Live Review: Cocoon in the Park- Leeds 2012

House lovers came together for CITP last weekend. After all of the negative hype surrounding the ever-typical English summer storms and downpours, (as if the sun always shines at UK music festivals anyway) – Cocoon was set to be an utter washout renamed ‘Monsoon in the Park’.

Festival ears were buzzing with the complete uproar of Friday night’s Bloc Festival in London’s Pleasure Gardens having to be shut down. Near riots were caused by the lack of security and disorganised facilities with too many party feet waiting at the gates. This therefore determined Saturday’s Bloc to be officially cancelled for safety reasons, leaving many usual ‘Cocoon’ fans devastated to have opted for this now abandoned London party. Then with Leeds ‘M Fest’ being cancelled also, due to the weather conditions, everyone had their fingers crossed for the only House music festival left standing throughout the country. Saturday definitely delivered come rain or shine, this weekend was always going to belong to Cocoon in the Park.

The venue was perfect- lots of bars stocking plenty of booze, lots of toilets and no crowding- albeit a little sludgy under the wellies. At Temple Newsam, ravers embraced the mud, grabbed a balloon and imagined they were in Club Tropicana with white sand and a pina colada in hand – this felt like a top British Summer Festival and the mud just added to the fun. The first few hours exploded with bouncing sunny vibes, House tunes blaring and of course a tasty Funktion One sound system to add to the noisy cocktail. The whole Cocoon experience was very relaxed and simple. No stress, just pure love in the crowd adding to the truly amazing and inspiring sets.

The only fault that comes to mind, was the lack of cover at the stage for anyone with the weather conditions predicted as they were. When the heavens opened, it was perfect to do a cheeky two-step and slide through the mud, up to the VIP bar where we watched the sets from with a breath taking view on the balcony to the main stage. It was a dream setting with no queue at the bar or the toilets, including some seating, not that anyone would be doing any sitting down. Luckily, we spent most of the evening in the VIP area, however, for the majority of the dedicated Cocoonists at the front of the stage, it would have been ideal just to have somewhere to go with a little cover, which would have made all of the difference for standard ticket holders.

The legend that is Sven Vath set the standard along with other iconic players such as Seth Troxler… Loco Dice and Cassy amongst other guests who played perfectly suited sets, complimenting the sunshine and blue skies through to the evening rain and grey skies into nightfall. Loco Dice played mixes of Armand Van Helden into deeper house mixes, which left the crowd wanting more. The place really went off for Vath as the atmosphere exploded along with the stage of amazing effects. Fires were blazing; confetti was shot into the crowd and dry ice blown into the air. Even with the rain, the overall atmosphere was a record high with people putting their hands into the air and dancing in the rain. The added attention to the aesthetics really did aid the moments that everyone will remember for a long time.

As soggy ravers started to disappear into the night, the remnants of marching muddy music lovers were troopers til the end – not standing still for a second to even notice the time. You felt the heightened sense of disappointment hit the crowd as the music was silenced at not much past 11, with some soldiers still then stomping onwards and upwards to the repetitive beats in their Cocooned minds.

The day had flown by with pure happy House vibes that could have carried on in the mud until sunrise. The last of the “hungry-for-more crowd” were ushered to go home. We went home with hairs standing on the backs of our necks, wobbly legs and a list of moments shared by mates and strangers that won’t be forgotten for a long time.

By Frankie Salt
@frankiesalt