Reviewed: Boundary Festival 2019

Saturday 28th September marked the date for Boundary Festival 2019 in Brighton. Nestled between the University of Sussex and University of Brighton’s student accommodation on the South Downs of Sussex, the location was also a stone’s throw from the Amex Stadium; home to Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club. This was their 4th outing with the last three years of the festival having been hailed as a thriving success…this year was no exception.

Headlining the ‘SuperCharged’ Main Stage on the day, were the infamous Chase & Status, with support from Andy C, Wilkinson, My Nu Leng, Dread MC, Holy Goof, Ms Banks, Jaguar Skills, Frankie Stew & Harvey Gunn, and of course the SuperCharged Residents. Bringing a line-up to rival the main-stage, ‘The Arch’ Big Top House Tent was set to be headlined by the legendary duo CamelPhat. Supporting the duo would be Alan Fitzpatrick, Sonny Fodera, Detlef, Danny Howard, Mason Maynard, Meduza, Ku De Ta, Maklipz, and Olliver Sturdy.

First impressions seemed good, as a steady stream of people made their way through the woodland to the site: entry was organized and efficient, and the clouds above seemed to be holding off as best they could. Upon entering the site, the house stage was already packed to the back, with Alan Fitzpatrick doing what he does best. As we got closer to the tent I could hear Fitzpatrick doing a perfect blend between a remix of ‘Joys’ by Roberto Surace, into the extremely popular ‘Put A Record On’ by Matt Sassari. The crowd absolutely loved it!

Keen to get straight into the action we headed into the main arena where Jaguar Skills had just started his set. This turntable ninja is well known for his high energy, in your face bass, and more than anything else, entertaining DJ sets. Living up to his reputation, the crowd was witness to some absolute classics, mixed perfectly into some bone-crunching drum and bass – the energy was huge! Towards the end of the set, the sound started to cut out and this continued to happen on a number of occasions. This unfortunately caused Jaguar Skills to retire a few minutes earlier than planned, but this had been an electric start to the festivities!

Continuing on at the main stage, the sets that followed were nothing short of mammoth that afternoon. Highlights for myself were hearing Andy C play out Distress Signal’s new release ‘Horizon’, and Wilkinson pull through with ‘Desire’ by Sub Focus.

Keen not to miss out on the action happening over at the house stage, we kept popping our heads over to catch a few glimpses of the warm up acts before finishing the night with the house headliner. Highlights from the warm up acts were witnessing Detlef’s ‘Music Please’ bring the entire house stage into a unison of chant, and also hearing Danny Howards new single ‘Need’ which features the vocals of Alex Mills.

By the time it came to the headline slots, the rain had been falling for a few hours. Despite this, due to the whole festival being located under the big high-tops, performances went on with no issue at all. Spirits were high and all sound issues that had previously been a problem in the earlier part of the day, seemed to have been fixed.

Opting to finish Boundary Festival 2019 with CamelPhat in the house tent, the stage was bursting at the seams as thousands tried to catch a glimpse of the duo working their magic. Combining some of their originals such as ‘Breathe’ featuring Jem Cooke, with some blissful remixes, like Cristoph’s recent remake of ‘Sweet Deposition’, this was a beautiful set to end the festival, and brought nothing but smiles to those around the arena. It was safe to say that Boundary had smashed it for yet another year, and that the festival is clearly continuing to go from strength to strength. I look forward to seeing what lineup appears on the books for next year, and I can predict with some confidence that this festival is going to continue to expand and grow into something even more spectacular than it is today.

Thanks to Boundary Festival 2019 I had a blast and I look forward to seeing what 2020 brings along!