Situated by the beautiful Cornish coast, Pleasure Principle is a brand new Weekender created by Numbers and Dedbeat.
Both Crews met over a decade ago at Dedbeat festival, which was set at a similar holiday park destination, so the template was set for a good weekend.
Trevelgue holiday park was the location Pleasure Principle, and the park itself took me right back to summers past staying with grandparents in numerous static caravans along the east coast!!
Accomodation at the venue was either in the static caravans or camping. We were camping, and after pitching the tent in less than favourable conditions, we immediately grew envious of other revellers, as they retreated from the wind in their respective static caravans!!
The venues themselves were three fold, UPTOWN, DOWNTOWN and MIDTOWN, the latter situated away from the other two.
Midtown started playing at 1500hrs on the first day and 1300hrs on the Saturday and Sunday, to give those who could recover quick enough an opportunity to keep the good times rolling, before the other venues restarted at 1500hrs and 1600hrs respectively.
Downtown and uptown were simply the upstairs and downstairs of the holiday parks cabaret club and were separated by a small arcade which kept some amused , one in particular, who on the first night emptied the soft toy grabber with what I can only describe as witch craft, as I witnessed him take over a dozen toys in as many minutes!!
While the grabber had the undivided attention of one, many others were watching Unspecified Enemies finishing their set. The venue got busier still for Legowelt, the Dutch producer who apparently describes his sound as “a hybrid form of slam jack combined with deep Chicago house, romantic technofunk and EuroHorror Soundtrack” however you describe it, the night stepped up a notch and Downtown stayed packed until the climax of Joy Orbison and Jackmaster who played a two and a half hour set to wrap up the first night.
Meanwhile, upstairs in Uptown, we watched Oneman throw down a set in a packed out, hot, sticky venue, but this did nothing to slow the tempo of the atmosphere, and we stayed upstairs to see Artwork (magnetic man) start his set.
At 4.30 am, retiring to the near horizontal tent wasn’t the most appealing proposition, and again we grew jealous of the shivering party goers who had the homely comforts of running water (hot and cold!!) and three bar gas fires that came as standard in the static caravans!!
There wasn’t much movement around the park during the day. April is still early in the year and the weather was cool and very breezy, not totally conducive to sitting out, and the atmosphere around the park was quiet as most seemed to keep themselves to themselves within the safety of their tin box caravan’s!
The early sets at midtown on the saturday, were attended by some but many were waiting for Jackmaster’s tweak-a-holic pool party, starting at 1600hrs.
With limited places, we kept our clothes on but watched on as others partied in the pool with a strong inflatable to person ratio!
Saturday night was about Downtown for us, and we turned up at the start of J Roccs set. Having seen youtube clips of this guys record collection, the most animated DJ of the weekend can seem to mix literally anything. At the start of his set the room was empty, but track after track the floor filled as his infectious sounds defy people not to dance!
This set the tone for the night, and even with some technical issues during Just Blaze’s hour, the American continued what his fellow countryman had started, playing banger after banger!!
We moved upstairs to watch John Talabot, and still, the room was packed in anticipation for the Spaniards set following his recent tour supporting the XX. He didn’t disappoint.
We returned back downtown, to finish the night watching TNGHT, followed by DJ EZ. We managed to make friends with some Caravan dwellers, who kindly invited back to their temporary home, giving us some respite from the intermittent gusts of gale force winds!!!
On Sunday morning we awoke to clear skies and calmer winds and after a breakfast in the onsite cafe, which served hot meals on site at a reasonable price, we were ready to start again!
Downtown started at 1430hrs with 2 and a half hours from Mr Sunday, before EDMX took over, playing a selection of Boogie, including tracks from his new label “Fresh Up”.
Uptown was closed on the Sunday, and as midtown closed at 9.30, it was apparent that most were waiting for the headline act of Sunday.
Vanguard of reggae/dub/roots music, David “Ram Jam” Rodigan has been at the fore front of the genre for the last 30 years and the 61 year old wrapped up the weekender with an hour and a half set that uplifted the crowd for what was a perfect end to great weekend.
With slightly better weather I’m sure the weekender would have had more of a community feel during the day, however, the less than perfect conditions could do nothing to dampen the quality of the acts on show for those who put in the long journey to attend what was a quality weekend.
Tom Barber
Published on 10 May 2013 by bigbarbs
