First impressions of Offset are striking, curious and quaint. This tiny festival, with probably less than 500 tents in the camp site, and with a short five minute walk from end to end, is a wonderful harbour of eclecticism and individuality. The site is situated in the haven that is Hainault Country Park, and is filled with beautifully hip, young people, with marvellously inventive clothing that just reeks originality. There is a vintage fair with a purchasable selection, and a good variety of food from independent (that buzzword again) sellers – you certainly won’t find a £6 hog roast or a warm pint of watered-down Carling here. But for me something that is noticeably different at Offset in comparison to other festivals is the friendly, laid back atmosphere. Everyone is polite, and there is no aggression to speak of, and whilst everyone is here to have a good time, listening to the music is the main reason why they are here. Ultimately the music steals the show, with the best and coolest new music on offer throughout the whole of the UK festival programme.
The music is very diverse, from the mad genre collage of Chrome Hoof, to the aggressive shredding of Pulled Apart By Horses, and the awesome electricity of Caribou. There are a few big names; 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, The Mystery Jets and Atari Teenage Riot in particular spring to mind; but the big thing here at Offset is the promotion and circulation of unsigned, or small label bands, always with a lot of talent. There are five indoor tents focusing on more low-key bands. From this selection, there is a lot of emerging talent on offer, but bands I found particularly striking were Conan Moccasin, within their precise musicianship and interesting grooves, and Blue On Blue, whose cool collectivity and intriguing riffs are almost guaranteed to be a mainstream success. Within these tents the sound was very loud at times, and some of the engineering was a bit slap-dash, but on the whole the experience within these festival microcosms was mostly sound.
The atmosphere on the main-stage was great too, developing in intensity throughout the day, from mellow, grass-sitting spectatorship in the afternoon to mosh-pit mentalists by the dawning of Atari. Monotonix were predictably a highlight, with wild stage antics that drove right into the crowd for the majority of the performance, and 80s Matchbox were notable for the sheer adrenalin of their performance.
I can truly recommend Offset Festival; it is a marvellous place to spend a weekend. My only slight bugbear was the under-representation of women in the festival line-up, especially considering so much of the audience was female. This issue can often be true however of any festival line-up, and certainly didn’t actually mar my enjoyment of the weekend. Some ultimately, the best fun I have had at a festival in ages. Bien Offset, Bien.
