We continued our 20 Years Of Phonica anniversary tour at the beautiful We Out Here festival in Dorset.
We were given the honour of hosting the Rhythm Corner stage for the whole duration of the opening day of the festival on Thursday. The sun turned up for the occasion and beamed down on the festival site just in time for the gates to open and the wonderfully diverse and family friend crowd to shake their hips to the excellently curated lineup that we had on offer across the day!
Phonica residents Nick Williams & Kieran Jandu got the ball rolling and warmed up the weighty and impressive soundsystem that was engineered by RSH Audio. The turntable setup was on point, something we find rare to come by in most live settings these days, so a big thank you to all the sound engineers who’s hard work definitely showed through the system and the deck setup. Next up Phonica alumni Ariane V stepped up and played an eclectic selection of records, gracefully upping the tempo of the groove and drawing in the freshly faced dancers who acquainted themselves with the new festival layout at the Dorset location. System Olympia then played a new hybrid DJ / Keys set and as the sunshine continued to beat down on the stage the vibes & the musical selection couldn’t have been more on point.
Next up, a late addition to the lineup, Yaw Evans jumped on deck. The uniquely talented UKG producer, known for his modular production of 2 steppers on labels such as GD4YA, got behind the steering wheel of the Rhythm Corner and gave the crowd a masterclass in all things garage… the energy in the air was somewhat unbelievable and as the bass from the subs resonated with force around the Rhythm Corner, smiles of euphoria were on display across the whole crowd.
Last but certainly not least our headliner arrived, with a couple of record bags packed to the brim with high octane rave and breakbeat wax, you could feel the excitement in the air as the first record was placed on the left hand side 1210 and Eris Drew cued up her first selection. From the get go the T4T LUV NRG label head showed why she is truly one of the most talented selectors in the scene at the moment. Effortlessly blending tracks into each other as if they were meant to be played together whilst the sun was setting and day became night. The crowd was somewhat in awe at this closing set and we couldn’t have thought of a better way to close out the opening day and put the cherry on top of the cake at our 20 years of Phonica stage.
We’d like to thank everybody involved who helped make this day possible, there are too many too mention name by name but some standouts are – Gilles Peterson, Noah Ball, RSH Audio, Dan Proxy, Mikey Rhymes & the whole artist liaison team at WOH who made the day run so smoothly.
