Fusion Festival @ Cofton Park, Birmingham 28th August 2015
The UK’s number one music TV channel, 4Music, will show the best of Birmingham based Fusion Festival with a 90 minute highlights show, Fusion Festival 15: The Best Bits. Click her to see an exclusive preview Fusion Festival 15 Best Bits. Ahead of this, Brumlive’s Samantha Harrison gives us her view of the opening Friday:
Thousands gathered at Cofton Park, Birmingham, for the first day of a three-day festival that offers fans the chance to see stars such as McBusted, Rudimental and Ed Sheeran. Folks had a wonderful time enjoying, fair rides, good food and first-class entertainment from all the acts.
The Weather throughout the day was lovely, and raised the spirits of enthusiastic festival-goers; it was Shepherd’s Delight as the festival drew to the close and looked very picturesque. One act who didn’t make it onto the stage was singer-songwriter, Shift K3y, who tweeted an apology to fans after he’d been caught in motorway traffic.
Kicking off Fusion Festival 2015 was X Factor Finalist Luke Friend. With a splutter of rain Luke Friend kept the spirits up high with just his guitar, taking on some big songs and big artists in the music industry right now, which included One Direction, Taylor Swift and Kanye West. He also threw in some original music and ended the set with his first single ‘Hole in my Heart’. What I enjoyed about Luke Friend is even though he covers other artists music, he still made it sound like his own and original.
Since JLS splitting up Aston Merrygold is the first one to take on a solo music career. Fresh from the V Festival stage, Aston promoted his upcoming debut album ‘Show Stopper’. Despite the performance being short and sweet with just three songs, the atmosphere was welcoming to Aston without the rest of JLS.
Bringing an African vibe to Fusion Festival, Fuse ODG came back to Birmingham for his second year in a row at the festival – with a bang. It is really empowering to see a man who is so proud of his culture do what he loves best in front of thousands of people. Dropping hit after hit the crowd sang back and danced around the stage having the times of their lives. Fuse ODG also shared experiences within the UK saying it’s a ‘diverse place’ and hearing the crowd go crazy with acceptance brought a smile to the singer/rappers face.
DJ Fresh stunned the audience with the opening of his set with a man’s voice dropping hints about the songs he is going to play. With our ‘pyramids in the air’ the Botswana-Born DJ walked on stage with MC Messy pumping up the audience. DJ Fresh wasted no time in getting into some of the biggest dance hits including, Hot Right Now, Earthquake, and Nobody to Love. His set left the audience sweaty, out of breath and wanting more.
Admitting he had lost his voice Rixton lead singer, Jake Roche, kept energy up high as he tried his best to put on a good show. Vocally, this wasn’t the best performance of the day, however, the energy Rixton had on stage and how they kept the audience entertained clearly worked, as everybody loved it! Rixton dived straight in with their most successful song ‘Me and My Broken Heart’. With most of the audience knowing this 2014 hit song the performance hit off on a high note with the audience recognisably having a great time. This performance had crowd surfing, selfies, audience participation and a hell of a lot of jumping to the music, on and off stage, what more do you want?
As the day became night rapper Tinie Tempah was next to grace the stage. With friend and DJ, DJ Charlesy at his side, the rapper dropped hit after hit including Pass Out, Frisky and 2015 song Not Letting Go, with Fusion Festival Sunday performer, Jess Glynn. His energetic stage presence was not lost as he got the crowd involved making sure they were as loud as they possibly could be. Through an onslaught of lights, fire and smoke, Tinie Tempah defiantly had Fusion Festival in a pumped up frenzy, ready for the final act of the evening.
Ed Sheeran was the last but no means least act to play the stage for day one of Fusion Festival 2015. Ed Sheeran, who strolls on stage in a laid back fashion doesn’t waste anytime getting into his 90 minute set by starting with ‘I’m a Mess’. It’s incredible that one man, his trusty array of guitars and a loop pedal can blow up an entire festival. You get so many different emotions while watching an Ed Sheeran show due to the variance of songs he has created, and I think that’s why everybody loves him. The simplicity of the set was tremendous and everybody was in awe to see what he did next.
In Ed Sheeran style, he strolls back off stage at the end of the set leaving his fans singing hit single ‘sing’ and wanting more. As I have seen Ed Sheeran multiple times before, I think he just gets better and better with every performance and puts his heart and soul into every set.
Review: Samantha Harrison
Photographs courtesy of Fusion Festival
4MUSIC to show exclusive highlights of Fusion Festival 2015
–4Music presents Fusion Festival 15: The Best Bits––Saturday 5th September from 3pm–
Exclusive to 4Music, the show will see hosts Will Best and Vick Hope bring the best live performances from the main stage, including headline acts Ed Sheeran, Rudimental and McBusted. The programme will also feature exclusive behind the scenes footage, including backstage performances and interviews with the acts from the bank holiday weekend festival. The 90 minute show will be broadcast on Saturday 5th September, from 3pm on 4Music: Freeview channel 18, Sky 360 and Virgin 330, and will be available to view on The Box Plus app.
Exclusive to 4Music — Fusion Festival 2015: The Best Bits
Saturday 5th September from 3pm
4Music: Freeview 18, Sky 360 and Virgin 330
Also available on The Box Plus app
Be part of the conversation with #FusionFestival and follow @4Music on Twitter