As the sun rose over Hyde Park on Friday 5^th July it saw in the dawn of not just a new festival, but the transformation from what had become a tired live event venue, to one of colour and charm with a carnival atmosphere.

AEG Live should be complemented on their attention to detail, 2 bars of over 100m, plenty of tables, food vendors of the highest quality. Then there were the 5 stages:

The Great Oak Stage (Main Stage), as the name would suggest had the look of an oak tree with wrap around video projections which could probably be seen from Marble Arch;
The Unwind Theatre had the feel of an old school saloon bar, and allowed you to ‘get up close and personal’ with the bands;
The Village Hall  An Open space for bands to introduce you to their music.
The Bandstand – exactly what is says on the tin with great sound quality.
The Carnival Area hosted by The Cuban Brothers who played a DJ set from the balcony from Little Havana as well as entertaining the crowds below. 

James Walsh opened on The Great Oak Stage with a lazy sunny afternoon rendition of ‘Here Comes The Sun’ a more appropriate song would be hard to imagine, this was well received by an ever increasing crowd. His set included a number of classic Starsailor tracks including ‘Silence is Easy’ and 'Alcoholic'. 

The Kaiser Cheifs once again proved that they are a great festival band, in fine form milking the crowd at every opportunity. Their set lasted the best part of an hour and included ‘I Predict A Riot’, ‘Every Day I Love You Less And Less’, ‘Na Na Na Na Na’ plus a rousing rendition of ‘The Angry Mob’. In between the acts on the main stage, the Carnival area came alive with Brazilian dancers and a carnival procession.

In the Unwind Theatre The Futureheads performed to an enthusiastic crowd, along with the occasional joke. ‘The Old Dun Cow’ an acapella track went down a storm with full crowd participation, albeit that most people could only remember one word from the chorus Macintyre. Their set came to an end all too quickly but not before a marvellous rendition of ‘Hounds of Love’.

Within a couple of minutes Bon Jovi were on The Great Oak Stage, with a great cover of ‘Rocking All Over The World’ and the crowd of over 50,000 singing along. Their set was a full of all the hits plus a couple of tracks from the latest album ‘What About Now’. The loss of lead guitarist Ritchie Sambora who recently pulled out of live performances did not affect the quality of the performance as stand in Phil X was excellent. During ‘Bad Medicine’ they slipped in a couple of covers of Roy Orbison’s ‘Pretty Women’ and The Doors ‘Roadhouse Blues’.

Their first encore included ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’, ‘Have A Nice Day’ and ‘Livin On A Prayer’. During the encore Jon Bon Jovi reflected that 10 years ago they chose to play Hyde Park because The Rolling Stones had played there in 1969, and now he felt he was opening for them.

The final encore included ‘Always’ with the crowd swaying to and fro, the set ended with ‘Blood on Blood’. Everyone in the crowd looked happy and tired as it seemed that they had given as much as the band during the 2 hours 40 minutes that they were on stage.

On leaving the festival we popped into the toilets, only to find them as clean as the moment we arrived. The 1^st Day of Barclaycard British Summertime had proved to be a success at every level, music, facilities, audience, customer services (yes you asked a question and you were given the correct answer). Ironically the only issue was the main sponsor’s contactless system not working for the first couple of hours. The festival runs until the Sunday 14^th July and it’s one to enjoy while he sun continues to shine.

A premiere event, in a premiere location, with first class facilities.

Barclaycard British Summer Time 2013 takes place at Hyde Park, Park Lane, London. Line up and further details here.