Picture the scene; Finsbury Park. Saturday 1st July. A beautiful, sunny day in North London. Thousands of fans, young and old, all sharing enthusiasm over the UK’s new dark horse. This is Community Festival.
1st July marked Community Festival’s debut appearance on the UK festival scene. The one day event claimed to celebrate the best of new music, despite managing to land The Wombats and Catfish & the Bottlemen as headline acts. I was apprehensive about whether the organisers could nail such a huge gig, given that marketing was kept to a minimum. However I was enticed by the solid line-up, the bargain ticket price, and the buzz of a brand new event.
From previous experience, I’ve learnt to look out for certain criteria to assess how good a festival really is. These are as follows;
1. Ticket Price
Us Brits know that our festivals don’t come cheap. Not only is it the ticket price itself, but adding on the travel, food, toiletries, tents, glitter, clothes, and for the majority of young adults…the booze, you’ve just spent the equivalent of a short city break to Paris. Except rather than dining next to the Eiffel Tower, you’re throwing up yesterday’s Strongbow into a stranger’s bumbag, in the middle of rural Yorkshire.
Community gets nothing short of a 10/10 for price; £35 for the ticket, and £40 for a return coach from Norwich. I can safely say I got my money’s worth, so the hope now is that prices remain consistent next year.
2. Food & Drink
The food was priced highly (as expected!), although no more than any other festival. I did however appreciate the options available just for the day, so another high score there. There were plenty of bars dotted around the site too, so buying a lukewarm cider was no issue, and a couple of cold water stands too for the kids.
3. The Venue
The one criticism I have of Community Festival is the size of the site. At times it felt like you were constantly jumping over people sitting on the floor, only to then weave around another group too. Apart from that, the venue was easy to get to and crowds were efficiently ushered inside.
4. The Music
Lastly, the music! For one of the smaller festivals of the summer, the booking team had done a pretty good job. Headline acts Catfish & the Bottlemen gave an exceptional performance, and their energy was matched by the crowd right from the opening chords of Homesick.
The Wombats, Slaves, and The Hunna also delivered notable sets, bringing in the larger, and most devoted, fans of the day. A personal favourite of mine were Fickle Friends, who it was my first time seeing. Click here to see which one of their songs made it into my festival picks!
The quality of the sound was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Loud, clear, and all the acts really were there to impress.
So if any of you feel like you missed out on Community Festival this year, absolutely grab a ticket in 2018. I’m certain in years to come this one will grow to be one of the biggest. Until next year, London, until next year.
Its All Disco. 
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