My initial thought when I bought tickets to the Yahoo! Wireless Festival 2013 at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in March was that I was buying music festival tickets to see well-known acts I could just as easily have seen in the United States. However, considering I was going to be in London, I expected a different crowd and environment. In all honesty, I was surprised how similar the environment in London was to the scene at California's most coveted music festival, Coachella. And the heat definitely made it feel more like Indio than London.
Perfectly - perfect hair
Nevertheless, it was the fashion choices and festival "feel" that surprised me. The same trends seen at California music festivals-- flower headbands, boots, vintage/inspired satchels, American flag shirts and flag bikinis, etc.-- were worn by crowds of Brits who were all there to enjoy some of the most popular music in London. If everyone was silent, I could have easily guessed I was back in California. And yet, at the same time, it was unique and not "American" at all (or at least this preconceived notion of what "American" is): the shorts were a bit shorter, the tans a little less subtle, and every girl's hair wasn't bed-head inspired, but rather, perfectly coifed.
Jay-Z
The Music and Some Cultural Revelations:
Yahoo! Wireless Festival is a 3-day music festival in London, with Sunday's show doubling as the kickoff for Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z's “Legends of the Summer” tour. On Saturday, I spent all of my time at the Main(stream) stage. The better-known acts performed here, including Earth, Wind & Fire, DJ Fresh, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Miguel, Kendrick Lamar, Rita Ora and Emeli Sandé. Jay-Z was the headliner and over 60,000 people were in attendance at the event.
Something I instantly recognized was that everyone there knew all the lyrics to the songs. In comparison to other music festivals, the main stage did not cover a myriad of genres. The crowd knew not only the Top 40 songs of these artists, but they knew the old songs and songs from new records released in the past week.
I suppose I was surprised most because in America there seems to still be a sense of race relations in music. Although rap and hip-hop culture have become increasingly more mainstream in the last fifteen to twenty years, it still maintains certain notions. Take, for example, the criticism former Disney star, Miley Cyrus, has received since releasing her single with rapper, Snoop Dogg (Lion), and focusing on a more “hip-hop” vibe. Many of the festival's artists rapped about struggle and success in the United States, and many took the time to comment on how far they had come (personally, professionally and literally) to be at the London festival, a seemingly juxtaposing location.
My take away from all of this was that I was amidst true fans who really believed in these artists. Those divisions and criticisms weren't present in London, at least not at the festival that day. I was around people who all appreciated music in the same way, and it was fantastic.
Rita Ora
My favorite act of the day was Rita Ora, who differentiated herself from the other performers through polytechnics and costume changes. Her backup dancers and singers helped to create a performance that you would expect at a typical large-scale concert.
I am glad that I attended this year’s festival as it furthered my love for music and its power to unite people. I will forever have the memory of raising my finger with the rest of the crowd as Macklemore signaled at us during his performance of “Same Love.” We may have come from all over the world and had different expectations of the day, but in that moment we were all same.