Eastern Electrics returned to Burgess Park and reminded us of its beauty

London was briefly a desert on Sunday 9th August. Burgess Park, the choice backdrop for one of the capital’s most beloved electronic gatherings, was transformed by an August heatwave into something approaching the surreal – parched grass, brilliant sunshine, and four stages of serious house music doing their level best to make South London feel like Ibiza. Eastern Electrics returned from its year away and immediately reminded everyone why it has been doing this for 18 years.

The warmth in the crowd matched the weather. This was a happy, inclusive, gloriously sweaty one-day festival doing exactly what it has always done – bringing a credible lineup to an accessible location at a price that makes it feel like a gift to London music lovers.

Mau P b2b Dennis Cruz on the Main Stage was, by widespread agreement, the set of the afternoon. The pairing was inspired with two artists whose sounds interlock with natural ease, pushing and pulling the crowd through a relentless hour that felt genuinely electric in a way that pre-planned back-to-backs sometimes don’t. Joseph Capriati b2b SOSA followed and maintained every bit of that energy into the evening before The Martinez Brothers closed things out with the kind of signature energy and crowd command that makes them one of the most reliable duos in house.

Over at Four Corners, Skream did what Skream does – wild stuff, and the crowd was with him from the first record. But the surprise of the day in that room was La La, who opened the stage with a UK garage set that had shufflers forming early and the kind of unplanned dancefloor joy that you don’t forget, while East End Dubs closed it to a packed stage.

The Plant Room was a more relaxed proposition. Groove Armada‘s DJ set struck exactly the right balance of nostalgia and freshness while Modern Funktion’s Dome hosted four walls of podium dancers and scaffolding installations alongside Mella Dee b2b Reeshy, Locklead, Truly Madly and Jamback keeping the house rolling all day. Eastern Electrics is back, and boy was it was missed.