Gig Review: Wireless Festival, 13th July - Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Tinie Tempah, Emeli Sandé & more ✭✭✭✭✭
Wireless Festival
Saturday 13th July
With temperatures reaching over 30 degrees
it is a scorcher of a weekend and we were back at London’s Queen Elizabeth
Olympic Park for the second day of the Yahoo! Wireless Festival. The second day
was probably the most anticipated day of the weekend and organisers got the
ball rolling by announcing that the special surprise guest on the Pepsi Max
Stage; taking the slot before hitmaker Clavin
Harris, would be Tinie Tempah.
Hitting the Pepsi Max stage earlier than
expected due to Zedd being delayed, Flux Pavilion came to the stage. He gave
the crowd a full crazy set, full of singles and remixes he had the crowd going
crazy. With the weather being as hot as it was, it is hard to get people
jumping around, but Flux Pavilion had no trouble here.
We didn't watch the full set from Flux
Pavilion as we headed over to the main arena to catch Kendrick Lamar. He
completely owned the stage the US star was clearly enjoying the sunshine and
the applause from the crowd as he performed some of his well-known hits “Ya
Bish”, “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe”, “Mad City”; which as he says is the song
where he finds out which city is the loudest, and also “Swimming Pools”. He really
connected with his audience making for a really good set.
Zedd was meant to be taking to the stage at
5:45, but due to a cancelled flight and then a flat tyre he only made it to the
last 15 minutes of his set.
Next to take the stage on the Pepsi Max
stage was the special guest who had been announced in the morning, Tinie
Tempah. I hadn't seen this tent so full the whole weekend, with both the inside and outside packed, it what was hard to even see Tinie Tempah on stage. But his performance
was unbelievable so much energy from Tinie, his hype man and the whole
audience, it was great to be a part of. Hits included “Drinking from the Bottle”,
“Miami 2 Ibiza” and the crowd pleaser “Pass Out”. At one point they decided they wanted to take everything to the next level, so, if you wanted, people were asked to wave their tops in the air. Energetic and exciting performance, Tinie Tempah is definitely someone to watch live.
Injecting some Ibiza party vibes on the Pepsi
Max Stage was Calvin Harris. Starting off the set already in full swing was his
Florence + The Machine remix. Everyone was feeling good, spirits were high, and
the weather was hot, so close to feeling like you were in Ibiza. The general
feel of the day was mostly RnB and Hip Hop it was nice to have another act that
was a different genre.
Jay–Z was the headline act of the night. And
he definitely didn't disappoint. Jay-Z has an unbelievable stage presence it’s
hard to describe and you don’t know about it until you have seen him live. Even
if you have no knowledge of his songs you will still have a good time. He
performed both new and old hits; the new hits were a huge hit with the audience,
especially as his new album “Magna Carta Holy Grail” which he said with pride “Number
One in 59 countries and most importantly, my first in England”. I think the crowd
surprised him a little with knowing most of the lyrics to his newest songs which
included “Tom Ford”, “Picasso Baby” and “Beach Is Better”. It would appear there
was a change in his set and he chose to perform “Somewhere In America”,
as it was what the crowd asked for, maybe purely for the lyric “Somewhere in America,
Miley Cyrus is still twerking”. He also
performed some classic tracks including “Empire State of Mind”, “03 Bonnie
& Clyde” plus his verse on “Crazy In Love” and “Clique”. There were no
surprise guest visits from Kanye or Beyonce; however Justin Timberlake repaid
the appearance from the previous night and graced the stage to perform the new
track “Holy Grail”.
Great day and another great live headline performance.
Seeing both Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake on stage separately and together for
brief moments does get you excited for the Sunday night headline performance.
