Lovebox has become the everyman’s party. Twelve years since its inception and a decade since it grew from a one-day do into a weekend-long event, the festival finds itself stretched across an increasingly broad range of genres. The resulting mixture of performers, punters and brand-sponsored micro-experiences becomes dizzying, at times threatening to dilute Lovebox’s founding identity of tolerance, light hedonism and a dance music-centred safe space for the LGBT community.
In a positive light, there’s something for everyone. Infants near the main stage wearing protective earmuffs and being gently rocked in prams? Check. Shirtless lads clearing space for circle moshpits and bashing against each other? Check. That vegetarian curry stand you last saw at Glastonbury festival? Check. And, of course, groups of men and women in their teens and twenties taking selfies and chatting over the music? It wouldn’t be a London festival in 2015 without them.
Dance duo Groove Armada, who founded the festival, are still here, thumping through an early Friday evening set on Barcelona club Elrow’s Bollywood-themed stage. But the party they created has transformed over time, and their influence seems to have been pushed further to the weekend’s fringes. Hercules and Love Affair still fly the out-and-proud flag high, filling their lively and colourful Friday afternoon set with proclamations of self-acceptance and a throbbing love for London’s dance music counterculture.
Former Hercules and Love Affair vocalist Kim Ann Foxman keeps the retro-leaning house music spirit alive with her DJ set on Saturday afternoon, but Friday is dominated by UK rap and a spot of US hip-hop. There’s 18-year-old Novelist, who smiles and dances through his raucous set of grime, electro and afrobeats. Later, Skepta leaps between recent single Shutdown and 2009 breakout track Too Many Man, New York rapper Action Bronson chucks off a stage invader, much to the crowd’s delight, and Cypress Hill run animatedly through their big hits on the main stage. A surprise appearance by Dizzee Rascal during Rudimental’s closing set further cements UK hip-hop’s influence on the day.
On Saturday punters can still entertain themselves by taking more selfies in an installation sponsored by a mobile phone company, or watching skateboarders on a half-pipe run by a soft-drinks conglomerate – but they may be better off losing their inhibitions in the balmy Despacios tent. Run by ex-LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy and Belgian duo 2manydjs, it functions as a mini-club, replete with a huge dangling discoball, night-like darkness and eight impressive speaker stacks blasting out an eclectic mix of tracks.
For those more interested in tame, tasteful and well-sung pop music, synthpop trio Vaults and soulful singer Jessie Ware deliver the goods. Annie Mac’s DJ set pulls in the fist-pumping crowds that Mark Ronson couldn’t quite muster the day before, and sets the tone for Hot Chip’s joyous though muted show of funk-laden electropop. Sound-quality issues intermittently affect the main stage – and render Raury’s voice almost inaudible during his energetic Saturday performance – but the crowd are singing along so loudly that headliner Snoop Dogg needn’t worry.
From Who Am I (What’s My Name) and his remix of 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. to Katy Perry’s California Gurls (on which he raps a verse), he has the audience in the palm of whichever hand isn’t holding the huge rollup he’s smoking. What Lovebox has lost in core ethos, it has replaced with variety, overwhelming as it may sometimes feel.
