Tramlines Festival 2021 - Sheffield
Ok, Summer of ‘21 doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as the Summer of ‘69 and the weather hasn’t quite felt like ‘summer’ but it’s nice to have some of our favourite summer activities back (I’m talking festivals) following the COVID-19 pandemic.
19th July, or ‘Freedom Day’ as many coined it didn’t really feel like ‘freedom’ as people continued to wear face masks and abide by the social distancing measures we’ve learnt to live with for 16 months so just days later, being at a festival, with no masks and no social distancing should have felt odd but everyone quickly adapted.
Tramlines Festival in Hillsborough Park, Sheffield was the biggest event of it’s kind in Europe since the COVID-19 pandemic kicked in and it went remarkably well. It was part of the governments pilot scheme, to enter the festival you had show proof that you were double jabbed or you’d been tested and negative within 48 hours. Everyone was cool with this except for top twat Richard Ashcroft, who pulled out of his Sunday night headline set because he didn’t want to be involved in anything with governed restrictions, no loss Supergrass replaced him.
The weather forecast had looked potentially dodgy, thankfully it stayed dry all weekend and the festival felt like a festival, it was nice to see people smile again (instead of facial expressions being hidden under masks), being in a field, live music and booze. It felt normal. The line-up was a mix of new and old, The Kooks, The Pigeon Detectives and The Fratellis, no thanks, we’ve moved on from 2005, however The Streets headlined the first night with a glorious set of bangers.
Tramlines is a festival that has naturally evolved from an inner-city DIY festival to a huge corporate event that can now attract bigger acts year-on-year. The name feels a tad ironic as trams, the main source of public transport for festival-goers were stopping before the end of the festival each night which was ridiculous. Thankfully I live within walking distance, the queue for taxis was lengthy. The only other major criticism was beer, Sheffield is full of great beer yet they were selling cans of Red Stripe for £5.50 or pints of fake ‘craft beer’ for £6. We understand that the pandemic hasn’t made things easy but it felt like a bit of a rip-off.
Back to the music. Sheffield icons Everly Pregnant Brothers brought LOLzzz to the main stage on the Saturday afternoon with their typical bant, pop punker Lauran Hibberd followed, bouncing around, dressed like a princess whilst T’Other Stage had a more intense vibe going on. Sheffield poet Otis Mensah dropped bars about social injustice and inequality, multi-instrumentalist Georgia was pushing genres and Little Simz showed the festival that women can rap just as good, if not better than the men in a performance that required your full attention.
The festival fully came to life on the final day. The thunder storms that had been predicted never materialised and it turned out to be the best day for weather, music and vibes. Holly Humberstone showed why she’s been on everybody’s ‘One to Watch’ list for the past year on T’Other Stage before Baby Queen took to The Library Stage.
I’ve been banging on about Baby Queen since hearing Pretty Girl Lie when it came out in September 2020 and I had Want Me on repeat for too long. She seemed to be the fully formed pop star despite only getting signed at the start of the first lockdown.
Since then she’s released a 6 song EP, a series of singles and next month she’s dropping a mixtape, the biggest Baby Queen project to date before the debut album due in 2022. Despite having released plenty of songs, Tramlines was Baby Queen’s second gig, (her first being at Latitude the same weekend). It might not have been flawless but I’ve seen a lot of worse performances.
Baby Queen was good but the highlight of the whole festival followed with Dizzee Rascal on the main stage. A set of bangers from his debut album Boy In Da Corner through to his latest release and seventh record E3 AF, the crowd went wild and the moment of the weekend was Bonkers. It was just great to see everyone let go after months of lockdowns, it finally felt like ‘freedom’.
Supergrass closed the festival on the main stage as a last minute replacement to Richard Ashcroft to a crowd half the size of Dizzee’s. You know what you’re getting with Supergrass, they’ve been doing this for years!
The Big Moon headlined The Library Stage with an energetic set of tracks from their first two albums as well as a euphoric cover of Fatboy Slim’s Praise You.
Ah, it was nice to have festivals back!
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