If you’re in the 15-25 age category and pay attention to social media and popular music – it was almost impossible to miss any mention of Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Glasgow, over the past few days.
As students living in Glasgow, my flatmate and I were lucky enough to wake up early one morning and bag ourselves some tickets for the Friday and Saturday shows. Our final term at university has been building up to what looked set to be an exciting post-exams celebration – we were not let down. Thankfully, the whole event turned out to be a great two days of live music, dancing, drinking and relaxing – albeit under a slightly overcast sky.
Friday night began with sets from BBC Radio 1 DJs and finished with music from Martin Garrix and Tiesto. George Square, in the city centre, proved the perfect space to host the night – creating a good street party buzz as we entered. Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of this type of music so I was not expecting anything too special. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how much the crowd’s energy rubbed off on me. They say there is no crowd quite like a Glasgow crowd – and Friday night definitely proved that! Towards the end of the night the Glasgow Chambers of Commerce building became the centre of an impressive light show and firework display to celebrate the kicking off of Big Weekend 2014.
However, after recovering from Friday night’s antics we then had all of Saturday ahead of us. Saturday was the day of big performers. Having arrived at midday I ended up having to buy a lanyard with the program attached so that we could work out who to see when and we didn’t miss anyone! The day started with One Direction and while they were the only band I heard booed all day I think a lot of people were secretly pleased that they were there. There was the main stage which had the big acts and a smaller tent for other performers called ‘In New Music We Trust.’ My flatmate and I split our time between both places and managed to see The Kooks and Lorde on the smaller stage and all the performers on the main stage, including; Bastille, Pharrell, Lily Allen, Ed Sheeran and finally the headline act – Coldplay.
As a big music fan I’m usually happy to listen to any style of music/performer. However, to many of my friend’s dismay I am not really a Coldplay fan and was pretty disappointed to see they were headlining. They were actually good live and I’m pretty content when I can listen to any live music I know the words to – so it was all good! Coldplay were also probably the best band of the day to end the night because of the songs they played like ‘Yellow’, ‘Fix You’ etc and, of course, their popularity helped. My favourite surprise performers of the day were Pharrell and Calvin Harris. With both artists I am familiar with their most famous songs but thought I would be left not knowing a lot of what they played – I was wrong. Pharrell did a brilliant and entertaining set of his best songs – including (much to my amusement!) – his version of Gwen Stefani’s ‘Hollaback Girl.’
Calvin Harris was another experience altogether. I’d been warned by one of my Scottish friends that a Calvin Harris crowd is crazy…she was right! The excitement building up to him coming on stage was clear from the increasing number of people pushing to the front barriers to see him. It really didn’t matter where you were in the crowd because the dancing and energy spread like a Mexican wave. Luckily for us it rained during his set so we weren’t completely overcome by dehydration from dancing non-stop. He played all his classic songs and just when we thought we couldn’t jump up and down anymore – he’d play another favourite and the crowd were loving it!
In terms of the music I most liked my favourites of the day were Lily Allen and Jake Bugg. I’ve been a Lily Allen fan since I was about 12 and having seen her in concert before meant I was eagerly anticipating her comeback performance. She chose to play some old hits such as ‘Smile’ and ‘Not Fair’ but I was really impressed with the tracks from her new album ‘Sheezus’ – which, out of pure excitement, I proceeded to sing along to in a unintentional cockney accent. Jake Bugg could not really compete with the others for crowd entertainment value. However, having not really listened to him much before I really liked his songs and hearing his unique voice sing them live. I heard a girl next to me refer to him and his music as “boring” but I think it was more the fact that his music and style of performing would have suited the smaller stage and a more intimate crowd.
Big Weekend was over with in a flash but that is just testament to the fact that I enjoyed it so much. There were lots of other friends I knew who were attending and the collective excitement of everyone was what made the day. In order to try and get up close and see as many of the acts as possible I don’t think we really got a chance to properly eat and drink – let alone sit back and relax! When I think about everyone I saw over the Friday and Saturday I know how much it could have cost me going to a festival or paying for all the individual concerts and therefore Big Weekend is a real student budget life-saver! The opportunity is unlikely to come around for me again but I was lucky enough that it all happened here in the first place. Overall, a great weekend and the perfect end to my second year at university. The only downside was that I missed out on Sunday tickets and didn’t get to see Paolo Nutini – but I’m not complaining…honest!
curlywrites 