Lovebox 2010 review

Ignore the weather reports, folks - Lovebox has returned sunnier and more spectacular than before.

I headed to the Victoria Park festival on its opening day - the first time the event has been held on a Friday - for what was possibly the best one-dayer in the capital so far.

The Friday lineup was irresistible to a grimey bassline lover like myself. I could have spent three days dancing to all those DJs. Actually, my legs now feel like I have spent three days dancing, the music was so darn good.

I was gutted to miss my buddy Smurfie Syco's set on the main stage, but that's because I was delayed by a magical mystery tour of London to get cheap tickets off some dodgy African dudes. Thankfully though, the tickets themselves were not dodgy. An auspicious start.

I did, however, arrive in time to have a brockout in the sun to grime collective Newham Generals. On turntable honours was DJ Tubby, a dubstep and grime regular at nights such as FWD, as well as Dizzee Rascal's occasional tour DJ.

Waving goodbye to the sunshine for a bit, we headed into the NYC arena for the end of MJ Cole's set. As usual, it was off the hook; I've seen that man DJ about 50 times over the last ten years and not once has he failed to smash it. Whenohwhen will he release another album?

The delightful Joy Orbison took control next, playing a summery, funky, garagey set which, despite being awesome, couldn't contend with the sunshine outside, so I headed off to catch Toddla T at the Rizla stage.

Bestival heads will know what I'm on about here: the Rizla stage KICKS ASS. Totally. Always. Everywhere. The setup, the production, the lineup, the vibe - the dudes at Rizla know a thing or two about facilitating fun, don't they? So we were mighty pleased to see them set up camp at Lovebox and boy, did Toddla T do us all proud.

The slightly geeky-looking Sheffield producer (pictured above) - boyfriend of Radio One's Annie Mac, dontcha know - plays the most skankatronic sets, mashing up styles from dancehall to electro. And it was brilliant!

But Rizla, is that all the fun you're going to throw at us? NO?

Holy moly. Next up, a supremely chirpy Todd Edwards played classic garage, house and generally rather funky stuff. As a garage devotee who used to write in depth about the scene, I'm ashamed to admit I had never seen 'The God' DJ. Now I can die fulfilled. And hopefully as happy as him.

Dizzee Rascal closed the party with one of his best performances ever (trust me, I've seen a lot of them). It could have something to do with the streamers, the smoke effects, the lights - production levels were ramped up to the max for this show - or the amount of cider I'd consumed by this point. But in honesty, his oeuvre is so well suited to festivals, and he's such a charming  performer, that the crowd loves him. I'm not the biggest fan of his most recent tracks so it took me by surprise how well they worked live.

If you're umming and ahhing about whether to go to Lovebox over this weekend, there really is no question. Run to Victoria Park now!