Earlier this month London’s leading independent R&B, Soul & Alt Rap Festival Cloud X returned to the scene with a lineup of top UK selectors and homegrown talent taking centre stage.
The highly anticipated festival landed in East London hotspot and outdoor venue The Cause, however with the festival overcoming hurdles including last-minute venue and line-up changes, it was quite hard to envision the outcome of the day, nevertheless, attendees put their best garms on, slogan tees, cool shades and mini skirts filling up the sun-filled location.
The Courtyard saw an array of female DJs dominate the space with the likes of Jojo Deevoy and Kamilla Rose warming up the crowd, while Izzy Bossy and Shifa Ligero were next up and they did not disappoint, as they both selected all the right songs to get people moving with everything from Bashment to Amapiano being played.
In addition to the ladies, other DJs like Tim Garcia and Flexin’ continued to keep the crowd entertained until the legendary Crazy Cousinz hopped on the decks for the last Courtyard stage set and they did not come to disappoint as everything from Garage to the beloved genre of Funky House was played. Automatically igniting some real good vibes, lyrics to tracks like Egypt – In The Morning and Maleeka – Go were sung in unison by the crowd, people were whining down and skanking out to Gracious K – Migraine Skank and so many more great tracks from that era were included in the set, Crazy Cousinz successfully transported us back to 2009 in the best way possible, while still tapping into some of the hottest tracks circulating the underground scene.
As Crazy Cousinz pushed down on the fade-out button, attendees made their way to the warehouse, which could be considered the main stage, here you could find Santino Le Saint (who is from the Cloud X family) performing some of his tracks, the soulful musician introduced a few special guests to the stage including South London rapper Infamousizak and smooth sounding singer Col3trane. With the crowd warmed up and eager to know who the special guest was, they didn’t have to wait any longer as UK rap pioneer Ghetts surprised fans with the closing set. The room was filled with phone camera lights and the energy was high, Ghetts performed a selection of his greatest records, alongside some of his newer material, both were shown an equal amount of love, tracks like ‘Know My Ting’, ‘Good Hearts’, ‘Laps’, ‘Mine’ were included in the setlist, but it was Ghetts’ version of the infamous one take freestyle which was a spotlight moment in his performance, the crowd went wild during that moment, in the most wholesome way possible gun fingers were at the ready each time Ghetts performed one of his iconic lyrics, a stellar last performance from the East London trailblazer that is Ghetts.
Despite being downsized, the day was still filled with good energy and smiles with a continuous injection of perfectly selected tracks and mixes by the talented array of DJs, all artists who performed on the day had their sweetest records up their sleeves to keep the crowd entertained. If you want to feel inspired through music or fashion, Cloud X is the festival for you!
See our festival photo gallery below
Follow Cloud X Festival on Instagram
Words: Jadene Rogerson
Photography: Clarke Redd