Wireless Festival 2013!

I'm sure you've all had enough of hearing about Wireless Festival but I thought I may as well share my experience seeing as I am a MASSIVE concert/gig lover and goer. Now, I can't do the camping (or glamping) thing at festivals because I'm just not made for that hardcore business but an outdoor concert with some of my favourite R&B acts on stage is right up my street so Wireless Festival and I are the perfect fit.

Having experienced Wireless for the first time last year and after loving every minute of it, as soon as tickets went on sale this year I was ready with debit card in hand! The three day "festival" - I use quotations because it's really not a festival as much as it is an outdoor concert - took place at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford from Friday 12th to Sunday 14th July 2013. With big names such as Justin Timberlake, Jay Z and Snoop Dogg - I don't care if he's Snoop Lion now, he will ALWAYS be Snoop Doggy Dogg to me - it was a given that it was going to be a sell out from the get go.

I headed down to Wireless on Friday 12th July for the first of three days and genuinely wasn't ready for the sheer size of the event. If you have previously been to Wireless when it was being held at Hyde Park in central London then you'll know that everything was quite close together. The stages were fairly easy to get to and didn't involve a lot of walking around so you could stage hop as much (or as less) you wanted to.

That was not the case this year.

Oh no, the Olympic Park is so big that it was a half an hour walk from Stratford tube station to the park then a 10 minute walk to the main stage area and from there, a 20 minute walk to the Pepsi Max and Yahoo stages.

Erm... Who the hell has the energy for that!?

I downloaded the Wireless app for my Android before I left the house so I had a vague idea of how to make my way around the place but there was just way more walking that I would have liked involved in the day.

All walking aches and pains aside, I got to the main stage in time to see Trey Songz - hubba hubba - perform followed by John Legend, Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake, although massive sad times because I missed out on the sweet sounds of Miguel because that walk up to the park was a very slow and painful one so by the time I got in, he was gone. Boooo.

John Legend was a performer that I had been really looking forward to seeing and he didn't disappoint. From opening with his debut single of 'Used to Love You', he got the crowd in a feel good mood and bouncing along from the get go. He lay out all of his well known songs including 'Ordinary People' during his 45 minute performance and gave it his all, both vocally and on the piano - God knows women love men who can play the piano!

Having seen Trey Songz perform before at Hammersmith Apollo I knew what to expect from the U.S R&B star... Toplessness. Yes, he has a gorgeous body and nice voice and it doesn't do any harm to show off some serious pec action but his performance was kind of 'meh' and nothing to write home about.

Now, I was massively pissed off when I found out that Snoop Dogg and Frank Ocean were performing at the same time but on two different stages. Snoop Dogg is a legend and hardly ever performs in the UK but I am all about Frank Ocean at the moment with his deep lyrics and beats, so you can imagine my annoyance.

Who did I pick? Snoop Dogg.

Did he disappoint? Hell to the no.

Having nabbed a pretty good spot near the front (you can see from my photo above) I stayed put to watch ol' Snoop Dogg work the stage with his classics, and his bevvy of beautiful women, before launching in to 'Snoop Lion' mode and bringing Rita Ora on stage for a duet of their new song 'Torn Apart'. He played for about an hour before disappearing and leaving the crowd bouncing and swaying to the beat of Bob Marley 'Jammin'.

Yes, I was desperate to see Frank Ocean and didn't bother getting tickets to his Brixton Academy shows because I thought I was going to see him at Wireless but I heard the Pepsi Max tent was packed tighter than a can of sardines so I guess it was for the best. I do not like being squished against an armpit. Vom.

The headline act, Justin Timberlake, smashed the whole show when he came on stage with his Tennessee Kids band and performed all of the bangers from his first solo album 'Justified' and then continuing on into FutureSex/LoveSounds while throwing in songs from his new album 'The 20/20 Experience'. He proved that although he has been out of the music game for 7 years, he was most definitely back on the radar and is a force to be reckoned with.

I left the show before the end of his set but I hear that he epically closed the show with 'Suit & Tie' and his pal, Jay Z, came out to send the crowd wild. Game. Over.

Wireless Festival 2012 was a blast in a glass but Wireless 2013 just smashed it with their headlining acts and the fact that the weather was unbelievably amazing just made it all the more sweeter.

As I write this post, Jay Z and Justin Timberlake are probably tearing the whole of the Olympic Park up in to 40,000 high pitched pieces with their 'Legends of Summer' tour set so I'm going to end this here and wallow on my own while listening to 'Magna Carter...Holy Grail' and 'The 20/20 Experience' on loop.

Wireless 2014 couldn't come around fast enough! Bring. It. On!

Amrita xoxo