour having David ‘Ram Jam’ Rodigan bless the decks, sick sets all round too!! Big love to each and every person in the dance!!”