08/07/2017
Strawberries & Creem has grown rapidly over the last few years. Started off by a group of university friends, it returned for the fourth instalment. The music festival is a celebration of grime, rap, hip hop and everything in between and is one of very few of its kind, the choice of doing it in a very middle-class Cambridgeshire countryside was very much a conscious choice. No shits given.
Music festivals are generally in the middle of nowhere, so we ALWAYS drive – we rolled in smoothly without any queues, air-con on to the max to cool off the sweat from the blazing sun. Scorchiooo - it was hot, in fact the hottest day of the year! What a day for a music festival.
We were unsure what kind of crowd this festival was going to attract, in our minds it was a mixture of shirtless wannabe Johnny Bravo’s and overly-excitable glitter covered students, there was this – naturally, we were all there once right...? just me then. Jokes aside, the crowd was a real mix - attracting people from the surrounding shires and London - we even met someone from Newcastle. Commitment.
There were 3 stages with a tirade of heavy basslines and catchy beats throughout the day. Just after we got our fill of nostalgic garage anthems in the tented stage, we headed over to the main stage where Gentleman’s Dub Club were getting the crowd moving and shaking with their energetic dub beats, perfect summer music – although, getting lost in the music we forgot it was in fact 30+ degrees and we really needed some shade. With loads of space to relax around the grounds away from the hustle and bustle, this wasn’t difficult.
As we heard the unmistakeable blend of hip hop, afrobeat and rap – we gravitated towards the main stage. With his name in huge writing up behind him – J Hus hit the crowd with a selection of crowd pleasers ‘came in a black benz, left in a white one’ being screamed out loud. Us included.
Hyped, the crowd were ready for the West London trailblazer, AJ Tracey. The rising underground MC has developed quite a following over the past few years and there was a huge sense of anticipation. Coming on stage with the swag and energy, he sent the crowd into a frenzy throughout the set with Thiago Silva sending the crowd BUCK WILD.
Just before Shaggy’s set, we managed to have a chat with Wiley. Was nice to see him turn up early and spend some time with the fans, Shaggy on the other hand was late. To be honest, it didn’t really matter as the set was top draw – we never did find out who it was though...honestly, it wasn’t me.
After Shaggy made a quick getaway, it was time for the godfather of grime. Now, there’s a lot of talk (and t-shirts) of Wiley being synonymous with not turning up for music festivals ‘Where’s Wiley’ in the style of ‘Where’s Wally’ was our favourite. We were subject to his absence last year, so we were glad to see he turned up.
His set was powerful. Starting off with ‘Wearing My Rolex’ followed by ‘Heatwave’ he mixed in some of his old tracks, as well as some fresh tracks on his new album ‘Godfather’. You could tell the crowd had been building to this performance. Everyone seemed to know all the words too, the rise of grime is real.
There aren’t many music festivals like this, and we can easily see how it’s continued to grow and grow over the last few years - there’s no doubt that we’ll be there next year. Our advice would be to get your tickets early; this will be a sell out next year.
