Lovebox London (Clapham)

Lovebox is a club in London that arranges a yearly music "mini-festival" in Clapham Common and I have to admit that this is the best night/day out I have ever had in my life. I don't know where to begin!

Music
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The variety of music was impressive. I enjoy house music to a certain extent and with the presence of Jon Carter (the only person I had seen before and one of the few I had heard of) I expected the music to be really banging throughout the event, but this didn't appear to be the case and I would reccommend this event to anyone who likes music, even if they on't like house music. There are three tents and a main stage with the line-up as follows:

Main stage: Ross Clarke, The Loose Cannons, Jools Butterfield, Richie Havens, Norman Jay, Ozomatli, Grandmaster Flash, Groove Armada.

Keep it Unreal tent: DJ Derek, Mr Scruff.

Ragbull House tent: Adrian Fillary, Rob da Bank, Joey Negro, DIY, Jon Carter.

Movement tent: Show some love, Ollie Twist & Jason, Addiction, Fabio, Bryan Gee.

Don't be putt off if you haven't heard of any of them. There really is something for everyone.

Facilities
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The only thing that spoilt it for me were the toilets. Potaloos aren't too classy at the ba=est of times but when you've queued 500000000 miles for it, it seems so much worse. I was faced with the dilemma of choosing between a 500000000 mile queue for the ladies or no queue for the mens. The mens toilets had some plastic trays also known as urinals so the only people queuing were rogue females trying to escape the queues and get back to the party, men that needed to poo (nice) and men doing drugs in the toilet so the wind wouldn't blow it away. Needless to say the toilet conditions weren't so nice as in the ladies.

The festival had disabled facilites which I thought was good, even though I cant remember seeing any people with disabilities but then again I can't remember that much at all.

Food consisted of dirty burgers and hot dogs but was good and costed about £1.50 so not too expensive at all. Drinks however were extortionate. Cans of beer cost £3 and for those of us not drinking alcohol, bottles of water cost £2.

Also had a meeting point for lost stragglers!

Tickets
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Tickets went on sale (see www.ticketmaster.com) ages before the event. The first 1500 cost £20 and the rest went up to £25 so it's a good idea to get in early. Not like us. We left it till the last minute and this event sells out every year, so we bought our tickets of tauts for £40. Tauts were everywhere. We also looked on ebay but these were going for £50 - £60 so I wouldn't bother looking as there are too many tauts for tickets wanted. However even at £40 it is well worth going and I think the price of the event is a real bargain.

The event runs from 12pm till 10pm at night with an after party at Turnmills (£15 entrance) from 10pm till 6am. I was too hammered to go to that but might take it easier next year and pop along!

There is another Lovebox on a summers day party at Newcastle racecourse for all you northerners! This doesnt sell out do I dont know if its any good or not. Would be interested to hear from anyone who went!

All in all this was an amazing day out. I really would reccommend it to any one of any age and musical taste.