LIVE FROM THE PIT: Outbreak Festival Friday

Outbreak 2024, the return to the BEC Arena and a hot topic of conversation by OB Veterans across the weekend. The end of June brought temperamental weather but that didn’t deter the hardcore kids or emos from packing out the main stage on the Saturday and Sunday. The on-and-off downpours brought some excellent ambience to the moodier sets across the weekend but did make the two inside stages very damp when people decided they had had enough.

Friday 28th June opened up the weekend with a smörgåsbord of genres, high energy hip hop, melancholy indie, and hardcore that packed out the room. We walked into the venue to the high-octane sounds of Redveil wrapping up their set to a packed-out Friday mainstage/weekend second-stage crowd. Shortly after the cheers subsided an announcement went out over the PA letting us know that The Garden’s set would be pushed back and onto the other indoor stage due to travel delays. 

Despite the change of plans and now hour-and-a-half of free time, spirits remained high, and the crowd dispersed for food, drinks, smokes, and some much-needed daylight. A perpetual bugbear of the crowd was just how dark the indoor stages were, even between sets, it made navigating areas while waiting for your eyes to adjust a little precarious. 

Up after the impromptu break were New York indie-rock, Beach Fossils, a gentle warm-up for us after a long break but a far cry from the act to follow them and fellow New Yorkers, Flatbush Zombies. They tore on stage and got everyone moving, interspersing some old-school crowd work into their set with callbacks and cheers they were right in saying 'It's like math, but it's not algebra: the more energy you give, the more energy you get!' A message that was proven true time and time again over the weekend.

After four-and-a-half hours of anticipation, The Garden were in the building and ready to take to the stage. Their fans were the easiest to spot of the day with, now cracked and fading, face paint and embracing the Vada Vada mentality of the band. Fast-paced synthy, punky, dancey songs were blasted by the duo, and the sheer volume of people crammed into the front stage area proved they were well worth waiting for.

Remember when the BEC Arena had a roof? Well Devon “Peggy” Hendryx, creator of the one man project we know as JPEGMafia, absolutely blew it off. No DJ or hype man was needed for him to get the crowd giving it everything they had. He played a great mix of songs from his discography with an emphasis on tracks from the 2023 collaborative album ‘SCARING THE HOES’ he released with rap powerhouse Danny Brown. The set was also the live debut for his latest track ‘don’t rely on other men’ which the crowd went wild for. When rap acts take the hardcore stage of Outbreak, they give it their all, and by no means was JPEGMafia an exception to this. 

The final act of the night Action Bronson brought the good vibes. Being the only hip hop act of the festival to bring a live band with him on stage, he delivered a set just as focused on the instrumentals as his vocals. Whilst the crowd didn't seem quite as enamoured by his set as they were others, his was still a great finish to the first day of the festival.

Words: Kayleigh Fryer, Alex Long

Photos: Anna Swiechowska