South West Four delivered, as promised, a spectacular weekend line up to celebrate the festival’s 10 year ‘Tin’ anniversary. With the heavens having released their load over festival goers for the whole of Saturday, no one knew what was to be expected of Sunday. Needless to say, weather aside, ravers piled out of Clapham Common tube station, eagerly anticipating the amalgamation of music pulled together by Lock n Load events. Wellington boots and ponchos at the ready, we descended into the mud bath fields of the SW4 arena with our bodies trembling at the powerful bass line vibrations.  

Photo :Photo:Sam Neill 

Fuelled by canned Gordon’s G&T from the classy VIP Bedouin tent bar, we found our fellow SW4 friends and headed straight to John Digweed’s Bedrock tent to catch the tail end of Sven Vath’s set. And so the invigorating sounds of techno got us into the party mood as he played his repetitive beats. At times you forgot it was daytime when in the tent – or maybe that was because we were still wearing sunglasses!

A quick drinks stop and a well-deserved sit down to enjoy the awesome weather and watch people being spun around on the various fairground rides on offer. Not for the faint hearted!

Pulling us back to the main stage early evening was none other than headline act Knife Party. There was some serious synchronised jumping as people let loose and the crowd went wild to the Australian electro house duo. Mosh pits prevailed at the front with testosterone engrossed men bouncing off each other and girls climbing the nearest boy’s shoulders to try and get a better view. Encouragement wasn’t even needed by McGrillen and Swire as they shouted to their fans to ‘Go Crazy!’ and ‘Clap Clap Clap!’ You went somewhat into a trance with the visuals behind stage.

Half the way through the set we had to tear ourselves away from main stage to head to John Digweed’s Bedrock arena to see none other than Swedish DJ, Eric Prydz (otherwise known as Pryda). Headlining at SW4 for his last 2013 London event, he played crowd-pleasing songs such as ‘Pjanoo.’  We even managed to share the stage with the legendary DJ! The tent was jammed waves of people. The swarms of ravers were captivated by the resident DJ and it was a spectacular scene to watch from on high, seeing the energy and excitement below.

The only issue I can raise about SW4 is that there are too many world-class DJs playing at the same time. The likes of having to choose between Eric Prydz, Knife Party and Steve Lawler caused a painstaking decision. And so we fluttered around stages like social butterflies, trying our best to get a piece of everyone. 

Photo Example:Photo:Sam Neill 

Staying in the Bedrock tent Pryda was followed by Boys Noize, who we’d seen before at other festivals. He did not disappoint, opening up with some deep electro before dropping remixes of well-known artists like Bloc Party. People were queuing to get into the tent and we were glad of our prime vantage point.  

Photo:Sam Neill 

Again faced with the dilemma of an incredible line up across all stages, we left the Bedrock tent before the end in order to watch the last 30 minutes of Example, who was closing the main stage. The man is a born entertainer and was able to move the crowd up a gear with some of his anthems. A fantastic end to an awesome day of music! Never has the phrase ‘one more tune’ been so true, with the crowd not wanting to go home after the last song. 

What an event...and so the countdown begins to the much awaited SW4 2014. Personally, I can’t wait. Our feet should have recovered by then.

Review: Amy Kerr and Ally Walker