REVIEW | OUTLOOK FESTIVAL 2022… THE FESTIVAL FOR BASS-HEADS

I arrived on day 2 in the even­ing of the lovely fest­iv­al, to your usu­al zom­bie state ravers float­ing across fields.
The site was an intim­ate but spa­cious land­scape, dressed won­der­fully to fit the pic­tur­esque fields that sur­roun­ded us. Full of nicely pock­eted sec­tions with dif­fer­ent vibes being rep­res­en­ted. I arrive at the main stage, set up so you could see the grand Chol­mondely castle where Dj Rudekid was slap­ping the crowd with a mix shawarma off sounds. Banger after banger get­ting the crowd fully activated.

After him a wavy Ghetts step up on main stage, fresh off his amaz­ing Gla­ston­bury per­form­ance. He star­ted slowly, the wave he was on was a bit much. But half way through, real­ised Out­look wanted that old school Ghetts, that’s when he got in his bag and star­ted shelling. Secur­ity was evid­ently nervous every time he stood on the speak­ers. This only put the bat­tery in his back and made him go more in his bag, activ­at­ing the rebel mode! The last half of his set was pure nos­tal­gic goodness.

After he fin­ished we were blessed with a field full of sound sys­tems bump­ing out till 4am. Plenty of pock­ets of dif­fer­ent levels of bass-heavy Elec­tric music.

Day 3 car­ried on with the same bass heavy ele­ments. The field was alive, and the vibes was up. High­light per­form­ance came from the enig­mat­ic Macka B and the Roots Band. With his ever pos­it­ive reg­gae lyr­ics and the band play­ing fault­less good reg­gae music. He took us thru the ele­ments. Drop­ping a flaw­less mas­ter­class on how to be an MC.

This day Rasta was in attend­ance. After Macka B put us through our paces, the ever supreme Congo Natty blessed the stage with full army in attend­ance! Rebel Mc graced the stage with Phoebe, Iron dread, Shumba Youth and Jnr Baptist and the sweet sound of Ten­or Fly bless­ing the occa­sion. The music was sweet, the vibes was up and the MCs were shelling. Not more you can ask for. Levels were set and tune after time had the crowd wild­in’ out. Big salute to clos­ing head­liners on the main stage.

As the main staged closed the night party begins and the stage was set for Mala. The big top tent was going off. Flowdan was on stage giv­ing pure Flowdan energy which the crowd gave back ten­fold. With that clas­sic blend of dub­step, the tent was full of good energy and ravers. You could feel the fest­iv­al was made for the raver!

Day 4 I arrived earli­er to catch a chest full of baseline pres­sure from the Mighty Jah Shaka who was play­ing a 7 hr set in the Sub­dub sec­tion. The ele­ment of sun was in full effect. The speak­er zom­bies were lined up in front of the big sound sys­tem and the head nods were pre­dom­in­ant. Rasta­fari was in attend­ance and I head to main stage to catch a next vibe, where sweet soul­ful hip hop was ringing out the speak­ers and the Lyr­i­cist was giv­ing us that feel good hip hop. Big salute to Kofi Stone from the sound to the mes­sage he delivered and it was refresh­ing to hear just pure hip hop.

After a good munch and some more alco­hol I found myself over at the Kick­ers tent. The stage was set for Amer­ic­an Grime. The Djs Micheal Sav­ant and Timbo Slice was fir­ing pure heavy­weight dub­plates, allow­ing mc Jumanji and 3ijoe to have the crowd wild­in out on a Sunday even­ing. With a guest appear­ance from yours truly, it was a good way to immerse myself into the scene.

Back to the main stage to see Sundays nights big head­liner. There was no dis­ap­point­ment at all as the don D Double E per­formed a sick set. No word missed, no vibe dropped. Pop­ping off all his clas­sics and watch­ing the crowd spit each word, line for line. No hype needed, expect­a­tions exceeded, you could really see and feel how much rat­ings he got and gets. Legend status!

More Grime good­ness was presen­ted from a sick back to back from Plas­ti­cian and Dj Spooky. Under the bright lights of the Tile Yard stage. Super rat­ings on the energy that was being deliv­er and the sick line up of MCs.

The last thing I was to see and exper­i­ence was the legend him­self. He looks as large as the name he car­ries and the energy he brought was mam­moth. The big top tent was in full met­al head mode. Tak­ing them through drum and bass Levels of euphor­ia, was the lar­ger than life Gol­die. The rent was amped with the fest­iv­al die hards. Then I made sure I took Monday off to enjoy the last moments of fest­iv­al euphoria.

The pro­ceed­ings brought a close to what was a won­der­ful fest­iv­al. The fest­iv­al made for the raver.

After talk­ing to organ­isers and site cre­at­ors, I know how much was left out and all the oth­er ele­ments they had to deal with. I can guar­an­tee you if they sort the little issue and get the green light to do all the things they plan then next years Out­look will be a mar­velous spec­tacle. Over­all A really good first time for here in the U.K. and I look for­ward to next years festival.

Oth­er high­light per­form­ances were CMPND with that dis­tinct­ive UKHH per­form­ing tracks of their new release on Hi-focus.
Lady Lykes shelling in the big top tent. Fully mas­ter­ing the ceremony.
Logan OlM was pop­ping up every­where and shelling down the place.
Black josh was fir­ing at the fest­iv­al too.

Def­in­itely more acts to men­tion but my advice is to just be there next year!