Birmingham MADE Festival - Review

MADE Festival Birmingham 25th July 2015

A few days ago me and a friend who goes by the name of TSwiftBagMoneyStacker (if you know you know) hit MADE (Metroplolitan Arts & Dance Event), at the Digbeth Triangle in land of the Brummies.

Shout out the good people from 'I'm In', I managed to get two tickets for free just by spinning a wheel of fortune knock-off within the app, they would have been around £40 each otherwise, that of which I wouldn't have been able to afford being a broke student, so I was pretty happy with my £80 total of free shit.

I booked a cheap and dingy hotel to crash in after the event, which was in a pretty grotty area to say the least. Within 2 minutes of being there I had two greasy looking fuckers ask me for some Rizla. All signs pointed to the fact 'Cheapside' in Birmingham definitely lived up to it's name. But realistically I didn't care about the hotel, I just wanted to vibe in the sun to some reggae and bass heavy tunes, so the mould growing on the hotel room shower head didn't really bother me...

We dumped all our stuff in the room and walked down the street, following the repetitive house-like bassline in the distance coming from the festival. Upon arrival we were told we weren't allowed to take in a side bag for some unknown reason (you know the ones you see people dishing out dusty bags of ketamine from inside the rave) but I'm not a dickhead and selling K isn't my intention. A random security guard said we could leave our bags in his car until the festival was over, but I didn't really fancy my stuff getting stolen by some crooked bouncer, so we had to trek alllllll the way back to our room to return the fucking bags, pretty long but still all is well.

Finally back at the gates, we were ushered into the small queue and headed in to get searched and what not. I eventually entered the festival (now without my friend Mary Jane...) but whatever, it was a nice day and the vibes were already pretty lively for 3pm in the afternoon.

The venue itself was really quite sweet, it was underneath a bridge, fully concreted and provided a massive open space big enough for everyone to have their own room to float around in.  Including the Huarache wearing, MKat sniffing house shuffling sheep. Fuck all that. I really don't like house music, or the stereotype that 90% of it's fans very accurately meet. Luckily this was just one stage out of five, and to be honest even the house shufflers aren't bad people at all, they just act like "House Every Weekend" should undeniably be the national anthem for our country.

You look fucking stupid, and that bandanna around your head makes you look like you're trying waaaaay too hard. Each to their own, but that's not for me. 

Annoying people aside, the venue itself was perfect for this type of event. The walls were covered in decent graffiti (not the typical 'Donski was 'ere' type shit you see tagged on the bins behind dirty fast food places) but actual thought out, talented pieces of art. There was multiple bars dotted around the place, although £2.50 for a bottle of water and £4.50 for a Red Stripe was a bit excessive...

Moving through the flock of sheep, we went straight to the Heavybass Champions stage, which is where we spent the majority of the day. We just caught the end of Tom Shorterz set (I can't lie I hadn't even heard of him) but he was putting out some decent music that seemed to make everyone happy, I mean who doesn't like Bob Marley.

Just as he finished I went to tie my shoelace, and wouldn't you know I found £40 on the ground! That was evidently a sign from the heavens. And considering the system tried to hold me down, fucking me over and removing a harmless plant from my possession thanks to some sniffer dogs, karma was definitely on my side.

Next up was the boss Sir David Rodigan. This guy is nothing other than a legend. He's been in the scene pretty much forever, and is a pioneer for reggae, jungle, bashment and every other form of music that I genuinely love. No doubt his set was one of the best of the day. He has a ridiculous amount of exclusive dub-plates that only he can play, so it was a special set no one else could really match. 

Check a massive dubplate set of his here

I won't go in detail with all the acts as this will end up being a 5 page review. But after David Rodigan, Beardyman stepped on stage to perform some absolutely INCREDIBLE beatboxing, as well as hosting his 'Bass Battle'. The DJ's were given 7 minutes to throw down the dirtiest, biggest face screwing, bass soaked songs they could. It was simply insane. Bass is such a great aspect of music, and to hear a constant battle of the bass made my day. 

A few fairly good acts later, the guys from Kurupt FM, who are behind the BBC's comedy show 'People Just Do Nothing' bounced onto stage. Bringing together old-school garage, drum and bass and jungle, topped by their trademark hilarious lyrics they put a massively entertaining set that had everyone at the stage jamming around and laughing. VIBES. The way they all stay in character so well throughout their set is awesome, they're certainly a unique act.

In all honesty, after Kurupt FM my day became a bit of a blur, but that's simply a sign of a successful day out. Friction and Wilkinson both did a good job, but the drum and bass they drop is slightly timid for me. I'm sorry but 'Afterglow' doesn't quite cut it, not that it's a bad song it's just a bit.... meh.

Anyway, overall, MADE Festival was a solid day out, full of good vibes, happy people and some seriously satisfying music. I recommend it to anyone that's into electronic music, reggae and erm... house I guess. Peace.