Sunfall
Brockwell Park
12 AUGUST 2017
Around £70.00
Created by the teams behind XOYO (Old Street), The Nest (Dalston) and Phonox (Brixton) as well as Outlook and Dimensions festivals (Croatia), Sunfall is a new all-day and night party based in the heart of South London.
The day is held in Brockwell Park, Brixton, and is much like any of your other festivals outside of the big smoke, in fact, you can hardly tell you're in a city at all. Celebrating sounds such as jazz, electronica, hip hop, dubstep, techno, soul, drum & bass and disco, Sunfall really does cater for a plethora of music tastes. The festival has a main stage which is outside, as well as 3 large tents labelled 'West', 'North' and 'East' (easy enough...)
Sunfall is only in its second year, last year's reviews were golden - raving about the 'good vibes' and 'brilliant sound quality'. However, there was some criticism around queuing and the lack of toilet facilities. For some bizarre reason, the organisers of Sunfall decided to put headliner, Giles Peterson, on at 12:30 - opening the Main Stage as well as the whole festival. If this was a secret ploy to get people there on time, then it worked for me, although I can't say the same for everyone else as there were only around 100 people there when I arrived.
Queueing wasn't an issue this early and we pretty much walked straight in, apart from a very thorough body search. The staff were informative and friendly which gave a nice initial feeling to the place. The festival itself is small but has plenty of room for everyone to fit and get along with things comfortably. There are numerous places to sit and have a chill, a total of 3 bars and a fairly extensive choice of food options. We went for a pizza which was around £9 and pretty small... there were some better options available but pizza seemed like the best idea at the time, despite the near half an hour wait.
Sunfall had also quite obviously taken on board the past years toilet issues and completely decked out the festival. There were three seperate toilet areas each filled with an abundance of portaloos - my maximum queueing time was around 2 minutes and every time I went they were fully stocked with loo roll and hand sanitizer (HURRAH)!
As for the good vibes mentioned... I must say I would have to agree. There was a really friendly feel to the festival - people spoke to each other even if in big groups, people shared their water/chewing gum/beer/whatever and I didn't see one tiff, fight or dirty look the whole day. The great sound quality was also true - the artists playing are undoubtedly fantastic anyway, but so often their sets can underwhelm due to a shit sound system. The music here was loud, crystal clear and fabulous. Well done Sunfall.
Highlights of the day would probably have to be the two closing acts - The Black Madonna and Jackmaster, however the Main Stage had a very nice feel to it throughout the day, especially given the blaring sunshine we were blessed with! The day absolutely flew by and we simply couldn't understand where the 10 hours we'd been there had gone when it ended.
Luckily, the end was not nigh - Sunfall had a number of after parties at various London clubs. Due to the acts and partially due to convenience, we chose Horse Meat Disco at nearby Brixton club Phonox. Having been unimpressed at a previous Horse Meat Disco night at Phonox, I was understandably a bit apprehensive about how the night was going to go. Oh Phonox, how you changed my mind.
Despite a rather unpleasant run in with a complete bitch of a doorwoman on our way in (apparently my friend was 'off his head and needed 20 minutes to sober up'), we all eventually got in and had a great evening. Horse Meat Disco were playing the funk I had been craving after a day of electronic dance music, whilst the venue itself seemed bigger, nicer, and way less rammed. The lights they have here are fantastic, and the small bar downstairs is actually a really nice idea. The smoking area could be improved - it's small and there's nowhere to sit, but that aside it's actually a really pleasant upgrade from it's former name - Plan B.
Overall, Sunfall allowed us to escape the city within the city for the day. It provided quality music with a laid back attitude, allowing everyone there to have a really great time. By directly sorting out previous complaints it also showed the effort to take on board what people want, and if you don't want to queue for 45 minutes to get in, have a bit more faith in your personal stamina and arrive on time!
OVERALL RATING: *****
https://www.sunfall.co.uk/
