When I went to All Points East last year, it rained. This year, something worse happened – Amaarae pulled out the week before.
Was she officially the headliner? No. But she was my headliner. There’s a reason her latest album was widely considered one of the best to be released last year, and Friday night in Victoria Park could probably have done with some Angels in Tibet.
That being said, the Ghanaian-American singer-songwriter cancelled her show citing “unforeseen personal circumstances”, so she, and the festival, are of course blameless in denying me my Amaarae moment.
Thankfully, 37 acts still took to the stage (six stages, in fact) in east London on Friday, providing plenty of alternative options. And who knows, in the parallel universe where Amaarae did perform last night, maybe her set clashed with one of my eventual favourites. Every cloud etc etc.
Speaking of clashes, which are unavoidable with so much music and such little time, there were a few that made seeing all the biggest names a serious logistical feat.
DJ Jyoty pre-empted this problem, and tried to reassure those who might miss out ahead of her set. She told her fans in a post to X: “Just remember, if you’re having to pick between Tems, Victoria Monét and me today at APE… you can come and see me in London in November during my tour.”
You could admittedly just about make Victoria Monét and Tems, if you walked quickly across the entire festival site in the ten minute gap between the sets, but Jyoty clashed with both.
One disappointed fan said: “Picking between Tems and Jyoty is like picking between true love and your soulmate. Impossible decisions.”
But although scheduling clashes are annoying, as festivals go All Points East does a pretty good job with them. Most of the main acts don’t overlap, and the relatively small scale of the site means you never have to walk miles to get to the next set. I only clocked up 15,000 steps on Friday – which is more than usual, but really not many for a full day of walking and dancing.
I also reckon that most of these steps will have been wracked up in less than an hour at CUPRA North Arena, where the aforementioned Jyoty provided one of the best sets of the night.
Her genre-blending list of tracks had the crowd signing, head bopping and cheering as dusk turned to night.
It is impossible to pick out a highlight, not because it was one of those shows that you enjoyed in the moment but that quickly fades from the memory, but because it was all so much fun.
And after Jyoty it was then, finally, time for the last act of the night – Kaytranada (the actual headliner), performing on the largest stage on the eastern edge of the site.
There were mercifully no clashes here, so everyone who had stuck it out to the end could enjoy the artist’s crowd-pleasing setlist, which included 10%, Witchy and 4EVA.
Upbeat tunes, bright lights, and striking visuals were the order of the day, and the crowd responded to that energy.
London day festival curfews always hit hard, but ending Kaytranda’s set just before 11 felt especially premature. The only thing that would have made it better, would have been to have had more of it.
Day one of All Points East might have been Amaarae-less, but it still sparkled; and those Jyoty tickets for November are firmly in my shopping basket.
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