- Matt Unicomb fills his boots with golden-era dubstep, drum & bass, UK garage and more.
- I'd been at Outlook for only a few hours by the time I heard "Skeng" by The Bug and a dubstep remix of Michael Jackson's "Beat It." The festival hadn't even started yet. It was my neighbours blasting the tunes from a nearby mobile home, attendees who, like me, had arrived early for what's probably the best bass music event in the world. There were plenty of other classic tunes to come. Held at the 19th-century Fort Punta Christo, this year's Outlook brought around 13,000 people—mostly from the UK—to the southern tip of Croatia's Istria peninsula. For many of them, it's the best weekend of the year.
A one-stop-shop for UK soundsystem culture, Outlook's lineup traverses drum & bass, dubstep, hip-hop, reggae, UK garage and more. Many acts have played multiple editions and usually perform a few times each year, both on boat parties and at the festival proper. There's a mix of scene icons and rising stars, who play across ten stages spread throughout the fort. Different stages are home to different sounds, with some focussed on drum & bass (The Garden), dub and reggae (Subdub), and dubstep (The Void). I recognised less than half the acts billed—I hadn't been to a dubstep party since I pulling weekday all-nighters as a university student—so I happily went wherever friends wanted to go. It was a great decision: I can safely say that Outlook was the most refreshing festival experience I've had in years.
The festival began with an opening concert held at Pula Arena, an amphitheatre constructed by the Romans between 27 BC and 68 AD. Headlined by Bonobo, it was an unfussy way to ease into the weekend, the energy kept steady by the downtempo tunes. Things would have gotten rowdier had Wiley, who was due to close the night, boarded his plane to Croatia, but it wasn't to be. Members of High Focus, one of the UK's leading hip-hop collectives, were drafted in as a replacement, but the arena was almost empty by the time they finished their first few tracks.
The festival proper started on Thursday with all ten stages in action. There was a Swamp 81 takeover of Subdub with Loefah, Madam X and Pinch, plus a back-to-back set from Berlin's Orson and Hops. That's where the night's classiest music was heard, a mixture of reduced dubstep, techno and house. There was also reggae, drum & bass and dancehall at The Clearing, which could be described as Outlook's main stage, delivered by acts like Miss Red, Shy FX and Dynamite MC. The sound, as has been noted in reviews of other events at Fort Punta Christo, was clean and heavy, with crisp highs and plenty of punch down low.
The atmosphere in the camping grounds was already sloppy the next day, as groups of 20-somethings milled around trading stories from the night before. Everyone was in a good mood and up for a chat. Most people I met were repeat attendees. Some groups had been first introduced at the festival, and had decided to link up for following editions. The vibe reminded me of another much-loved festival that homes in on a specific sound: Romania's Sunwaves. Like Sunwaves, Outlook doesn't only cater to general followers of electronic music, but fans of specific genres. This creates a special feeling among the crowd, who talk about their favourite mix CDs, tracks and DJs from a scene they've been immersed in for years.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday hosted more great music than it's possible to mention. You could spend the afternoons and evenings swaying to hip-hop, reggae and house at The Beach, where acts like Peanut Butter Wolf and Manchester's Levels crew kept hundreds moving under the sun. The main event started at 10 PM, marked by thousands of 20-somethings shuffling along stone paths leading from the campsites to the festival. Friday's highlights included a set by the Birmingham rapper Mist at The Clearing, a Deep Medi takeover at The Void with Mala, Silkie and Truth, plus hearing Barely Legal play Ben Klock's thundering remix of Josh Wink's "Are You There" through The Moat's four-point soundsystem. My Saturday was more about drum & bass, grime and hip-hop, with Zed Bias, Slimzee and Flowdan, and a rowdy contingent of MCs at The Stables that included President T, Kev Brown and Datkid.
Sunday was for UK garage and dubstep at The Moat, where El-B, MJ Cole, Oneman and Zed Bias rolled out dozens of tunes I didn't recognise but—judging by the way everyone around me sang the lyrics—were probably classics. It was my first time listening to UK garage played at its proper tempo—I've only heard a few tracks in a set at most, all pitched down to house tempo—and the effect was huge. It felt like a whole style of music had been opened up. The same went for some of the dubstep and drum & bass I heard. Aside from a few wobbly dubstep tracks, there wasn't a tune I disliked all weekend.
The only downside was the pricing. At the opening party at Pula Arena, two small rounds of beers cost me €50. This wouldn't sting as much if the workers' wages reflected the prices, but they don't—friends working in one of the food trucks weren't paid more than a few Euros per hour. That extra money is going somewhere, and it's not to the local university students pouring the drinks. Musically, though, Outlook is untouchable, an amazing showcase of UK sounds that had me racing to my Spotify account at the end of each night. Who knows if I'll be back, but it's left me with a lifetime of new music to savour.
Photo credit /
Rob Jones - Lead, Oneman,
Chazz Adnitt - Beach, MC
The festival proper started on Thursday with all ten stages in action. There was a Swamp 81 takeover of Subdub with Loefah, Madam X and Pinch, plus a back-to-back set from Berlin's Orson and Hops. That's where the night's classiest music was heard, a mixture of reduced dubstep, techno and house. There was also reggae, drum & bass and dancehall at The Clearing, which could be described as Outlook's main stage, delivered by acts like Miss Red, Shy FX and Dynamite MC. The sound, as has been noted in reviews of other events at Fort Punta Christo, was clean and heavy, with crisp highs and plenty of punch down low. The atmosphere in the camping grounds was already sloppy the next day, as groups of 20-somethings milled around trading stories from the night before. Everyone was in a good mood and up for a chat. Most people I met were repeat attendees. Some groups had been first introduced at the festival, and had decided to link up for following editions. The vibe reminded me of another much-loved festival that homes in on a specific sound: Romania's Sunwaves. Like Sunwaves, Outlook doesn't only cater to general followers of electronic music, but fans of specific genres. This creates a special feeling among the crowd, who talk about their favourite mix CDs, tracks and DJs from a scene they've been immersed in for years.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday hosted more great music than it's possible to mention. You could spend the afternoons and evenings swaying to hip-hop, reggae and house at The Beach, where acts like Peanut Butter Wolf and Manchester's Levels crew kept hundreds moving under the sun. The main event started at 10 PM, marked by thousands of 20-somethings shuffling along stone paths leading from the campsites to the festival. Friday's highlights included a set by the Birmingham rapper Mist at The Clearing, a Deep Medi takeover at The Void with Mala, Silkie and Truth, plus hearing Barely Legal play Ben Klock's thundering remix of Josh Wink's "Are You There" through The Moat's four-point soundsystem. My Saturday was more about drum & bass, grime and hip-hop, with Zed Bias, Slimzee and Flowdan, and a rowdy contingent of MCs at The Stables that included President T, Kev Brown and Datkid. Sunday was for UK garage and dubstep at The Moat, where El-B, MJ Cole, Oneman and Zed Bias rolled out dozens of tunes I didn't recognise but—judging by the way everyone around me sang the lyrics—were probably classics. It was my first time listening to UK garage played at its proper tempo—I've only heard a few tracks in a set at most, all pitched down to house tempo—and the effect was huge. It felt like a whole style of music had been opened up. The same went for some of the dubstep and drum & bass I heard. Aside from a few wobbly dubstep tracks, there wasn't a tune I disliked all weekend. The only downside was the pricing. At the opening party at Pula Arena, two small rounds of beers cost me €50. This wouldn't sting as much if the workers' wages reflected the prices, but they don't—friends working in one of the food trucks weren't paid more than a few Euros per hour. That extra money is going somewhere, and it's not to the local university students pouring the drinks. Musically, though, Outlook is untouchable, an amazing showcase of UK sounds that had me racing to my Spotify account at the end of each night. Who knows if I'll be back, but it's left me with a lifetime of new music to savour. Photo credit / Rob Jones - Lead, Oneman, Chazz Adnitt - Beach, MC