Exclusive Recap: Wireless Festival 2018

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Wireless Festival

Since its first introduction back in 2005 Wireless Festival has gone from strength to strength and has become a staple part of the festival calendar. With its star studded line-up, electric fans and the vibes of a true festival packed into a hectic 3 day weekend.

Arriving at Finsbury park we couldn’t help but notice the summer buzz and the amount of people in good moods looking forward to the day. The weather does tend to have an effect on us all, especially when we’re treated to weeks of scorching 30*c weather (Don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves!). Wireless was also the first main UK festival of the year with a star studded line up such as Giggs, Stormzy, Lil Uzi Vert, MIST, D Block Europe, Davido, J Cole and Post Malone. After settling in, we headed out into the arena to talk to festival goers and soak in the festival vibes & to taste some of the nicest chicken and halloumi wrap we’ve ever tried.

Walking around we noticed that the festival area was a little bigger with three stages, Main Stage, 2018’s Smirnoff House and the Pepsi-Max Stage which had been moved outside following last 2017’s stage change. We spent our morning speaking to festival goers about the weekend and what they’re looking forward to whilst Tim Westwood was spinning the decks, getting us into the vibes. He also led tributes to the victims of street violence, and called a minute’s silence.He said: “It’s important to acknowledge that 77 people have lost their lives this year. That’s 77 people murdered on the streets of London.”

A lot of the fans we spoke to Stormzy and French Montana. As we headed over to the other stages, Tiffany Calver was dropping the hottest tunes at The Smirnoff House followed by Majid Jordan bringing their edgy twist to tunes such as ‘Place Like This’ ‘Phases’ and ‘One I Want’.

Battling the heat was one thing, keeping the energy to stay active was a whole other ball game, literally a ball game. Can you imagine, Wireless festival stopped at 3pm to host the World Cup Quarter Final between England and Sweden on the main stage, and yes, thankfully, it looks like football is coming home after all. The atmosphere was second to none. Both goals from England had us embracing our neighbour like we’ve been best mates for years. The beauty of football ey?!

We just about caught our breath when fireworks appeared (No, not Drake) none only than the sorcerers, Krept and Konan, who as ever, showed us energy like never before, running from one side to the other, riling the crowd up with bangers such as ‘Get A Stack’ ‘Wo Wo Wo’, ‘For Me’ and ‘Crepes and Cones’ bringing out MoStack. The duo set us up for French Montana rapper bought a new level to Wireless & had the fans arms swinging from side to side, singing from the top of their lungs in no time trying feel the Coke Boyz wave with bangers such as ‘Unforgettable’ ‘Ain’t Worried’ ‘Shot Caller’ and the number one ‘Hurtin’ Me’ featuring Stefflon Don.

Wireless Festival

To wrap up the show, man like, London’s very own, Stormzy stormed the stage with one of the best headlining sets we’ve witnessed. Stormzy has a knack of getting each and every fan under his wing and all following the same vibes. He had everyone singing ‘Blinded By Your Grace’ word for word, at the top of their lungs to moshpitting to ‘Big For Your Boots’ really, who can do that? Honestly the guy is a magician with the spells. Stormz continued to take us on a rollercoaster ride, taking it all the way back with ‘Shut Up’ to performing the GSAP album with a live band and choir singers, something not everyone can pull off successfully. We were in awe of the king & he did not disappoint. We headed home shattered but with a good feeling, looking forward to Sunday’s acts.

Wireless Festival

Sunday was a different game, the third day of the festival was about conserving our energy, collecting some great content & enjoying the finale.

Sunday saw the likes of Lil Uzi Vert, Rick Ross, Russ, Playboi Carti, Lil Pump, MIST, Giggs & a secret act (DJ Khaled cancelled last minute). Uzi had us singing ‘Now I Do What I Want’, Carti had us milly rocking, Rick Ross has us pumping our chests out to ‘BMF’, Mist had us screaming ‘Karlas Back & New Whip Soon Land’ (when is it landing btw?)

Wireless Festival

Finally came the landlord, well, do we need to say anymore?!.. Giggs had a different, hungry, lion mentality vibe when he took to the stage. You could see he was rearing to go and had been waitifn for this for a long time, the first thing he said was “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this? No time wasting, lets go”. We knew what was going down, we grabbed some water, found a spot and proceeded to skank our legs away, bouncing from one end to the other to ‘Lock Doh’, followed by ‘Whipping Excursion’ and ‘Pain Is The Essence’. Giggs then bought out Sneakbo for ‘Active’, Baka for ‘Live Up To My Name’ & Dave for ‘Peligro’. The man is on another vibe, never gives up, he wants to keep giving & he didn’t fail. After two reloads of ‘Look What The Cat Dragged In’ with 50,000 fans shouting ‘Jheeeeze’ Giggs ran off the stage without really saying bye to the fans. If you’re a true festivalgoer, you will know, when the headline act does not bid farewell to the fans it is not finished.

Wireless Festival

There was talk of Drake taking over Dj Khaled’s slot, well, Trapped Magazine did not fail with the insider info. A massive banner dropped from the ceiling, followed by a loud bang, the OVO x London owl appeared followed by the man himself, Scorpion King, Drizzy Drake donning a Nike x OVO football jersey, didn’t waste any time and ran straight into ‘KMT’ along with Giggs who reappeared to bust a . We couldn’t believe it. Drake proceeded to speak to the fans and apolgoise on behalf of DJ Khaled and asked if he could take over his headline segment. Drake secret headlining Wireless, can you ask for more?! Of course, the fans raised the roof yet again, prompting Drake, to perform an impromptu segment from his brand new Scorpion album live for the first time ever with tracks such as “8 Out of 10,” “Mob Ties,” “Nonstop” and the now viral “In My Feelings.” The rapper appeared to be completely aware of the viral dance challenge inspired by “In My Feelings” and even showed off his own moves during the song’s intro.

Wireless Festival

We thoroughly enjoyed Wireless Festival 2018. A massive thanks to W Communications for the press accreditation. Let’s see if Wireless can take it up another notch as this year proved that they’re becoming a force to be reckoned with on the festival calendar.

Images : Ashley Verse, Jordan Hughes, James Bridle, Lauren Maccabee, Matt Crossick & Steven Wiggins.