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Lets go through the dictionary and sort some definitions of this years Essential Festival Roots Day 2002. SHAM a. A trick, hoax, fraud, imposture; something devised to impose upon, delude, or disappoint expectation; a ‘sell’. to put a SHAM upon: to hoax, defraud. to cut a sham: ‘to play a Rogue's trick’ (B.E. Dict. Cant. Crew, a 1700). Obs. SHABBY c. transf. Discreditably inferior in quality, making a poor appearance. WANKERS a. Those that intentionally and repeatedly decieve paying customers about the number and quality of the crews appearing at their event. to be a WANKER: to treat paying customers with the minimum amount of respect and to intentionally rake their cash without truthfully meeting any of the widely publicised claims. (B.E. Dict. Cant. Crew, May 2002). Obs. Lets not fuck about - this event was a disgrace. Proper sheisty and definitely run without any respect for the people paying over 35 quid to attend. You could run off a list of complaints forever but we all know that the organisers couldnt give a flying fuck - if they did then they wouldnt repeat the same behaviour year after year. How long will people continue to attend these events when things are so shoddy? Its on US - the paying punter to make a statement to the people that run these events - just dont show up. Realise that whatever is being publicised (right upto the posters being updated a week before and even the programmes on sale at the entrance) is not going to happen. You will not see half the acts promised. You will not come close to value for money. You will not have your expectations met. This beef has absolutely nothing to do with the acts appearing at the festival - the performances I saw were on the whole - quality. Everything apart from that was an expensive joke. You kinda knew things were going to be botched when you trotted the mile up a muddy hill to the entrance - passing on the way stranded wheelchairs, buggies, etc. The fact there was no provision for these people was proper fucked - the fact that the main entrance was preceded by locked gates and stiles wasnt too fun for everyone (fuck knows how the paying disabled customers made it over). See the main thing that fucked me off the morning after was passing all these new promotional posters which were pasted up around my town within both weeks and days of the event - these mentioned the FA cup, new acts and Glastonbury being sold out, etc - so they were NOT re-runs. These posters intentionally misled everyone about who was appearing. In fact on the day there was No Pharoahe, No Biz Markie, No Doug E. Fresh, No De La (who were even given a time slot on the day when they werent even on the continent), No Cut Chemist, No Lee Scratch Perry, and the list goes on and on and on. Anyway you get the picture - the organisers were out of order - the posters mentioned artists, the programmes mentioned different artists appearing at certain times, the tents mentioned (again) different artists at different times - and the reality was less artists that any of the above at random times. Nice one Essential. It was then that you realise you saw basically the same artist lineup as 2000, 1999, 1998. Anyway - you get the picture. Onto the music. The sound systems were good and the levels were put together well for each different stage and style. Levi Roots put up a heavy performance and brought an uplifting vibe to the early afternoon - this was well needed after checking who was really going to appear. New Flesh never connected with the crowd and seemed to be shouting to themselves - it was slightly strange but the vibe never got going. The Herbaliser Band killed it with one of the best performances with Wildflower coming onto to shine her skills to a massive and appreciative crowd. Aspects came correctly with the local support pushing them through a tight funny set - and probably the best polished hiphop performance of the day. Asian Dub Foundation woke up all the weed heads with a energetic rendition of some new and old material - the addition of an extra MC has changed the dynamic and given them that extra edge which made them hit heavier than normal. Rahzel came with those ridiculous skills - but I've seen him showcase the same set in 40 minutes so the extra 20 minutes of robot noises got a bit much. James Brown stepped like the good ol' soul legend n' stomped it out with dancing girls and his troupe - although you needed to be 9ft tall to actually check all of it (good planning putting the main stage UP the hill - dicks). Fallacy and Fusion were tight - although their set was very short. I missed Blak Twang although someone said he got the crowd onside n' rocked it. On the negative side - Westwood was upto his usual tent clearing antics ('wave those gunsigns' blah blah), Hi & Mighty/Smut Peddlers/Cage although billed seperately played only one set and although there were some good moments with Bottom Feeders and B-boy Document but overall it was a severely average performance punctuated by some dubious gurning adlibs. But theres no disputing the biggest disappointment was the huge list of no-shows. But then again I'll be joining that list for 2003. Time for me to get writing that letter to the Trading Standards Agency. If your gonna treat people like mugs and put together a festival on the cheap then you gotta be called out - so lets hear your response. I'll print it below this review.  Related
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Essential Festival - Roots Day Bristol
