For after movie please click here.

Summer 2015 in Gibraltar is coming to an end and one thing we have definitely had our fair share on is music festivals. The Gibraltar Music Festival 2015, also referred to as GMF, being the biggest one yet to come to Gibraltar and a great way to end the summer. The entrance was packed with people as eager festival warriors pushed to be the first to penetrate the festival gates. There was no shortage of cheer, laughter and the mention of some of the great acts appearing floating through the air, just to name a few these great acts included Kings of Leon, Duran Duran, Madness, Kaiser Chiefs, and beyond.

The stages were outstanding. The music was phenomenal. The loving community of festival-goers displayed a love towards one another that formed an everlasting bond. That’s it, that’s just about what you’ll read on every festival review in magazines, newspapers and beyond. Instead of providing our readers with a routine festival review, we’ll walk you through this, call it a literary remix, or a in depth view on the music community as a whole.

We had just completed the routine media tour of the festival grounds when the nagging pain of hunger rose in our stomachs like the bursting explosive brew of fire erupting in the crowd behind me. I don’t mean the sort of hunger that you are probably thinking, I mean genuine hunger pains, this was probably set off by the vast quantity of food parlous, we where spoiled for choice, some sold steak and beef salads, others healthy snacks, we had our fair share of standard festival foods too. The amount of parlous meant less queue’s although one could still see the desperate look in everyone’s eyes as they impatiently waited for the moment that the day’s first edible purchase would be made.

With such a stunning line up that still looks legendary even after the event has happened, it was obvious that this years Gibraltar Music Festival was going to be huge. Bus transport had even been arranged to collect people from Malaga, Cádiz and Sevilla, some people had even driven down all the way from Alicante City which is approx 700km away just to witness and be a part of such an incredible event. It was not every day that one would hear such exotic accents in Gibraltar.

The lovely blue skies and the sun’s heat had fully taken control of the surroundings and every movement was followed with different levels of perspiration but we had to keep on moving. It was clear that everything had been taken into consideration, the organizers of this event had arranged different exit points to fit more people than previous years, with 15.000 tickets SOLD OUT, excluding VIP and Press. Members of staff where even handing out free sun-cream having taken into consideration that September in Gibraltar is still considerably hot. With normal tickets at just 65 GPB for one day and 79 for the weekend pass and VIP set at 300 GPB, they had even taken our pockets into account. Children under 12 got in for free to make this festival and enjoyable family weekend, most families brought chairs and towels. The only issue, is that the floor was static! Causing one to experience or witness constant static shocks! Thankfully, this was short lived.

There where many more features this year, despite this year being a whole weekend instead of just the one day! They introduced the ‘Zip Line’ for a different ‘angle’, a ‘stay cool’ machine that worked like a sprinkler watering the beautiful festival grounds and people, there was a chill out zone by the seaside stage hosted by DUSK, a disabled section, the ‘Cashless Tokens’ which are now scanned onto a bracelet, much more convenient and harder to lose! There where market stalls, tattoos, and the ‘Circus Stage’ an indoors entertainment for children, they had a magician, bouncy castles and face-paints.

Both days we had been kept entertained by three stages – The Main stage, The Gib Radio stage and the Seaside stage. We had the opportunity to enjoy music from the great local musicians of Gibraltar: Guy Valerino, This Side Up, Jeremy Perez & Tom Scott, Karma 13, Gib Floyd, Racs & Lima (DJ set), Superwookie, Anglewings, Aivan Cabedo (DJ set), Cliche (DJ set), Mo Anton, Midriff, Reach, Headwires, Paddy Taylor, Heritage, Kristian Vinales (DJ set), Dead City Radio, Strange Brew, Tim Garcia Ft. Afterhours, Leeroy One Stone, Coup D’etat, Another Day, Sub-Selective (DJ set), Omnibus, Kristian Celecia and finally, Hechizo.

Suddenly there was a huge mass of hands raised in the air and yet no artist was commanding the crowd to raise them. The atmosphere was no longer defined by the lovely blue skies, but the vibrant people that where beneath it. This was the opening of what was about to be an explosive frenzy of human bodies as acts like Duran Duran, Paloma Faith, Estopa, Little Mix, Tom Odell, Lawson,The Feeling, Union J and Hudson Taylor where announced to enter the stages soon, the crowd looked torn as they couldn’t decide which stage to run too, thankfully the timetable allowed us to witness a bit of both by rushing to the other stage as one great act completed their performance, the other had only recently begun. We watched as festival-warriors flooded in by the dozens, they displayed what seemed to be a magnetic pull toward the stage like electrons to an atom and left a legacy that would forever mark the cerebral cortex of 2015’s people of GMF.

Sunday was like watching history repeat itself as the crowd anticipated Kings of Leon, Madness, Kaiser Chiefs, James Bay, Ella Henderson, OMI, Supersubmarina, Blonde, Rae Morris, Dub Colossus and our Special Guest which was Gabriel. Omi had missed his flight and couldn’t make it until 00:00 and very loved local band, Headwires, saved the day by filling in his slot. Kaiser Chiefs made a huge entrance, as lead singer Ricky Wilson* aggressively grabbed the camera that recorded there performance and stared into the lens with fire in his eyes, prior launching himself into the audience signing T-shirts. They displayed tons of energy and audience interaction, Ricky had a true ‘spring’ in his step, jumping over everything and everyone on the stage. The guard at the front of the stage stood close to the crowd trying to stop people from leaning over to much, but this eager frenzy of festival citizens were too enthralled with the anticipation of what was to come as the entire audience proceeded to leap as if bouncing on a pogo stick. Just then, the unexpected rain set in, although this was short lived and didn’t ‘dampen’ the atmosphere.

We are starting to wonder if Gibraltar has reached its peak, as the festivals only continue to grow and as a result so is the loving community of festival wolves hunting for their prey. This year seems insurmountable leaving us hungry for more and with high expectations for the following year. The GMF displayed a stunning lineup that still leaves one excited even after the event is over. Now let’s reflect and look back at the GMF that was, and the legend it has become.

For after movie please click here.