Pete Tong & The Heritage Orchestra + Sasha B 
+ Flo - The Wyldes, Bude (17/06/2022)
This was one of those bookings that had been postponed because of the pandemic so there was a strange mix of people there who had been waiting well over a year, some who had come last minute and a few with babies that hadn't been conceived at the point of the original date. The overwhelming feeling, however, was one of togetherness and relief at the idea of spending an evening in a secluded glade listening to an unbroken stream of fantastic dance music. For those that haven't visited the Wyldes yet (and this was my first visit), I can highly recommend it as a fantastic medium sized festival site in North Cornwall with some perfectly picked food stalls, great organisation, a smattering of bars and a couple of stages. The only complaint seemed to be the queues at the bars but this seemed to be caused by people using cards on machines with dubious Wi-Fi so it's hardly a massive issue.
Anyway, on to the music. Between DJs Flo and Sasha B the crowd was limbered up brilliantly with a great mix of tracks and sticking to the basics - keep it funky, drop in some unexpected tunes and don't talk over the music. The genius bit of staging meant that as soon as these DJ sets finished on the side stage, the main stage started filling up with members of the heritage orchestra with a range of musicians packed tightly on to the stage awaiting the main man. Sure enough, Pete Tong took to his pulpit (God is, afterall, a DJ), the crowd cheered as one and we were off. No preamble, no fiddling, just around 70 musicians hitting their stride straight away and the crowd absolutely lapped it up. Young, middle-aged and old alike had their hands in the air like they just didn't care as we were treated to note perfect arrangements of dance classics from the 80s and 90s like some sort of beautiful time capsule being opened for us all to enjoy.
Personal highlights were 'Galvanize' by the Chemical Brothers, 'Insomnia' by Faithless, 'Red Alert' by Basement Jaxx and 'Killer' by Adamski/Seal. However, every tune brought energy, spine tingling chills as you're transported back to younger days and a light show that would grace any club (some of it lazer generated, some of it handled by mother nature). The four vocalists rotated perfectly, adding soul, rap and uplifting pop voices to songs that we've come to know and love. My special mention for the night, however, has to go to drummer Adam Betts who was relentless in his provision of those all important beats that kept everyone dancing and the whole orchestra pulling as one. A glorious, celebratory night in a field in Cornwall surrounded by shiny, happy people. What more could you ask for?
More information:
Pete Tong: https://www.facebook.com/petetong
Heritage Orchestra: https://www.facebook.com/theheritageorchestra