Strolling over to the southeast corner of York underneath a grey sky and in the midst of a blustery wind, YO1 festival promised good things. Only in its second year, its first hosting The Young Knives and Craig Child’s brand of funk, YO1 has expanded. With ethnic street food, a vintage fair, and 4 stages, the £17.50 student ticket price tag seemed far more justified than this time last year; especially once Rudimental and Channel One Soundsystem are brought into consideration.
The day, at least in some senses, lived up to my expectations. DJ Yoda brought the somewhat disparate early afternoon crowds together with a handful of the day’s funkier basslines and a well received appreciation of some disco cornerstones. Following this standout set, one only slightly undermined by the unannounced use of A-Skillz and Featurecast in their full, AlunaGeorge and Panda Cubs warmed up their respective stages. It was at this point of day that the realities of organizing a festival became apparent. Lines for the toilets, food stalls and two bars stretched past the point of worth bothering and the somewhat sparse nature of the setup the became intensified by a deceptively cold York sky. Whether due to my increasingly depleted supply of alcohol or lack of a suitable fleece, for a drawn out couple of hours even the stuttering step of Irie Vibes and a locally sourced honeycomb ice-cream couldn’t lift my spirits.
My temperament aside, the day has to be considered a success. Swathes of familiar York faces revelled in the jaw clenching sounds of the Circulation tent and Jackmaster and the day was concluded overwhelmingly with Rudimental’s unique fusion of drum, bass and trumpets.