Coming from a family who has travelled for music more than once in our life time, it was an absolute no brainer for us to attend Hospitality in the Park 2019 for AJ’s 40th. Except, well, we hadn’t planned or budgeted for an overseas trip this year.
But I figured, “I’ll let it out into the universe and if it’s meant to be, it’ll be”. Low and behold, 3 months later we were on the airplane and heading to London. And to make it even better, two of Mr John’s besties met us there, RudeOne & SFR!
Two years ago I managed to do a UK and Ireland trip when my brother played at the Cork jazz festival. Sadly, AJ couldn’t join me on that trip so it was my intention to (semi) re-do the same trip, but this time include Hospitality in the Park.
It was a quick holiday as the ZAR/Pound relationship was as bad as ever, so we would keep it short, but packed it with fun activities. While nearly not being able to get onto the plane (watch the vlog), we landed on Friday morning, made our way to Bricklane, dumped our bags and ran around London.
After a good night’s rest, we made our way to the famous drum n bass label’s event.
Best Experiences at Hospitality in the Park
- Polite security with efficient entry.
- Awesome food and easy ticket purchasing (all coupon based).
- 6 stages of D&B of all different styles.
- Reasonable drink prices (for London).
- Awesome sound and lighting.
- Perfect weather! We got so lucky!
- Lots of cute Hospitality activations so you could take pictures.
- The best drum n bass in town.
- Scale – the stages, with lighting, were huge!
- Support – so crazy how many d&b loving fans there are out there!
- Cross section of ages, wasn’t a student party at all – loads of older people attended.
- Got to see Camo & Krooked again.
- I managed to watch Technimatic in London nearly 2 years ago, but this time we got to meet them. RudeOne loved their set which makes me super happy cause we’d love to book them in South Africa.
- Awesome location – Finsbury Park, easily accessed.
- People were festive but kept it tidy.
- Awesome app that allows you to build your own favourites lineup as well as check the lineup.
- Mr John got to interview some artists for his radio show.
Not Such Great Parts of Hospitality in the Park
- No clear after party. People were handing out fliers, but an official one could have been cool.
- Need better “nice” toilets where you pay more for an arm band that gives you better bathroom facilities; so it’s an added value service.
- I wish “one more” actually meant 3 more, haha!
Honestly, there really wasn’t much bad to say about it. I’m splitting hairs here when, really, I’d love to attend ever year, it really was a fantastic event.
Thank you for having us Hospitality in the Park!
