Music Is Power – Hardwick Festival 2024 The Review

We spent three days in the estate of Hardwick Park for the Hardwick Festival tenth anniversary edition, and in the words of headliner Richard Ashcroft the feeling was “together we are united”.

Festival owner John Adamson promised the tenth edition of Hardwick Festival was to gather the “biggest and best line-up to date” for 2024 and names like Becky Hill, Richard Ashcroft, Sophie Ellis-Bexter, Blossoms, Snow Patrol, Soul II Soul and The Charlatans, you have to agree the lineup didn’t disappoint.

Although the main stage isn’t our forte, for electronic music lovers, there was an abundance of both local and international talent. Names like Eats Everything, Fat Tony, Never Dull and Richy Ahmed were a draw for many along with local talent like Holly Hutchinson, Tony Hutchinson, Kev Cannon, Simon Gibb, Karl Frampton, Restoration residents Mark Hutchinson and Ben Douthwaite and LLIP residents Mike Johnson and Sista Paula. Throw in dance music royalty in the way of Brandon Block, Jeremy Healy and Graeme Park and the weekend was always going to be a party of substantial magnitude.

The site map stayed the same from 2023, over five stages and a plethora of food vendors and various other stalls, the familiar territory was again set to be our stomping ground over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The camping / glamping / caravan sites were all full and due to a broken down camper van we lost our spot so had to stay down the road at Sedgefield Racecourse (shout out to them guys for saving our weekend).

Armed with our press passes, cameras, our signal-less phones and £6.50 pints of Amstel we hit The Treehouse Friday afternoon for Karl Frampton’s opening set. Friday was fairly quiet last year so we were surprised how busier it was this time around. The pull of pop star Becky Hill had probably attracted a bigger crowd this year. Karl’s set was full of laidback dusty-funk grooves with tracks like Shabi’s ‘That’s My Bebop’ warming things up before Newcastle producer/DJ Abel took over with a deeper, melodic sound.

The highlight of Friday was of course Soul II Soul. The British music collective led by Jazzie B are pioneers in the UK’s soul/reggae/r&b scene and performed in an absolute stellar way. Hits like ‘Keep On Movin’ and ‘Back To Life’ had the crowd blissfuly swaying, the beautiful vocals of Charlotte Kelly sounding transcendental. OBE Jazzie B reflected to the crowd at points on subjects like the Windrush generation and how he had always loved coming “up north” before poetically rhyming tracks like ‘Holding On’.

 

Saturday was the first real full day for us. A touch more overcast than the glorious Friday weather, we knew we were in for a treat with The Courtyard being introduced into the proceedings from today. We headed over to the covered tropical utopia for Restoration resident Ben Douthwaite’s debut set at Hardwick. A carefully curated set had Ben testing the crowd with energetic grooves. Slipping into his full rhythm with remixes of Camelphat’s ‘Cola’ and beefed up versions of Bassheads ‘Is Anybody Out There’ before a remix of Alison Limerick’s ‘Where Love Lives’ began to ring out, the pressure and expectation gave way to cheerful smiles and pumping fists, Douthwaite had made his first impression on Hardwick, thoroughly.

Our good friend and local party starter Kev Cannon was next, fresh from our back to back set at Cafè del Mar in Ibiza a couple of weeks back, Cannon had armed his usb’s with some driving House from the likes of Mike Dunn, Risk Assement’s disco groove ‘Rhyme’ and a new production from himself entitled ‘Everything‘ which he dedicated to our friend Paul Ferguson who is fighting the good fight right now. Up next toon legend and another good friend of #KOTT Mr Tony Hutchinson.

At this point a few cans of Red Stripe in and a belly full of German Hot Dogs, the chicken neckin’/ toe tapping was in full force and the room was nicely filling up with early clubbers searching for them hedonistic 4/4 beats. Hutchinson had Byron Stingley’s ‘Get Up Everybody’ cued up and he was off. A punchy selection of no nonsense House ensued. Seemingly Newcastle was bringing it’s main boys this weekend.

As we headed into the evening and the sun was lowering, we hot-stepped our way through the bustling MainStage area that was alive with the sounds of waltzers “scream if you want to go faster” rang out and mechanical pressure jets burst across the soundscape. ‘Into The Woods’ was our next stop and fast-rising starlet Holly Hutchinson was whipping the crowd into a frenzy in the psychedelic wood stage that had a serious sound system upgrade this year or at least sounded like it! The queues into this small wooded area were lengthy throughout the day and for good reason. Dancing amongst those tall pine trees with neon beams supported from above and dust swirling around in the air gives you somewhat of a primate feel.

Long-term To The Manor Born resident Mike Johnson stepped up next, followed by Haysi Fantayzee and early DJ superstar Jeremy Healy. We lost track of the music at this point so apologies, you know what it’s like when you get chatting to people and before you know it two hours have passed. Mike Johnson was impressive as always playing a blend of funky classic house and Jeremy well was Jeremy and did what he does best.

 

As Saturday came to heady, swaying conclusion there was one last jolt to The Courtyard for a listen to some new faces for the conclusion of the days. Unlish label head Alisha was at the helm, the crowd had decreased in age average by about ten years as the youth had took centerstage. Driving deep tech house was pushing the sound system to the max as the crowd lapped up Alisha’s bass-heavy tracks. Azari & III’s ‘Reckless’ the Max Dean remix pumps out at around 130BPM as well as some of Alisha’s own latest productions ‘Give It To Me’ and ‘Don’t Pretend’.

The headline for Saturday was of course South Shields raised turned international superstar Richy Ahmed. DC10, Glastonbury and Tomorrowland, every major event this guy has played at. As the Dance System remix of ‘Earn It’ by Surya Sen belts out the crowd is eating out of the palm of his hand. The floor at this point had become a sea of Red Stripe tins, plastic glasses whilst the smell of fruity vape smoke rose into the air, alas our call for bed had arrived. Saturday, completed mate.

Sunday, this weekend has taken its toll. Once last push for the lords day. Today was going to be the day! Richard Ashcroft was headlining, Eats Everything was headlining, Graeme Park was playing, we were excited. We arrived at site after a lovely walk across the Hardwick country acres. First up was The Courtyard for Restoration boss Mark Hutchinson. Ahead of their double-billed full day party in Newcastle across Frate in association with Hartlepool-based party LLIP and Colonel Porters on September 7th with Pete Heller and Allister Whitehead, Mark was ready to fire into his second set of the weekend.

Straight after is Sista Paula aka Paula Halfpenny. Paula’s vigour for music and DJ’ing is infectious and is definitely a purveyor of music rather than just House music alone. From snippets of S’Express to Claptone’s remix of ‘Liquid Spirit’, there was a definite undertone of soul, gospel and dance within her mix.

We spent the next couple of hours mingling between stages crossing paths with smiley faced punters, weary ravers and of course Kevin & Perry. The evenings entertainment was fast approaching and we had time to catch Fat Tony display his hedonistic crowd-pleasing set which included the likes of Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’ and Black Box’s ‘Ride On Time’. But the time was now. The Verve’s Richard Ashcroft was about to close the weekend on the main stage and to be fair we’d spent little if no time there so far. The mood was eager as Ashcroft took to the stage, “Music unites, together we are stronger” the Mancunian laments to the crowd and after the weekend we have to agree, “Music Is Power”.

Thanks to all the team at Hardwick Live, Jon, Emma, Tor, Sam for all your hospitality over the weekend. We look forward to what you guys and girls have for us in 2025. And may the next ten years be as fruitful as the last.