The festival season is now in full swing, with revellers up and down the country converging on fields everywhere for a weekend of mud, music and merrymaking. Whilst many festivals now accommodate teenagers over the age of sixteen, one man believes that the fun shouldn’t be exclusive to those old enough to buy their own pint at the bar. The result is Underage Festival, brainchild of Sam Kilcoyne, the capital’s annual musical homage to those who can’t quite make it through the doors of an 18+ venue. The one day event, held in East London’s Victoria Park, entertains 10,000 13-17 year olds each year (away from the prying eyes of parents) and since its introduction in 2007 has hosted the likes of Ellie Goulding, Dizzee Rascal, Foals and The Pigeon Detectives. This year’s festival welcomes fellow Londoners Bombay Bicycle Club to the stage, alongside Devlin, The Midnight Beast and Rizzle Kicks to name but a few, as well as showcasing up and coming talent such as Leeds metal act The Ocean Between Us and East London singer-songwriter Spark.
At around 11.30am, before most of the attendees had usually dragged themselves out of bed, Brighton hip-hop/pop duo Rizzle Kicks took to
the main, aptly named “Underage Festival” stage. The pair, who are currently enjoying chart success with second single “Down With The Trumpets” and a guest appearance on X-Factor runner up Olly Murs’ single “Heart Skipped A Beat”, successfully woke up the sleepy crowd with their opening number, debut single “Prophet (Better Watch It)”. However, the real highlights of the half hour set were the pair’s twist on Jessie J’s chart topping single “Price Tag”, ending with a mass “Rizzle Kicks” chant from the audience, and parting track “Down With The Trumpets”, received with faultless crowd participation, cementing the tune – for these festival-goers at least – as one of the biggest singles this summer.
Fans of rock and metal were well catered for over on the Red Bull Bedroom Jam stage (constructed inside one of Victoria Park’s bandstands) with The Ocean Between Us, fresh from earlier summer festival dates at T In The Park and Sonisphere, attracting 
an appreciative audience with songs from their self-titled EP. The quartet have already earned themselves a flattering comparison to Sheffield post-hardcore poster boys Bring Me The Horizon and today they delivered an impressively tight set for a band formed just two years ago, with even the opening track coaxing the excitable crowd into forming the obligatory mosh pit. Mid-set, frontman Judd Wrighton made the flippant comment “Who hasn’t heard of us? Well now you have”, a statement easily deemed arrogant by those who haven’t bothered to watch their live show, but fairly justified by the buzz around their early success and the power of their performance. Throughout the day the stage also played host to the likes of unsigned St Albans post-hardcore act Floods, Birmingham’s Page 44. Unfortunately Cheshire four-piece Blitz Kids, who have already supported Mayday Parade and recorded a track with Kids In Glass Houses frontman Aled Phillips had to pull out due to an injury. Hertfordshire five-piece My Passion wrapped up the proceedings, bringing their eclectic blend of electro-punk to the rather modest stage. The band immediately exuded a presence suggesting they could comfortably command a much larger venue, confirmed as they ripped into opening track “Asleep In The Asylum”, a group of loyal fans singing along at their feet.
Even the overpriced food (not exactly catering for an audience comprising those only on part time salaries or pocket money) couldn’t put a downer on the festivities, particularly during Peckham rapper Giggs’ lunchtime set. After a two year spell in prison for gun charges in 2003, Giggs turned to music, releasing his debut album “Walk In Da Park” in 2008, and today he manages to fill the Topman Ctrl tent with eager fans, BlackBerry’s raised to snap a picture of the rapper. Perhaps not the most age-appropriate act of the day, with the majority of his lyrics themed around sex, drugs and violence, Giggs compensates with an amusing safe-sex message, advising his teenage fans to “strap up and use a condom” before launching into “Monsta Man” to raucous approval. A similar reception occurs during the performances of previous single “Look What The Cat Dragged In” and “Talking The Hardest”, the freestyle upon which his early fan base was built. Representing a separate borough of the capital is Dagenham rapper Devlin, who attracts one of the biggest crowds of the day for his set on the Underage Festival stage. He opens with “1989”, an ode to his teenage years attempting to gain recognition as an MC; a track which showcases his impressive skill as a rapper. If the sheer volume of screaming, jumping fans is anything to go by, 2010’s singles “Brainwashed” and “Let It Go”, a collaboration with Labrinth, are audience favourites. However, the fact that Labrinth was also present at the festival but didn’t perform alongside Devlin would definitely have been a disappointment for fans of the track.
YouTube sensations The Midnight Beast, famed for their parody of Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” which has clocked up over twelve million views on the site, were the final act to grace the Last.FM stage. The tent could barely accommodate the numbers who had flocked to see band, with fans spilling out onto the grass beyond, synchronised in a chant of the band’s name ten minutes before they were even due on. They eventually emerged twenty minutes behind schedule to deafening screams, chiefly from the female fans pressed against the barrier, and open with “Booty Call”, complete with backing dancers and an entire cheerleading squad. The trio donned wigs for a cover of Rebecca Black’s “Friday”, with the audience belting back every word in perfect harmony, suspicious in light of the negative feedback Black received about the release.. For a band who write songs purely for the purpose of comedy, this was a set which had clearly taken a huge amount of time and rehearsal to perfect, with remarkably well choreographed dance routines and well-timed costume changes. A technical glitch, the consequence of frontman Stefan’s excitable jump towards the barrier, halted the set temporarily, but otherwise the band and their backing dancers perform like a well-oiled machine, delivering a hugely entertaining and popular set despite initial scepticism.
This is a festival which by and large caters well to the target audience, delivering popular acts from a range of genres as well as offering up and coming artists an opportunity to develop their fan base. Heavy police and security presence is also reassuring to parents who may not be all that keen about their offspring being at a festival where they can’t keep an eye on them, but doesn’t detract from the experience of the event for the attendees themselves, the kind of atmosphere that’ll keep teenagers coming back year after year.
