QR Music: AVA Festival

Walking through the massive door after waiting in line in the heat, we were greeted by the festivals main stage. Having arrived slightly early it was quite empty, we explored until we found the merch shop and the rest hub, at its centre was a lord of the rings style tree.  I remember how impressed I was by the central art piece and how well it looked in the hollowed out warehouse of s13. 

From here we explored outside towards the boiler room stage, on the way we noticed how very craftily the ‘truck load in space’ had been converted into the red bull stage. Once at boiler room, we were blown away by the vibe, an incredibly good vibe. We were dancing away fully enjoying ourself, this was important as neither of us have a particular love of techno, regardless it was incredibly fun.  Looking up I noticed the massive AVA logo painted on the side of a water tower which looked awesome to say the least, with plentiful food trucks situated around the venue. We walked to the Smirnoff stage and was greeted by its harsh sci-inspired infrastructure and dark aesthetic.

Performances of note for us included Quinton Campbell at the boiler room, which made us boogie, Ellll brought her signature dark and dirty style to the Smirnoff stage, KiNK blew us away with live drummers as part of his set adding this phenomenal dynamic to the whole performance, and finally bicep (of course) looked and sounded great.

Overall our time at AVA was positive. We’ve rarely seen a better environment. No fights broke out.
Everyone was incredibly chill. If we had one critique it would be this: It might be time for AVA to accept some more genres of electronic music; sometimes you just want a bit more than techno - which is why Bicep was great, basing themselves on more of an electronica inspired style.

AVA this year was a win. We can't wait for next year's.

By Aidan Sheppard