The vibe
Sixty-five thousand people of all ages milling around London’s Hyde Park, corralled into different pens according to the size of their wallets. No matter what their station, all enjoyed mercifully clement weather and a bravura three-hour set from Stevie Wonder’s big, big band. Fairground rides rendered the blasted heath of the main arena a bit less grim; an eclectic selection of foods along Hyde Park’s shady lanes raised the tone. If you got there early, you might have caught homegrown talent like Jamie Woon or Loyle Carner. All this within staggering distance of a tube station.
The crowd
Older and far more diverse than usual. Thanks to age and stature, Wonder draws a more classically inclined park audience, with their tartan picnic blankets and flutes of fizz, as well as beautifully turned-out millennials with shiny half-moons of sparkles along their cheeks, and distinguished-looking African-Caribbean ladies with silver in their hair cutting some rug. Lairy nutjobs off their faces were few and far between.
Best act
Wonder played his 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life (not in order), a civil rights-era classic whose pertinence today is both a sign of its enduring value and proof of the abject failure of the baby-boomer generation to enshrine justice and parity of opportunity for all, regardless of colour. “Choose love over hate,” urged Wonder, after two more police shootings of black men in the US, and the reprisal killings of police officers in Dallas.
Pharrell was fun too, reminding everyone of exactly how many hits he has written for other people, before pulling loads of children onstage to dance with him for Happy. He wasn’t impressed at the way security cleared out the cheaper wristbands from the more chi-chi pens before his set, either.
And the worst
The Summer stage down by the south entrance had a selection of pretty dull singer-songwriters.
Best dressed
This was not one of your wackier festivals where people come dressed as space zebras. Cue women in African prints, young men in zoot suits.
Overheard
It would have been rude to eavesdrop on Jack Garratt deep in happy conversation with a woman who we’re guessing was his mum.
Best tweet
Jamie Scallion, the author of The Rock ’n’ Roll Diaries, summarises well, if a touch clangingly.
I'm up the front & it gets no better. I've lost my main man @rodstewart but it don't matter. I'm with #StevieWonder pic.twitter.com/65aP1R47Fe
— Jamie Scallion (@JamieScallion) July 10, 2016
