This year the weather wasn’t kind to Love Supreme. No matter though, it clearly takes more than heavy showers, wind and grey clouds to dampen the jazz temperament. Indeed, during one mainstage set the rain even added a wild and collective devil-may-care spirit to proceedings. What did it matter if we were all getting soaked? Ffs, Nile Rodgers was on stage! He was majestic, as were his magnificent backing singers and band. Had he been the only act I saw all weekend it would have been enough to make this year’s festival a success. I danced until the soles of my shoes wore through.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about another musical legend in attendance, Smokey Robinson, albeit he went down well with the packed crowd. His songs still very much hold up and his voice at times is still a gorgeous falsetto, but at 85 years old and with serious sexual assault allegations hanging over him his arthritic sex god-esque act seemed, at best, misjudged. Something didn’t feel at all right about it to me, but maybe I’m just not laid back enough man.
Notwithstanding the weather and old Smokey, Love Supreme was once again a triumph. Since its inception in 2013 this mid-sized festival has carved a successful hybrid jazz/soul/funk niche for itself in the summer calendar. Perhaps the acts lacked a little oomph on Friday evening this year (or is it just that I’m not so into the purer jazz acts?), but Saturday was something of an improvement with The Roots and War, and Sunday was fantastic, with Sampa the Great and En Vogue admirably complementing Nile Rodgers.
The crowd demographic at Love Supreme has changed quite a bit over the years. There are still many spirit-of-jazz oldies taking up prime dancing space with their fold up chairs, but these days a very respectable number of enthusiastic younger people give extra frisson to proceedings. The ethnic mix of attendees has also notably improved (I’m sure in part due to the well-chosen range of performers) which gives the festival a more contemporary, inclusive and – even more – friendly vibe than it once had.
Like all good festivals one of the great joys of Love Supreme is simply mooching about its seven or so venues and stumbling upon unexpectedly marvellous and interesting musicians, talks and other diverse attractions. This year I particularly loved David Olusoga’s discussion in the Jazz Lounge about ‘The Empire we Don’t Talk About’, Gabriel Gatehouse discussing his book and podcast ‘The Coming Storm’, joining morning singing sessions with the Brighton Swing Choir, failing miserably to learn some new dance steps in the Bands and Voices tent, and discovering the profoundly melancholic and haunting music of Arooj Aftab. I almost made it to the tucked away healing area too, but one of the well-stocked bars dragged me forcibly into its sheltering arms on the way over.
If you happen to be with child/ren then you can breathe deeply and relax, as Love Supreme has a well-monitored area where you can drop your little darlings off safely for a few hours. I overheard one dad raving about this area, amongst his many other ravings (the childless freedom and its associated alcohol intake had clearly gone to his head), telling all and sundry how much his kids loved it. Indeed, he was feeling so invigorated he was planning on going to the Blue in the Green dance tent for a late night (4am?) rave once his kids had dropped off to sleep, but somehow I doubt he made it.
Getting down to festival nuts and bolts: the camping areas are spacious with an acceptable number of hot showers and mainly clean loos; the bars and cafes are decent enough, reasonably priced and well placed; the choice of food stalls is good, but as ever you don’t get much bang for your buck (although the homemade £4.50 blackberry, coconut and lime ice-lolly I scoffed was worth every penny); and, if you spend a little extra for access, the Supremium areas - or is it Superiorum areas – allow you a nice restful respite from the more frenetic activity in the main arena.
All said and done Love Supreme is not the wildest or most radical of festivals, it’s far from an obligatory dress up zone, and it’s certainly not – unless I’m missing something (which is more than possible) – much of a drug fest, but it is a really enjoyable and friendly mid-sized festival with a consistently excellent line up of artists, some a little past their best but with many up and coming performers too, not to mention a fair few at their peak. Inshallah, I intend to be there again next year...
Published on 08 July 2025 by Neil del Strother
