Wet, yet wonderful

With Love Saves The Day being one of our favourite festivals of the previous year, we were hyped to see what 2022 would bring. In its new location in Ashton Court, Bristol, we were expecting more of the same – top quality music, huge stages and amazing people.

The walk to the festival from the taxi drop-off point was very long, but it gave us a chance to chat to the fellow festival goers. All over-excited and colourful, ready and raring to go to their first festival of the year.

Entrance to the festival was fairly smooth, and at the level you’d expect for a festival of this size. The site this year seemed bigger, but with the same close-knit feel we’ve come to know and love. The epic stages were in full view, with the Centre Stage standing tall above the others. The music reverberated around the grounds, and we were getting drawn from one end of the festival to the other ending up at Shy FX, playing on the Love Saves stage. We all grew up on drum ‘n’ bass, so this was a great bit of nostalgia for us!

After this, the rain came in. And not just some, downpours. Luckily we were found a tented area, but for 1000’s of festival goers it was not the Friday they wanted, or expected. There were many that braved the rain, or found some shelter until it blew over. This lasted for a couple of hours, and meant real difficulty getting around the site (without falling over…) and the cancellation of some artists.

Despite the rain, the music still continued, and the good times were being had. If you’ve been in a downpour at a festival before, you’ll know that it creates this feeling of community and togetherness. The sun’s so over-rated anyway, right…?
As the skies started to clear, we made our way over to the Love Saves stage to see Casisdead, who I’ve been wanting to see for AGES. Under slippery conditions, the dancing was kept to a bop, but the enjoyment was there all the same! Hearing ‘Pat Earrings’ live almost made up for the severe downpour.

We then headed over to our favourite stage, Brouhaha, to see Gorgon City. An artist marked down as MUST-SEE in our itinerary. The stage was packed, and the crowd was even more hyped having battled through the weather. There were some very muddy people, mostly due to the ‘mud-diving’ competition that was in full flow. It’ll come as no surprise that I left them all to it.

The stage, decorated like an Aztec temple, comprised of colourful dancers and huge smoke machines which hugely added to an already excellent set. The crowd (including myself) went ballistic when ‘Ready For Your Love’ came on.

 

As the sun-set on the festival, the lights wonderfully illuminated the site. By now, many had unfortunately left due to the adverse weather conditions, but for those that were left (and there were still A LOT) they were treated to a superb end to the festival.

As we made our way to the Lonely Hearts Club stage, we couldn’t help but see a bit of Palms Trax at the Paradiso stage. Revamped from 2021, the stage was a great venue for these funky, electro beats. Now though, it was the moment we’d been waiting for. It was time to see Mura Masa! And boy, they lived up to our expectations.

Playing a mixture of their repertoire, we were treated to a fantastic show. We were still slipping and sliding in the mud attempting to dance, but this somehow added to the experience. Finishing the set with ‘Firefly’ and ‘Lovesick’ the day of rain was very much forgiven and forgotten.