essential festival

After Essential’s successful attempt at taking their festival to Ashton Court, in Bristol, in May they return to Hackney Marshes for their regular annual knees up on the 3rd and 4th August. Looks like the site might well have become their new home - after all the Essential Festival was held in Brighton up until 2000 but had to relocate due to concerns about the ‘foot and mouth’ disease that riddled the countryside at the time.

Saturday is officially coined the Dance Day whilst sunday stands for the Roots Day. Essential present a heavy mix of different genres of dance and culture and team up with the leading exponents in each of those fields. There are two hip hop stages on the saturday one for the artists and one for the b-boys. The artists here include a good dose of rare Stateside appearances too: Mobb Deep, Jazzy Jeff, Beatnuts, Onyx, Dougie Fresh, Freddie Foxx, Afu-Ra, Skitz & Rodney P. ATM, Legends of the Dark Black and One Nation host the dnb mash up on saturday with Goldie, Grooverider, Fabio, Krust, Adam F & J Majik, Randall, Ed Rush, Optical, Andy C, Marly Marl, Peshay, Frenzic, Fluid & Trex with MC’s Dynamite, GQ, Ryme Tyme and Flux.

Knowledge, Labyrinth, Essence and TON Management team up to present Essential’s new old school arena in place of last years poor garage attendance. Ratpack, Altern 8, Shades of Rhythm, Nicky Blackmarket & Phantasy, Kenny Ken & SS, Slipmatt, Swan-e, Ellis D, Mickey Finn, Krome & Time will all be dusting off their archived selections as well as PA’s by Rozalla and Baby D. Headlining acts on the day are Morcheeba, DJ Shadow, The Orb, Dreadzone, Aphex Twin, Luke Vibert, Lab 4, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Kid Koala, Stanton Warriors and Freq Nasty.

The BBC London Roots Day sees yet another heavy bout of hip hop… Jazzy Jeff, Prince Paul, Blackalicious, Q Bert, Black Twang, Ugly Duckling, People Under The Stairs, Fallacy & Fusion, Aspects and Skitz & Rodney P again. Just some of the main acts for the final day include Jools Holland, Asian Dub Foundation, Femi Kuti, Courtney Pine, DJ Shadow, Gilles Peterson, Luciano, Bushman, Prince Buster, Herbalizer & Zion Train. Perhaps one of the most exciting features on this sunday is the live dnb arena hosted by Knowledge and Legends. Shy FX, (Nicky Blackmarket, Plus One, Rodney P, Killa Kela and the Jungle Drummer all star as The Heavies), EZ Rollers, Majik Star, Dust 21, Fat Tuesday and Eden featuring Dazee, Jo Diamond, Omi and MC Chickaboo give it the live lick right here.

This is just a skeleton of confirmed acts to appear at the festival. For up-dates of confirmed acts look up ww.essentialfestival.com. In addition to the heap of great music over the two days you can catch urban art forms such as skating, graffiti exhibitions, breaking showcases, extreme sports and rides in addition to the natural selection of tasty world food, beer and festival paraphernalia on sell at the numerous stalls. Tickets can be purchased for £37.50 (plus booking fee) per day or if you’re lucky you might be able to get hold of some of the limited weekend tickets at £65 (plus booking fee). Tickets can be bought at www.essentialfestival.com or at any local independent, HMV or Ticketmaster outlets.