elrow Town London 2019 – The Event Review

elrow… born in Barcelona, now globally recognised, these guys are serious party-planners and they know how to create events which ooze uniqueness. Their events are full of colour, confetti, happiness and a hose of epic DJs providing top tunes throughout the day/night, from the club scene to the festival circuits.

Every year elrow gatecrashes the capital of England, London, and they bring along with them their ‘elrow Town London’. This year was their third edition of their event in the capital, and it was to be held in their new home of Trent Park on Saturday August 17^th. elrow also promised it would be bigger, better and louder than their previous editions of ‘elrow Town London’.

With elrow promising this year’s edition of their festival was to be their best, I was expecting following their own self-hyping a star-studded line-up, and blimey, they delivered this, they revealed 50+ DJs for the day, and they were spread across 10 different stages. Massive!

Personal highlights of the lineup included Camelphat, Alan Fitzpatrick, Jamie Jones, Franky Rizardo, De La Swing, Michael Bibi, Erick Morillo, Detlef, who also went B2B with Latmun and Nathan Barato and many more, including Rochelle Hayden who won the DJ competition for a slot at elrow Town London. Overall, this lineup was not messing about, elrow have delivered the goodies, as always!

As previously mentioned elrow bought 11 stages with them this year, including ‘El Triangulo De Las Rowmundas’, ‘El Bowsque Encantado’, ‘Rowlympic Games’, ‘Absolut Pink Cathedral’, ‘Arc The Rowomf’, ‘Wunderground Rescue’, ‘The Fire Station’, ‘The Relentless Jail’, ‘Rowxford – Think Oxford But Better’ and ‘The Factory’.

The mainstage this year was ‘El Triangulo De Las Rowmundas’, a giant ship caught-up in battle with an angry Kraken. elrow put Jamie Jones in charge as captain for the day too. This stage was colossal and looking at it you could see the Kraken [giant eyed and a trippy coloured skin] attempting to engulf the ship, whilst the DJ booth was in the middle of the hull.

Of an evening the ‘El Triangulo De Las Rowmundas’ looked even more epic, the Kraken’s eyes changed from yellow to blue, whilst closing the day off there was ample amounts of confetti being shot from the ship too, whilst also being accompanied by flashing lights pointing in all directions possible.

‘El Bowsque Encantado’ was also a crazy arena too; this was reminiscent of a rainforest and inside there were brightly coloured butterflies, vines and UV-coloured leaves from the ceiling. Elrow also added more madness by letting a handful of giant inflatable balls loose in the crowds, which people hit up in the air all throughout DJ sets too.

For the more adventurous elrowers there was ‘The Fire Station’ which was a foam party pumping out various genres of tunes, including the 80’s, Hip Hop and Keven & Perry Trance classic too. Flipside, if you’re really brave you could get your skate on at the Absolut Pink Cathedral which had LGBQ+ collective Adonis providing the soundtrack.

My favourite DJ set of the day was from those two Grammy-nominated Scousers Camelphat, they really are running the music scene ATM because theyr’re so consistent in the studio, and they know how to headline a party too. With an album scheduled for release too, the only way is up for them!

I appreciated how they featured their own records including ‘Breathe’ with Cristoph, ‘Panic Room’ with Au/Ra and also their unreleased ‘House Is A Feeling’ ID as what I felt as the main set highlights, tracks the crowd can sing along to due to the catchy vocals, or the seriousss beats.

In the meantime, throughout their set they also took you on a journey, initially flirting with Tech House tunes early in their set, which included Solardo & Eli Brown’s ‘XTC’, Sosa’s unreleased ‘Coke Whore’ ID which is going to be a huge hit, and also Market Memories ‘A Good One’ which has a catchy break.

On the flipside, as time progressed they showcased their Techno knowledge by dropping UMEK’s ‘Vibrancy’, their edit of the Adama Twins remix of ‘Roar; which featured a classic Chemical Brothers vocal, Pryda’s recent ‘Hiiden’ and another vocal classic in the form of Sweet Disposition with a Cristoph twist on it.

Other DJ sets I really appreciated was Alan Fitzpatrick who laid down a set built upon his own tunes including ‘M27’, ‘Kona’ and ‘We Do What We Want’, whilst also including other popular tracks from Anfisa Letyago, Nathan Mots and also a crowd-pleasing remix of ‘Gypsy Woman’ too. Alan spun from 1530 to 1700, and he did not hold back, he certainly got the crowd riled up.

Another set which was a spectacle to behold was from the legendary Erick Morillo who closed down the El Bowsque Encantado’, which you could say was reminiscent of the Amazon rainforest which runs through his homeland. His set packed so much energy and emotion, and when you get to witness him inside the booth, he really does become one with the music, fully immersed. Two real crowd pleasers was him dropping his ‘Firth Element’ track and also Gerd Janson remix of ‘Promised Land’.

To find out what other tracks were included in DJ sets from elrow Town London check out our DJ set playlist too, HERE https://www.dancerebels.com/2019/08/21/elrow-town-london-2019-the-dj-set-playlist/

As always, being in and amongst the crowds at an elrow event is always a unique experience, this year they had giant manually-operated flamingos, toucans, parrots and fish throwing all sorts of shapes at about 20ft tall, whilst a giant inflatable whale, octopus, ship and mini-sub were floating about over the heads of the mainstage crowds too.

If you thought that wasn’t enough, elrow were also handing out free inflatable’s including Absolut and Desperado bottles, wooden spoons, Ainsley Harriott masks, pirate hats and guns, flamingo hats, snakes, palm trees, space hoppers and tigers, the was a sea of colour in the crowds.

What I also appreciated about elrow DJ sets this year was the artists showed diversity and skill by including some classic vocals into their sets via edits or remixes, including Fat Joe’s ‘What’s Luv’, Suzanne Vega’s ‘Tom’s Diner’, Ciara’s ‘1 -2 Step’, Sean Paul’s ‘Get Busy’ and Wildchild’s ‘Renegade Master’ to name a few, let’s be honest, we all love a sing-a-long right?

Additionally, even though elrow is a Tech House predominant lineup, I admire their inclusion of ‘The Factory’ arena, a sexy kitchen party theme which included people dressed up a chef’s whilst the DJs pumped out RnB, Hip Hop, UKG Garage and D&B, a nice way of them paying homage to the roots of English-originated music genres.

elrow really take care of their festival attendees and the town included cash machines, lockers for valuables, phone charging points to ensure lots of moments were captured, free ear plugs [always use protection], 6 alcoholic bars with plenty of alcoholic and non-alcoholic options and every type of food imaginable.

The food options were also suitable for the carnivores, vegans, vegetarians and gluten-free, catering for everyone, and options included pizza, buttermilk fried chicken, pad thai, chips, vegan burgers and curries, bubble waffles and Caribbean dishes. elrow Town London is a music festival, but it also felt like a food festival too haha! 

Other site bonuses for those who like to fully immerse themselves in elrow traditions and get fully involved as party animals included glitter and make up areas, the classic photobooth, rave glasses and neon head dresses including vintage and elrow-branded clobber. 

Also, I’d like to say a thank you to the elrow team member, stewards, bar staff etc who throughout the day were really helpful and polite when I had queries for them, and of course quick service. Staff also done a great job in ensuring everyone got out of elrow Town London and onto transport home swiftly too, big ups!

Overall, in conclusion I would rate this year’s edition of ‘elrow Town London’ a super success, the price was affordable, the location was convenient and easy to get to, staff were friendly, the aesthetics of the site were supreme, it’s like Disney Land for adults, and most importantly the DJ sets were 10/10. Elrow really does create a unique, organic-feeling festival experience, I am hoping they return for a 2020 edition already, but next up, elrow Horroween at a new location in London!