Rocks Blog

Review: Bugged Out! Weekender 2013

by Kezia (@keziafrances)

Last Friday afternoon I, like many other Britons, was panicking about the snow. Bugged Out debuted their weekender at the British holiday institution Butlins last year, and this year I was looking forward to it more than Christmas. But thanks to a couple of inches of the white stuff sending railway lines into meltdown, it was entirely possible that I wasn’t going to make it to the delightfully named Bognor Regis, nor would – horrors – any of the DJs.

Luckily Billy Butlins sprinkled some magic and just under two hours from London later I arrived, and thanks to Twitter, knowing who had touched down out of the DJs. The site is littered with seaside-themed hotels and apartments, large stages (it is home of the Redcoats, after all) and shops with UV prizes. It’s the ideal location for an off-season knees-up, as previously explored by Bloc. “Oh, is it like an 18-30 weekend?” someone asked, possibly our taxi driver. No, not like an 18-30 weekend, like a Bugged Out! Weekend.

The first night, as always, is full of people who started their party on the journey, people pacing themselves (the minority) and people who try and see as many acts as possible. I did the latter to remarkable extent and kicked the night of with Mosca, an epic Disclosure live show and a little bit of Annie Mac on a large stage, before moving on to Dusky in the conference center. (Yes, there’s a conference center. It had a proper stage name but it was more memorable as the conference center). Over at the home of the Redcoats, Skream delivered a 120-130bpm set, aka Skreamizm, a delightful mix of house and disco, and feeling rather smug, myself and my well-paced friends saw the night to it’s end with Huxley.

Saturday was a challenge. No longer full of first-night enthusiasm, I wanted to be everywhere but physically couldn’t make the one-and-a-half-minute walk between stages. I started to feel at home at the Urban Nerds stage with garage supreme DJ EZ, bass technician Loefah with MC Chunky, and a surprise Jackmaster and Oneman b2b set (originally billed separately). I did pop out in time to catch a techno vibe courtesy of Maceo Plex and Heidi, but sadly missed The Chemical Brothers and Erol Alkan, two massive headliners at Bugged Out.

In typical festival fashion, meeting people was a mission. Directions like “the one next to Wave” flummoxed the best of us. On the other hand, bumping into people was inevitable, and due to the constant stream of partying it probably wasn’t safe to leave the apartment unless you were fully prepared to have fun. My group often returned with prizes; on the first night they were dancing with the cardboard cut-out faces of Butlins, and by the last night I had bubbles, a light-up microphone and a toy gun to add to the ‘lost and found’ apartment treasure trove.

Last year I didn’t make it to Sunday, but it turned out to be my favourite day this year, a chilled out danceathon (if such a thing exists) to Maya Jane Coles. It was supposed to be acid house fancy dress, so I threw on some dungarees and an unused swimming costume, because even though I had narrowly missed going to the Klaxons pool party I was still full of Butlins spirit. I still am – the resort’s TV advert where a family holding hands flies into the sky? Fills me with festive joy.

Bugged Out do great parties outside of Butlins too: facebook.com/buggedoutevents

Rocks’ Top Picks at Field Day

Hackney’s Field Day festival looks to be taken over by a whole host of Rocks-approved acts in Victoria Park tomorrow, including Parma Violets, TNGHT and Jacques Greene, not to mention Oneman, all of which will be playing on the Ibiza Rocks stage later this summer. Other acts we’re looking out for include Ben Pearce, Clean Bandit, Savages and Chvrches. The Rocks Office are going to get down early to catch all the action - here are a couple of big tunes we expect to go off!