51st State is a new addition to London’s summer festival line-up. The event navigates through various transatlantic beats covering house, techno, soul and garage and it’s all the way up in Cockfosters.

The weekend just past played host to the first instalment of the festival, so I guess complications and misunderstandings are all a part of it. For example, the queues. Oh god, the queues. They were the monstrous kind that that are 3,000 people long and 100 people wide and snake round entrance points like a boa constrictor on a rat. Folks seemed pretty upset about the chaos and I wanted to stop and ask about their experience but what was there to gain from this? Alright mate sorry you’re sweating bullets in this dank field whilst your fave jams are playing on the other side of a fence, anyway I’mma just hop on through and grab an icy beer. Flaunting a press pass is immediate bad vibes. You’re not here to make enemies, I remind myself.

Once you were inside, it was obvious that this wasn’t a Tomorrowland style affair. The theme, if one could call a set of fuck-off big tents erected in a pretty stretch of green in North London a theme, was minimal. Who needs massive lazers and UFOs and all that jazz when the line up — which included MAW, Dimitri from Paris, DJ Sneak, and Tony Humphries — is great and the food — if you fancied a pant-shitting burrito — looked good too?

Ah, a 99 with a Flake — the perfect festival nibble!

The Back to ’95 tent held a very strong line-up all day, with the likes of Pied Piper and Norris Da Boss Windross cleaning out. Also playing was garage luminary Matt Jam Lamont, who I caught up after his set to talk about Ibiza, London’s dwindling club scene and the 90s resurgence.

THUMP: Hey Matt how are you?
Matt Jam Lamont: Good, I just got back from Ibiza today.

Cool, what do you think Ibiza stands for right now?
Ibiza is, for me as a DJ, a place to test yourself with the best, not necessarily against them but you want to play with the best. I want to be on the best line-ups and I think in the summer there’s no other…well actually there’s other places that have been popping up like Croatia…which are fantastic.

Yeah I think I know more people who went to Croatia than Ibiza this summer.
Croatia’s only been popular for the last four or five years, whereas Ibiza’s always been popular, every place will have a little dip in the recession, no matter who or what you are. Croatia had it good because it was new, I’m going there for Outlook, but I still feel that Ibiza is one of the best places to be on a regular basis, it’s our first year there at The RedLight and we’re absolutely smashing it.

There was ice cream EVERYWHERE at 51st State.Have you ever seen anyone shove a lolly into an ice cream like that before? Stunning.

Great. What do you think of the 90s vibe here today? The crowd too…
Yes. Classic music doesn’t go away, the old stuff never does, it just goes underground. If you look at virtually every tent you’ve got here, it’s an underground tent. A lot of festivals have to pack it out with new acts, and mainstream stuff. But if you look at the acts here today, they’ve all got a history, so as you say you’ve got a lot of people, that mixture of people who used to come out a lot in the 90s.

…And you got the new kids that are kind of hearing the 90s sounds for the first time.
Exactly, if you look at what all the kids are making today, like Disclosure, they’re influenced by garage from back in the day

Yeah what are your thoughts on Disclosure, pretty approachable I guess?
Yeah, they open a lot of eyes. They’ve got that balance between garage, house and pop, stuff that’s influenced by the 90s and recorded today. And because they’re a live act they went to America and they smashed it. EZ and certain other people as well. It definitely opens a door for a resurgence of a 90s sound. I don’t think a lot of people thought this festival would sell out but as soon as the line-up went up tickets were gone. Even today, I’m not joking here, I had people trying to get me to hook them up with tickets. I think it’s great for everyone to be able to hear this kind of music and as you said it’s a mixture of young and old in here.

Yet, still a strong community feeling…
It’s like we’re at some love festival — step on someone’s toes and it’s all ‘oh sorry mate, so sorry’ and they’ve done it in an area that hasn’t been over-used, it’s very fresh.

DJ Sneak opted for a pizza. Presumably he too had an ice cream at some point during the day.

I guess most people seek out festivals for escapism, when you’re performing is it a form of escapism for you as well?
Yeah, I find it a different challenge. I think it is escapism actually, because at festivals you’re playing to a completely different audience. You’ve got so many arenas, and there’s so many different DJs playing, so you gain a new audience and that challenges my sound too. Sure a certain percentage will have come for me, but a certain percentage will have come for everyone, so that challenges me too. I never play the same set, I have certain music don’t get me wrong, but I like playing new music, so if I’m playing old stuff I’ll always sneak some new stuff in there like I did today.

What do you think of the dance music scene in London at the moment?
London is very challenging at the moment, you’ll find the police aren’t reviewing a lot of licences. Shutting down loads of clubs. Because of the cut-backs the police can’t manage what’s going on in London. The thing they attack most is licences, it’s easier for them to just shut them down so that’s what they do, there’s so many clubs shutting down so it’s very challenging.

After watching Masters at Work kill it on the main stage I sat with some lads from Swansea to ask them about the festival and what attracted them to it. They were three tabs of acid in and remarkably lucid. We reasoned that everyone seemed to be here for a literal “good time”, the ratio of regular hats to bucket was a relaxed 1:5, and there was virtually no violence. Unlike another recent London festival where I saw a girl wretch out another girl’s weave whilst standing over her bloody and broken body. That one had zero chill. Anyway, we found a spot that had plush mattresses with umbrellas, you know for mums who had too much Rosé, or for people rushing off their faces and needing a safe space to have a panic attack. It felt very all-inclusive; come one, come all. There’s a few flaws to iron out of course, but given it’s outstanding line-up and atmospheric success, 51st State looks on track to become a regular on the London festival circuit.

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