After a fantastic time seeing Gorillaz at All Points East, we headed back for more last Saturday to see Disclosure headline, amongst another stacked line-up. 

As tradition, day drinking on the train at 11am ensued, as did judgmental stares from everyone around me as my ice began to leak and I cracked open a bottle of Aldi’s Aperol knockoff, and some cheap prosecco. I wasn’t drinking bottom shelf wine again like last week, so decided to mix it up. Thankfully, due to the lack of tube strikes, my journey was a lot easier, and time flew by before I was at Victoria Park, perhaps helped by the tipsiness. 

We sat and drank some more on the grass, hoping to avoid ridiculous festival priced cans, but it was still only 1.30pm, and drinking more now definitely wouldn’t see us through till the end of the day. After picking up our guest passes and unfortunately missing the wonderful Tora-I, we made our way over to the Ray-Ban West Stage to finally catch Wesley Joseph behind the mic, following his fantastic LP ULTRAMARINE. Tracks like Thrilla and COLD SUMMER were as expected, excellent. He performed only to a small crowd of fans but still came equipped with backing vocalists and a synthesizer, bringing an unmissable energy to the set. 

Unfortunately, the multi-talented Montell Fish had pulled out of the festival, but thankfully, Lil Silva took to the West Stage to perform a fantastic selection of tunes from his standout LP Yesterday Is Heavy. He packed a punch into the 30-minute set, performing alongside his drummer amidst hectic electronic soundscapes and UK Funky vibrations. I got to meet Lil Silva shortly after, who was very appreciative for the backing. After this, we managed to catch a brief glimpse of Yung Singh at The 6 Music Stage, home to some of the countries most acclaimed DJs – as always, from what we saw, he delivered a heavy set full of speaker rattling cuts. 

Shortly afterwards, our 3pm drinking headaches were cured with a couple more drinks and a helping of Franky Wah at the North Stage, before we had the pleasure of seeing Channel Tres at the East Stage. This did mean we had to miss out on some soulful, conscious raps from ENNY, but the Compton Hip House DJ quickly fixed our FOMO by spinning standouts like Topdown for the crowd, although there was a severe lack of Weedman. It was still a highly energetic set which kept spirits high, before seeing off a large portion of chips, in an effort to avoid spending £15 on a proper festival meal.  

I only stayed at Shy FX for a couple of tracks, as I was anticipating Koffee and her dancehall infused reggae, hoping for a slice of carnival, whilst not being present at Notting Hill. Her stage presence and charisma were only amplified more by the hot weather, as tracks like Rapture commanded the crowd with their newfound energy. But, at 5pm, it was time to make our way to Freddie Gibbs, despite having to miss out on what would with no shadow of a doubt have been an excellent set of hypnotic, potential track IDs from Joy Orbison. 

After being a fan since he first blessed the booth alongside Madlib in 2014, I’d been anticipating the day I got to see Gangster Gibbs in the flesh. In classic Freddie Kane fashion, he came onto the stage, pimp walking to not one of his own tracks, but Return of the Mack by Mark Morrison, which made for a hilarious start to the tight set of classics spanning from Pinata to Alfredo. Alongside multiple chants of ‘fuck the police’ and ‘fuck Akademiks’, highlights of the set included the timeless Thuggin’, Crime Pays, Careless, and Gang Signs, which Freddie restarted multiple times, riling the crowd up for louder chants of ‘fuck twelve, suck a dick’. Finishing the set in similar fashion, he came back onto the stage and teased the crowd with the Louis Theroux ‘My Money Don’t Jiggle Jiggle, It Folds’ TikTok song, before exiting the stage with a big grin. It would have been nice to hear a couple more classics like Uno and Shitsville, but it was still the best set of the day so far.

It was time to witness Mura Masa impress thousands with various hits alongside the ever-talented Bonzai to fill in for all the features, doing an impressive job as always, bringing unexpected energy to Deal Wiv It and Doorman whilst donning Slowthai boxers. Tracks like Love$ick, Firefly, and What If I Go? were expectedly as blissful and euphoric as ever but seeing new singles like bbycakes and Hollaback Bitch was just as much of a treat too.

We briefly slipped into the packed North Stage for Overmono as their excellent remix of For Those I Love’s I Have A Love entranced the residents of the towering blue tent, alongside the captivating spectacle of lights emitting from the stage. There was still time to catch the last five minutes of H.E.R., for a bittersweet performance of her standout KAYTRANADA collaboration Intimidated, as the sun turned the sky golden behind the stage. 

As my friend made his way to secure a spot for Fred Again…, I caught half an hour of Charli XCX, performing an impressive array of hits from this year’s Beg For U, and the infectious 1999, to classics like Vroom Vroom, and Boys. The crowd ate up every second, as an autotuned Charli commanded them to dance, and dedicated songs to all the ‘gay boys’ in the crowd. Her vocal performance wasn’t the best live, but the series of fan-favourite bangers and passionate choreography made up for it.

Although James Blake was my most anticipated act of the day, I didn’t want to be squashed amongst the crowd, I wanted to sit on the grass as the sun set for this one. I missed out on seeing James Blake at Alexandra Palace this year, so this show would hopefully make up for it. Despite performing to thousands, at times he managed to encapsulate the comforting feeling of a very intimate, stripped back set, whilst other times he was making the ground beneath us vibrate by playing his very early electronic material. I was impressed to hear him play classic Future Garage and Dubstep tunes from over 10 years ago, specifically CMYK. It was mesmerising, laying down, looking up at the sky, hearing the colourful, creative sounds of Life Round Here, and Mile High, despite a few technical difficulties, and noise from other stages. There were lots of other people sat on the grass, relishing in the scene on stage, as James sat by his piano under white light and presented his whispery vocals to the mic. He even made time for Glitch Pop inspired cuts from his incredible Before EP, an homage to the sound that made him popular, playing tracks like I Keep Calling, and Before, which was very special to see. 

The standout moments of the day for me, also came from James Blake’s set, Say What You Will, Retrogade, and Godspeed, were all truly beautiful. James’ performance of Say What You Will was just as impressive as it is on record, hitting every note as the backing vocalists crescendo amongst audience chants of ‘saaay what you will’. It was already a flawless single, but it was even more stunning, under the moody stage lighting, soundtracking my evening at Victoria Park. Retrogade was an intense and epic display of soaring synths and towering vocals, whilst Godspeed, to contrast, was the most serene curtains close, credits roll moment - a perfect closing track. It was the closest I’ll maybe ever get to seeing Frank Ocean, who knows at this point. But, that’s not to take away from what James Blake brings to this track, his hushed vocals and delicate piano playing really made it an emotional finale to the gorgeous set. 

Feeling a little low energy after that one, I was less excited for Disclosure as I was an hour ago, however after bumping into my mate at the urinal, I was told I missed Mike Skinner come out to perform classic Original Pirate Material tracks with Fred Again… I was eager to make up for what I’d missed out on. 

We raced over to the East Stage to catch Disclosure, where once again there were no clashes, and the thousands of people came together to experience the enthralling set of electronica together. Arriving just on time, Disclosure began with literal fireworks, and the ageless White Noise, surely a classic at this point? The crowd united for chants of ‘just noise, white noise’. Amidst all the pyrotechnics and flashiness was an absolutely great sound system which was necessary for Disclosure’s high budget house tunes.  

Clearly, I hadn’t learnt my lesson from last time, as the excessive day drinking caught up to me, and I was unwell again, enjoying the show despite taking myself out of the crowd to feel the wrath of alcohols unpleasantries. This didn’t stop me from getting back into the crowd after 15 minutes, to hear the deep house and electronic tremors of songs like You’ve Got To Let Go If You Want To Be Free, Holding On, and the contagious earworm Douha (Mali Mali). 

Disclosure got through an irresistible, monumental set of hits that had the crowd completely and utterly flawed. Despite not taking well to the dancing, wishing I could just time travel and remove the presence of alcohol from my last two weekends at All Points East and have even better days sober, it was still an enormous offering which evidenced why Disclosure are some of the biggest pioneers in modern UK House music. The set continued with newish single Waterfall, which was a wonderful addition, sat alongside the revered hits. When A Fire Starts To Burn brought an expectedly scorching energy, before Nocturnal transported the crowd to a gloomy, low lit night club. 

After only catching Disclosure briefly at Parklife last year and also missing my favourite songs of theirs, I was hoping this year would make up for it, but unfortunately not. I had to leave half an hour early, to be able to catch an Uber to get the last train home. Of course, things were guaranteed to go wrong. Sat with my head in my hands as each Uber rejected me, despite desperately trying to pay more for Uber XL’s or Uber Comfort’s… I was seething with anger as the predicted journey time to King’s Cross got closer and closer to the time my train departed. Every time an Uber began their way to me, they cancelled. It was officially too late to make it home. I felt sick, frustrated, with no way to get home, whilst missing out on the sound of my favourite Disclosure song My High (with Slowthai and Amine) muffled in the distance, and the faint hum of Sam Smith joining Disclosure on stage for Latch. My only options were to either meet my friends for a night out in Cambridge, in which I would be up till 4am before I had a place to crash, or to sleep at my girlfriends. I chose option B, obviously, still slightly sad that I could hear the muted vibrations of Tondo as my Uber finally pulled up. 

Once again, despite my own inability to know my limits (drink safely), All Points East provided an incredible home for another colossal list of performers, and Disclosure exceeded hopes with the immense task of pleasing 50,000 fans. Unfortunately, the festival, spread out over two weekends, has came to a close, but this year its made one hell of an impact, and is no doubt one to look out for next year, with their guaranteed stacked line-ups.