Southwark Park, London
Within the heart of South-East London, an inaugural coming-together, collaboration, and celebration took place: RALLY highlighted London’s deep-rooted DIY culture and grassroots movements, showcasing a smattering of leftfield acts on this sun-kissed rainy summer’s day.
Such is customary with many U.K-based festivals, a torrential downpour welcomed and greeted guests on this day with open arms. Through the damp haze stepped Miles Romans-Hopcraft, known collectively alongside his band as Wu-Lu, breezing through proceedings for those braving the onslaught of summer’s offerings. Reflecting such tumultuous weather, the band embodied a collision of such worlds, fraught between the reminiscent sounds of the 90’s trip-hop, grunge and rap, as the South London locals effectively ignited this festival’s eclectic elixir. Belgium’s Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul’s avant-pop dynamism suddenly turned the tide of such climatic misfortunes, coalescing brightened dispositions with a voracious brand of infectious danceability, taken from their entrancing LP of last year, Topical Dancer.
“I’m going to try with every fibre in my body not to talk about the rain…”
As Kelly Lee Owens transcended proceedings into her renowned realm of ethereal techno, the Brighton-based 6-piece Squid eclipsed the park’s central stage with an engulfing cataclysm of art-rock and post-punk, defiantly pronounced on their latest LP, O Monolith. Embraced by the swelling percussive sounds from their newly-extended lineup, the outfit undoubtedly sounded their fullest and most decorative to date, duly aligning with the collaborative, leftfield mantra of RALLY in defiance of the cursed weather conditions.
Perhaps none could better typify this wide-reaching collaboration than the festival’s headliner replacement, Iamddb. The Angolan rapper from Manchester flew directly from New York City to join us for the closure of this pertinent day - bolstered by DJ Jacky P who exasperatingly cursed at the crowd to reciprocate the exuded energy on-stage. Whilst the stature of the festival’s originally-billed headliner, Princess Nokia, was insufficiently reached, the rapper’s abrasive brand of modern trap induced an effective full-circle moment as the rain (rather timely) came down once again, coinciding with the biting tongue which snapped us back into reality.
Within the farther corners of Southwark Park, Nigeria’s The Cavemen (replacing compatriot Obongjayar) enticed the crowds through the smaller stage’s 360-degree open-plan layout, enacting a hyper-intimate experience enveloped in Ghanaian highlife. Even further afield saw a litany of producers preach their respective brands of house and techno to the amassed crowds, forever blanketed in a haze of dry ice, cigarette smoke, vapour and bodily steam. As South London’s native OK Williams and Barcelona’s John Talabot notably performed their hypnotic swathes of garage-fuelled sampling and dance-infused mixing, the collaborative nature to this arts-based festival remained: a celebration the diverse breaths of today’s leftfield realms of music.
Whilst much of RALLY's wider branding and DIY sentiments proved lacklustre on the day, from the half-baked installations to the under-promoted educational talks or lack of meet-and-greet stalls, its inaugural edition signified a brief yet resuscitative breath into the collaborative forces within South-East London’s extensive arts scene. As a North Londoner, an underlying envy was carried throughout as this public park transformed into a breeding ground for leftfield music and community-driven defiance - even in the adversarial face of this nation’s current state of the arts (and summer weather).
Details regarding RALLY 2024 will follow soon - for more information, visit the website here.
Photos are courtesy of Sienna Lorraine Gray and Isabelle Dohman whose work can be found at their respective links.