After last weeks 40th Anniversary of Hard Rock Calling Hyde Park was ready and waiting for The Barclaycard Wireless Festival 2011.

The weather held out for the 3 day event which make’s a great difference. After being at the inaugural Wireless a few things have changed but they seem to have got the balance of stages, amenities, the all round festival about right. The Beer garden with table service instead of queuing was very popular, plus the extra cash machines came in handy! The mojito’s went down a treat.

The bandstand in the Serpentine Bar and beer garden were hosts to Smiler, Time Takers and 5 other bands entertaining the crowds as they sipped on their drinks and all the bands performing were of a high quality.

The Barclaycard Unwind stage was opposite the main stage and had artists including Chipmunk and Wretch 32 to name but a few.

Outside the Pepsi Max Stage was a video screen facing the beer garden so for those who did not want to venture in the tent (sometimes packed to capacity) you could watch the bands from outside. 

Labrinth performed in the Pepsi Max tent pulling in a large crowd and was wearing a very colourful outfit. The set was finished with the hit Let the Sunshine, very apt and very popular.

On the main stage Bruno Mars showed us his vocals are spot on delivering a string of his hits from the last year.

David Guetta over filled the Pepsi Max Stage and could easily have played the main stage although he perfectly suited the atmosphere of being in the tent. Hits played included When Love Takes Over, Love Is Gone, Memories and I Gotta Feeling (remix).   With the lighting backdrops, Robots shooting out flares and a guest appearance from Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas the standard for the evening had been set and everyone was on their feet dancing  in Hyde Park.

The Black Eyed Peas hit the stage and were straight into their hits including Rock That Body and Meet Me Halfway.   Fergie sang a couple of covers and Will.i.am gave us a DJ set which include all the favourite songs you would want to sing and dance along to. 

To close the set they played Boom Boom Pow, for the encore they played out with The Time (Dirty Bit) and the I Gotta Feeling with David Guetta joining them on stage. A Thoroughly enjoyable evening leaving us excited for the next day.

After Friday we bounced back into Hyde Park looking forward to another day with high expectations.  The beer garden was well and truly over subscribed the bandstand having a good sized crowd for most of the day with acts including Luke Bingham, True Tigers and Starboy Nathan.

The Barclaycard Unwind stage seemed to be brimming to capacity most of the day. Getting proceedings underway was Her Majesty and The Wolves whose debut album comes out on 11th July and who later strolled through the arena and posed for pictures with fans.

Next up was Devlin who seems to be gaining in popularity and confidence. He asked the crowd if they liked Ed Sheeran the man of the moment, everyone gave a big yes and he promptly appeared on stage.  They did a duet which was one of the highlights of the day that along with two members of the crowd rapping along dressed as Tigger and Eeyore.

The Streets were on the main stage with Mike Skinner making anecdotes in-between songs saying how he was going to enjoy the rest of the day along with some interesting shots of the crowd on the video screen!   A highlight of the performance was Robert Harvey from The Music singing and playing guitar along side them.   As a big The Music fan I felt extremely humbled to see him perform (especially after hearing that Ghost Hands would be the final song of their career, released in April).

Chase and Status hit the stage and treated us to some dubstep, drum’n’bass and various mixes. Joining them on stage were numerous artists including the lovely voice that belongs to Liam Bailey.   Everyone was on their feet enjoying themselves, the atmosphere growing in excitement throughout the night.

I was advised James Holroyd (DJ) was one to watch and he had the whole crowd on their feet. There was hardly a gap before The Chemical Brothers arrived on stage with the light show and videos that epitomise their performances. With a back catalogue of dance classics including Do It Again, Hey Boy Hey Girl, Out of Control, Galvanize, Block Rocking Beats, 75 minutes flew by. They really are the icing on the cake as a festival headliner.

Once again Wireless was a big success and now a firm regular on the Festival calendar.