Despite having only bought a ticket for the Saturday, I decided to head back down on Sunday to buy a ticket outside and enjoy another day of music. The weather was noticeably duller this year but the crowd seemed larger than the day before. Also, an extra bar selling cans had been erected overnight and whatever the problem was that caused such a large queue on Saturday had been solved as I saw no major queue for the bar at any point throughout the day.
First on the Main Stage was the wonder Trinity Orchestra who played all of Daft Punk’s Discovery album. This was a perfect way to get in the mood for the days music, with mostly dance/techno/electronica acts playing today. Ending with Too Long (8 minutes of which I recorded and will put up here when it is uploaded to Youtube), I was ready for a day of dancing.
The biggest joy I get going to a festival is going into a tent and discovering a band you have never heard of before who blow you away. This happened to me with Solar Bears who opened the Undergrowth Stage. Having just got off the phone to a friend who said he was going to see these I decided to pop in to have a look and was very impressed with what I heard. They are also playing Electric Picnic and judging by the crowd they attracted to come see them already have a decent fanbase. You can listen to some of their tracks here.
Kormac’s Big Band were next on the main stage. I think his official website explains it better than I ever could:
An 11-piece orchestra playing Kormac’s tracks. A mix of live turntables, samplers, drums, double bass, barbershop quartet, trumpet, clarinet, banjo and live visuals.
What’s there not to like about that?! Kormac and his big band had the crowd dancing for the entire set, nobody was letting the gloomy, drizzly weather stop them from having a good time.
Caribou will be remembered as the band who got the sun to shine at Forbidden Fruit. Halfway through their set the sun broke through the clouds and beamed down on the stage. Even the band acknowledged it with a remark of “Do you think that’s a coincidence?”. Listening to crowd favourite ‘Odessa‘ in the sun goes down as one of the highlights of the weekend.
Battles, who as of last year no longer have a singer, played the main stage next. Instead of a live singer, the screen behind the band showed the old singer, including a “guest appearance” from Gary Newman. It was definitely interesting but without a front man they seemed to be something lacking from their stage presence.
After listening to Aphex Twin for a few minutes from the back, I decided to head over to Cast of Cheers. After talking to a few people afterwards, Aphex Twin was seemingly amazing, with his usual weird visuals (peoples faces from the crowd superimposed onto other faces/bodies).
Cast of Cheers are a band I have been wanting to see for a very long time, since downloading their free album ‘Chariot’ last summer. Somehow, they have evaded me for all this time but I finally got to see them and they lived up to my expectations. Despite this being the last band of a long weekend of music, the energy from the stage seemed to possess the crowd as everyone went crazy one last time. Playing a mix of songs from their aforementioned debut album as well as some equally impressive new songs, Cast of Cheers were the perfect band to drop the curtain on the first year of Forbidden Fruit festival.
All in all, despite a few teething problems which were to be expected, Forbidden Fruit was a great weekend of live music. The luxury of being able to hop on a luas or bus straight home is amazing. Hopefully POD will decide it was enough of a success to warrant a second year. Don’t be surprised if next year it will be touted as ‘2011’s Best New Festival’.