After the single day of upbeat electronic dance in 2012 Eastern Electrics promised to go bigger, better, longer and louder than ever before….

Did they keep their promise?

Affirmative review readers with a massive 42 hours over 3 days with a Saturday and Sunday morning 6am finish. Pure House, Trance, Techno and Dance music shaking the normally idyllic Knebworth House Grounds with some of the best DJ’s around. 

Normal onslaughts of traffic for previous events that included the likes of Robbie Williams, Oasis and Pink Floyd seemed pretty contained from start to finish. With the closure of A1M junction 7 entrance north and exit south allowing exit traffic out north from the grounds and come in from either the south or through the signposted and bollarded Stevenage town. When Entering drop off points were clearly signposted and buses back to the station were laid on. What more do you want but a 10 minute nap on the way home on a coach full of sweaty raver’s.

Embarking onto the lovely countryside you see a clear ray of sunshine gleaming over a sea of brightly coloured tents and tippees for the all weekenders that chose to stay. Sounds peaceful, but when you get through the yellow colours of the security and police sniffer dogs everything changes to organised bass, carnage and happy ravers…

As you pass the metal railing sections the festival starts with multiple dance tents, bars and food stalls (not forgetting the statutory phone charging booth). If you were VIP a short 5 minute walk to the other end took you in to a well enclosed Bedouin tent area with a constant flow of decent what I would describe as daytime happy house music that you could bounce to but not two step too. Due to the buzz in the main arena I never experienced the evening in the VIP but don’t feel I missed out with so much variation and flow of happy vibes throughout the event. All though I did kind a miss the VIP toilets with the nice marble surfaces, fresh toilet roll and a proper flush… 

Now the bit everyone has paid their money for…. The music… With some well known artists I would like to mention just a couple that made the weekend for me – Hot Natured (live) had the Eastern Electrics Stage overflowing with some hard pumping house, word on the street is Richie Hawtin finished the Main Stage with a bang. Krankbrothers stage was going off on the Saturday, then my favourite part of the weekend with a bit less boom and a bit more bounce on the Sunday MK… Take a bow… His fine choice of tunes and mixing had the tent overflowing with shapes and finger points… Masters At Work who literally were Masters At Work with everyone warmed up and enjoying the fine tunes and sunshine, no one wanted to leave their set….It would not be fair not to mention Ibiza’S DC10 resident DJ - Dyed Soundoroms epic performance to give your whole body a tingle…

It would be criminal not to mention the junkyard feel of the switchyard stage, a cleverly boxed in unit of shipping containers creating an almost Battersea Power station feel. The constant queue meant was a must with some fine DJ performances including Elrow who handed over to Dirtybird to create a real outside old school rave feel

The Igloovision Dome which looked fit for an Eskimo form the outside but worthy of any festival reveller who needed to get warm with a hard fast foot squiggle and elbow bounce… The graphics that were projected onto the inner ceiling were almost unbelievable with the likes of Laura Jones pumping some happy sounds and Sydney Charles with a hardcore bass performance.

Finally the sub station that opened late had a good crowd running for the front when Crosstown Rebels stage decided opened with Jozif to tickle your ears with some sexy happy house followed by the likes of Infinity Ink and Sasha to keep the tempo high. 

To finalise any criticism and praise, the event was a success from a punters point of view with the usual bit of mess and bad smell around the normal toilets (all though I see cleaner’s topping up the toilet roll at 1am Saturday night). The atmosphere and staff that surrounded the event were all good as gold including the security who didn’t think they were plastic policemen. The food was a little pricey but usual for a festival of this calibre. Nobody complained at paying less than a fiver for a beer. The fun fair and photo booths seemed to be attracting all sorts throughout the event and kept people amused whether using them or just spectating and finally the music if you wanted to listen to a variation of hard, choppy out there for every ear dance sound then you was in the right place….

Review: Wayne Monaghan. Photo credit :Marc Sethi.