Teens get into the groove in Marlay
Lil Uzi Vert was one of the headliners at Marlay Park for Longitude on Sunday and he didn’t disappoint.
Formerly a three-day festival, this year it was just Saturday and Sunday this time, and it proved to be very successful once again.
Longitude’s initial years used to bring us mainly a mixture of big indie, dance and pop acts but midway through the last decade they pivoted more to the rap side of things.
Hip-hop and related music genres (such as trap, drill, and R&B) still largely dominated the Longitude of 2023, but on the Saturday in particular, there was a big dance line-up too.
Irish high flyers Belters Only and collaborator Jazzy are both enjoying huge success at the moment, and both were on the Saturday bill.
They’ve since announced a headline show at the 3Arena, which is a massive achievement for Irish acts who were pretty much underground only a year or two ago.
Dance music continues to be popular here and the sounds originally developed by the likes of MK are even more in demand now than in the 1990s. Some would say it’s slightly watered down and not as pure, but there’s little arguing with the fact that is very much house music and it’s great that originators like MK are still on top of things.
Other dance artists in action included headliner Calvin Harris, who moves effortlessly between various genres into the pop charts by collaborating with a who’s who of hip-hop and pop acts.
Belters Only, Jazzy, Fionna Curran and Joel Corry were all repping the dance side of things, but on the day that I visited, Sunday, it was mainly about hip-hop.
Travis Scott and Lil Uzi Vert were the big two, but Metro Boomin, Lil Tjay, Joey Bada$$, Glorilla, Ken Carson, Meekz and others all performed to an eager young Irish audience. Last year Offica, A-92 and Sello took over the main stage, but it was cool to see Irish duo TraviS and Elzzz playing such a high-profile show this year; they really are going places fast.
The atmosphere was fantastic. Longitude is a huge festival that still manages to be relatively intimate, and everything is located within a short walk.
Unlike other big festivals, such as the Electric Picnic, there’s not much walking and the fact that there’s no camping means the crowd spend the whole festival actually at the various stages rather than in campsites. It’s a crowd of mainly 16-22-year olds and many will have been attending their first shows. For youngsters growing up knowing every word of every rap song, this can be an exhilarating experience, and the enthusiasm on display was pretty infectious.
DJing up there myself, I only caught about three or four acts but the buzz was incredible, and though I remained far from the mosh pits, you could see how hyped the crowd was for the big acts.
Glorilla delivered a solid set of no gimmick southern rap but it was Lil Uzi Vert that I was really looking forward to after my own set. The Philly born youngster already has an impressive catalogue of rap classics, and listening to his new “Pink Tape” in the car that Sunday morning on the way up had me excited.
Uzi is enjoying the afterglow of his most successful song yet, the viral “Just Wanna Rock”, which was a big festival highlight on Sunday.
New tunes such as “Fire Alarm” and classics such as ‘XO Tour Life” and “The Way Life Goes” did the trick, with Uzi basically just shouting and hyping his own tracks, while not even pretending to be miming over the originals. The purists would be appalled, but post sound-cloud rap has changed immeasurably, and this is now the new normal and it was great entertainment.
He later joined a very late Travis Scott for their “Aye” collab, which was a great moment that kicked off the Houston rapper’s set. Travis played a short set of mostly classics and sent a crowd who were there for “Sicko Mode”, “Goosebumps” and other bangers home very happy despite the delay. He is a charismatic and accomplished performer and the sonics and stage show were first class, bringing the curtain down on another great weekend.
