| Location(s) | Victoria Park, London Borough of Tower Hamlets |
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| Years active | 4 |
| Founded by | Tom Baker, Eat Your Own Ears Ingenious Media |
| Date(s) | July, August |
| Genre | Various, primarily alternative rock |
| Website | http://www.fielddayfestivals.com/ |
Field Day is an outdoor music festival which takes place in Victoria Park in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, organised by events promoter Tom Baker of Eat Your Own Ears. Similar to sister festival Underage, the single day event takes place around early August of each year. Both festivals usually share similar line-ups, as well as taking place within days of each other. There are five main stages, currently titled the Eat Your Own Ears Main Stage, Adventures in the Beetroot Field Stage, Village Mentality Stage, the Bugged Out! Stage and the Bloggers Delight Stage. Contrary to Underage, the festival is only open to over 18s,[1] and contains on-site bars.
Initially commissioned and announced by Ingenious Media in July 2007,[2] the first festival took place on 11 August of the same year. It has continuously expanded and improved every year since, with a fourth event scheduled for July 2010. Since its inception, ticket allocation for the festival has sold out every year the festival has taken place.[3]
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The festival hosts an annual village fete, titled Village Mentality. Beginning in 2008, the area includes a sack race, tug of war and egg and spoon race.[4] In 2008, the events took place until 5pm, finishing earlier than the rest of the festival.[5] In 2009, the area was extended to include its own musical line-up, playing on the Village Mentality Stage. Acts included Mumford & Sons, Toumani Diabaté and Malcolm Middleton. The area is handled by organiser Tom Baker's girlfriend Natalie. Village Mentality was formerly known as Homefires,[6] who hosted their own London festival until 2007.[7]
The inaugural Field Day festival took place on 11 August 2007, with the first Underage Festival taking place the same weekend.[2] Over fifty artists featured across four stages, as well as a musical bandstand.[8] Artists included the 1990s, Absentee, Adem, Alberta Cross, Andrew Weatherall, Archie Bronson Outfit, Bat for Lashes, Battles, Caribou, Casper C, The Cock N Bull Kid, Crispin Dior, El Plate, Electrelane, Erol Alkan, Euros Childs, Fanfarlo, Filthy Dukes, Florence and the Machine, Foals, Four Tet, Fridge, GoodBooks, Gruff Rhys, Hannah Holland, James Yorkston, Jo Jo de Freq, Justice, Kid Harpoon, Late of the Pier, Laura Marling, Liars, Matt Walsh, Matthew Dear, Miss Odd Kidd, Mystery Jets, Nadia Ksaiba, Patchwork Pirates, The Pictish Trail, Pull Tiger Tail, Skull Juice, The Aliens, The Concretes, The Earlies, The Lovely Jonjo, Vetiver, Warboy, White Rabbits, Young Turks and Zombie Disco Squad.[8][9] Originally being billed as a capacity of 6,000, the amount was increased to 10,000 shortly before the festival.[10]
The event was criticized for having sound issues with many of the stages, causing problems in sets by Justice, Absentee and The Aliens.[11] Further criticism came from problems with long queues at various toilets and bars across the site. With no option to leave the festival and re-enter, reviewers spoke of festival-goers feeling "trapped".[12] This led to many attendees leaving early, and complaints to the festival's organisers.[13] A statement was later issued apologising for the problems, stating that the festival was not oversold, but the amount of bars and toilets was far less than necessary.[11] Despite the problems with the festival, reviewers pointed out that these were easily fixible in time for the following year's event, stating that "...Field Day mark two [will be] everything we dreamed Field Day mark one to be".[12]
The 2008 event took place on 9 August 2008, with the Underage Festival taking place the previous day. The entire site was redesigned by Vanguardia Consulting, who provide specialist advice on sound control, to correct the sound problems of the previous year.[14] Capacity was increased to 20,000, and bars and toilets across the site were doubled.[15] More than fifty artists were again billed for the festival, including Simian Mobile Disco, Les Savy Fav, Mystery Jets and Laura Marling. The event was headlined by Foals, in what was their first UK headline festival performance.[16][17] A 25-member brass band was also added as a final addition to the line-up.[18] The event now featured five stages, an increase from the previous year. The main stage was retitled the "Converse Century Stage", to reflect the company's 100 year anniversary in 2008.[19] A similar stage was used at Underage Festival the previous day.[20]
| Converse Century Stage | NME Stage | Homefires Stage | Bugged Out! Stage | Bloggers Delight Stage |
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The 2009 festival took place on 1 August 2009, one day prior to Underage. The first line-up announcements were made on 28 January 2009, when NME announced that Mogwai would headline the event. Four Tet, James Yorkston, Apes and Androids, Malcolm Middleton, Fennesz, Errors and Skream were also announced.[22] Further line-up additions were announced on 7 April 2009, including The Horrors, Little Boots, Santigold and Mystery Jets.[23] Other line-up announcements have been sporadically announced through the festival's Twitter account.[24]
| Eat Your Own Ears Main Stage | Adventures in the Beetroot Field Stage | Village Mentality Stage | Bugged Out! Stage | Bloggers Delight Stage |
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The 2010 event was confirmed to take place on 31 July 2010,[26] in their fourth annual outing in Victoria Park.[27] On 9 February 2010, it was announced that Phoenix would headline the event, with Amiina, Beth Jeans Houghton, Caribou, Esben and the Witch, Chilly Gonzalez, Corsano and Flowers, Gold Panda, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, James Holden, Joker & MC Nomad, Max Tundra, Memory Tapes, Mouse on Mars, Pantha Du Prince and Silver Apples also announced to perform.[28] Further acts were announced on 12 March 2010, when Babeshadow, Carte Blanche (DJ Mehdi & Riton), Chapel Club, Hudson Mohawke, Lightspeed Champion, No Age, Simian Mobile Disco, Tamikrest, The Fall, These New Puritans and YucK were added.[29][30] The festival is set to expand further to six stages, including the Outdoor live stage, Adventures in the Beetroot Field arena, Homefires stage, Bugged Out! arena, Bloggers Delight stage, and the musical bandstand.[31]
For the first time in 2010, Field Day is to take part in a festival 'twinning' scheme, organised by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF). The initiative encourages twinned festivals to swap artists and cross promote each others events.[32] Field Day was 'twinned' with the Øya Festival in Oslo, Norway.[33]