This year's South West Four or SW4 as its more commonly known as celebrated its tenth year anniversary and had a spectacular lineup to match.
Closing out Sunday night on the main stage was headliner Example. His presence on stage with his live band brought a continued wave of euphoric energy over the grounds of Clapham Common as he kicked off his set with 'Kickstarts'. Bouncing around the stage like an energiser bunny and fresh off a main stage performance at Glastonbury, the sold out 30,000 crowd filled the main arena to wave their hands in the air to tracks 'Won't Go Quietly', 'Stay Awake', 'Watch the Sun Come Up', and his new single 'All the Wrong Places'. Complete with a massive laser display and pyrotechnics showering the Clapham Common grounds, Example sent out this years SW4 in style!
The UKF hosted main arena also had massive sets from SW4 favourites Knife Party, Dutch DJ Nicky Romero, Drum and Bass master Andy C, American Trap sensation Baauer and special guest, the one and only Steve Aoki.
Having recently started a trend of spraying champagne and throwing cakes into the crowd, we were waiting in anticipation for Steve Aoki to hit the stage to see what crazy antics he would bring to the London. Kicking off with his new track, it didn't take long for Aoki to balance himself up on the DJ booth to present to the crowd what looked like an M&S chocolate cake. Pointing a finger out across the crowd, he takes aim and tosses the cake high into the sky, as the crowd disperse to avoid being literally cake faced, the cake splats onto the ground spraying up onto those unfortunately enough to "get a piece". Steve Aoki then topped his set off by running out to the barriers with a bottle of champagne to spray those that were front and centre to complete an entertaining performance.
Earlier on in the day in the Together Arena the iconic Soul II Soul drew an packed out crowd to see Jazzy B and the rest of the troupe. Jazzy B got on the mic to say "Its great to be on this side of the river" as the north Londoner's treated the crowd to tracks like 'Keep on Movin', 'Back to Life', 'Get a Life' and more which kept the fans grooving throughout their hour long set.
The Bedrock arena had special guest and legendary German DJ and producer Sven Vath get the mid afternoon crowd bopping their heads with a typical Vath set full of techno house goodies that you can't help but shake your ass to! Vath is still one of few DJ's that performs with Vinyl and its a pleasure to see this against all the digital DJ's these days.
Also up in the Bedrock arena is flight shy Eric Prydz whose also another SW4 fan favourite. Featured regularly over the years, Prydz never disappoints. His electro infused big room house sound has served him well over the years and this years set at SW4 was one of the best ones yet.
Closing out the Bedrock tent and performing in a Skull like custom made DJ booth is Alex Ridha, who is more famously known as Boyz Noise, a german electronic music producer who brings his lively and innovative live show to SW4. His innovative mix of different genres of music with electronic music makes it easy to understand why he is in huge demand and why his live sets are praised around the world! His energy transcends over the packed tent to ensure that everyone is treated to a special show.
With John Digweed, Pete Tong, Erick Morillo, Dillon Francis, RL Grime, Friction, Crazy P, The 2 Bears and more performing on Sunday it was yet another example that its best not to mess with a formula of bringing one of the biggest dance music lineups to London every Bank Holiday weekend. SW4 have stuck to their roots of doing what they know best, throwing a massive weekender party in a park and have had 10 years of success by doing so. If you haven't ever been to SW4, we recommend you prepare for next year as each year just seems to exceed the previous, see you on the Common in 2014!