To say that preparation for this year’s edition of Cross The Tracks has faced challenges would be quite the understatement.
Another festivals in the lurches the past week as Brockwell Park, alongside Wide Awake and Mighty Hoopla, Cross The Tracks has faced challenges from local campaigners Protect Brockwell Park due to festivals overstaying their 29 day allowance and damage being done to the ecosystem.
As we watched this story unfold alongside an entirely separate drama involving Wide Awake’s headliner Kneecap, Cross The Tracks issued a statement during the week in regards to KKR’s purchase of Superstruct. KKR are linked to funding Israel and the purchase of this has left many people unhappy with multiple artists pulling out and boycotting Superstruct festivals this year. Cross The Tracks stated they want to be “completely transparent” and were not aware or drawn into conversations around KKR’s 2024 purchase but a lot has come to light since. As this is out of their hands, Cross The Tracks promises to hold full creative control and ensure their position on this matter is heard “loud and clear at all levels”.
These issues, at large, are left at the gate, however and upon stepping into London’s #1 Jazz, Funk and Soul Festival, the sense of community is palpable: everyone is beaming while music and laughter fills the air.
Opening with Lynda Dawn at the Mainline stage, where her easy call and response command of the audience lull revellers into a sense of honest-to-goodness tranquillity. There is a feeling that, actually, everything is going to be fine.
Cymande follow Lynda Dawn at Mainline as the festival site begins to fill. This works in the band’s favour; Cymande’s music is not made for detached appreciation, it is meant to move to, to sway back and forth with friends to. Songs like ‘Brothers on the Slide’ are timelessly great, their music may have been out of place in the mid-70s but has undoubtedly found it’s home over the passing of times. Cymande’s new songs are an exercise in waiting for the years to catch up with their sound, and their casual virtuosity make for an early highlight.
The D-Railed stage, meanwhile, is hosting an incredible line up courtesy of The Blues Project: Senses Special. RUBII is joined by her DJ and a saxophone player to create the smoothest vibes, while legendary Bilal gives us an electric performance with the most incredible vocals. Later in the evening, as the D-Railed tent comes to a close, the fabulous Sinéad Harnett makes her entrance; replaying her gratitude to be headlining a festival stage for the first time with a performance which is angelic in every sense, from how she moves to her vocal range.
Seun Kuti‘s late afternoon set at the Locomotion stage garners a large crowd. The excellent music notwithstanding, Kuti’s overtly political set seems to jar with inconvenient truths about this festival.
In reference to Superstruct Entertainment’s purchase by KKR, the half-hearted, half-drunk cheer that greets Kuti’s call to “Free the United Kingdom, then free Gaza” seems to confirm the uneasy conclusion that it is difficult to imagine a more political artist being met by a more apolitical response from any audience anywhere, perhaps only serving to swell the sense of moral compromise among portions of the crowd who have been harbouring reservations on the ownership controversies.
A crowd-pleasing performance courtesy of Ezra Collective goes some way to providing an antidote to the lingering guilt. “I’m not blind, I have a phone,” band leader Femi Koleoso states, seemingly addressing the genocide-shaped elephant in the room, “I see what’s going on in the world.” Their response is to play a set that brings the crowd, the entire festival pretty much, together in an almost-religious state of joy.
Ezra Collective’s ensuing set plays as a celebration of London in many ways. Versions of Angie Stone’s ‘Wish I Didn’t Miss You’ and UK Garage classic ‘A Little Bit of Luck’ make there way into this breathless, propulsive set. The maxim “good artists borrow, great artists steal” is one that Ezra have taken and run with to incredible effect. Guest appearances from M.anifest and Kojey Radical help to create the feeling that this is just one huge extended family, and once Saxophonist James Mollison and trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi enter the crowd, the party is complete.
The coveted headliner slot sees an all-star schedule clash between frequent Anderson .Paak collaborators Free Nationals who – ever the consummate professionals – pull off a tight and euphoric showcase and Michael Kiwanuka. Hot on the heels of his double BRIT-nomination for recent album Small Changes, Kiwanuka delivers a set worthy of his seemingly endless plaudits: combining timeless songwriting and a rich live production which does his recorded work justice.
There is a lot to unpack following a day of deftly-curated, undeniable performances. The growing concerns (or perhaps the growing awareness of the reasons to be concerned) regarding all events and festivals attached to Superstruct as a parent company prove difficult to shake.
It is difficult to know what responsibilities the festival itself – and indeed the artists playing there – have in calling out a private equity firm that feels so faceless and distant as to be unassailable. Does anything a bunch of festival goers say or do really make a difference? Maybe that’s the wrong question. Maybe the better question is ‘what does it say about us if we don’t even try to acknowledge our own complicity?’
words: Kelly Darcy & Rory Giles
images: Garry Jones & KHALI
