Reviewed by: Ani Spalding
The British Summer Time festival at Hyde Park is a unique way to experience open air music. The festival runs for just three weeks featuring a variety of headliners across the weekends and open house mid-week.
The festival takes over the majority of Hyde Park, with the perimeter fenced off with named entrance gates dotted at certain points, top tip make sure you head to the right one as per your ticket as it’s a lot of walking to the other side if you don’t! Also check what you’re allowed to take in they have strict rules and you will be bag checked.
Getting to the festival – with just under 70,000 festival goers attending each event and often many others sat around the walls, listening to the bands, it’s no surprise that the surrounding areas are beyond busy with people and several roads around the festival are shut to help traffic and keep the pedestrians safe. Travelling via tube is the best option with Marble Arch and Hyde Park corner being located closest. Due to severe train delays – every single train into London for us was cancelled – we had to drive and although we luckily secured parking nearby, I would personally never ever do that again. The heavy Friday London traffic was exacerbated further due to gigs at Wembley and Wimbledon and multiple other events also occurring, this meant the journey took twice as long as normal. Worse was upon exit they wouldn’t let us into our car park until crowds had dispersed – not ideal if you need to get away after the concert sharply.
The venue itself is amazing, with excellent crowd control and as someone that can get anxious about a lot of people in the small space this didn’t ever feel full. There are a lot of people but it’s a massive space, with multiple stages and musicians spread across time slots to experience, all of which we could watch easily without feeling crowded.
On top of the various acts playing across the three stages, there is so much to see and do. Multiple bar areas often themed by the sponsoring drinks, to supermarkets, to make up and of course the main sponsor American Express had its own areas with a lot of people obtaining the branded Stanley cups. I always smile at the fairground rides as personally attempting spinning after some food and a couple of Aperols didn’t seem the best plan – I’m clearly in the minority as I didn’t see it empty once!
The food options are vast; we arrived starving and I was positively overwhelmed with the choice and could have eaten all of the options. I settled on a donner kebab which was delicious and a new experience as had not previously eaten one at the start of a night out before.
The toilet situation. Multiple toilet dedicated areas. These are nice Portaloos, I found them to always be clean and without much queuing. They even had the red and green light system s you knew which one was empty. They had mirrors and working big sinks. They have separate urinal areas too which helped with crowds.
The Seating options. In a word limited – although I did note more available than in previous years, with a few pub benches scattered around. As no pop-up seating is allowed, I always take a jacket even in the sunshine, so I have something to sit on. Picnic rugs are allowed at certain points.
The noise, I found the bands to be at the right level of sound for me personally but was impressed to see multiple stalls with headphones for those that may be struggling and for the children as I did see quite a few families enjoying the event. They must shut the venue around 10.30pm so not to noise pollute the local area.
The Music. If you can get there early enough to enjoy artists across all of the stages, it’s well worth the steps.
OneRepublic took to the main stage, for one hour at 6.40pm. The timings are accurate and given on the BST app which is a must download ahead of the event. As huge one republic fans (my husband is proud to add that he is in the 1% of listeners to their music on Spotify for about the third year running). We have been lucky enough to see them twice before. We love their music. We love Ryan Tedders stage presence. They always put on a fantastic show. I would add that on this occasion Ryan we assume was slightly unwell because his voice – although still incredible – wasn’t the usual standard that he can achieve. Their music catalogue is mega, hits such as ‘Apologise’, ‘Counting Stars’ and ‘I ain’t worried’ had the whole crowd were on their feet and having the best time. It was the perfect warmup to Maroon 5 and to be honest I we would’ve gone to Hyde Park just to see OneRepublic anyway. The band and Ryan have written so many hits that you’ll have heard from multiple of artists – for example co-writing Beyoncé ‘s ‘Halo’ which they didn’t play this time, to Leona Lewis ‘bleeding love’ which the whole of BST joined in with. He is a super talent, as are all the band and they certainly know how to put in a show -if you’ve not seen them, Get them on your band bucket list.
The main act was the global phenomenon Maroon 5. Hitting the stage just after 8.40pm. This American pop rock band have so many good songs every track they played got the crowd up singing and dancing. Their music and show were perfectly suited to the outdoor, open air, London skyline sunset views. Drinks in hand, singing to all the classics we felt that music buzz you only get when really truly in the moment.
They kicked off with ‘Harder to breathe’, within the first few songs ‘This love’ and ‘Sunday Morning’ had been played. My personal favourite was ‘Animals’ wow his voice gives me chills.
Adam Levine is a mega star his vocals were just perfect. He spoke a little between songs and was humble, thanking fans for their career which began in 2001! He also played ‘Memories’ and shared a tribute as and more insights into why they wrote the song. Heart breaking but a reminder to go grab life.
Towards the end they played crowd favourites ‘Girls like you’ and ‘Moves like Jagger’, the visual effects played behind the band were almost to the point of optical illusions, but I loved them, really eye catching and perfectly matched to the songs.
I did find the main stage view blocked somewhat, if standing centrally by the pillars which host cameras and some very lucky people. However, I always seem to gravitate to the left when looking at the stage and my views were great there. They also have big screens all around if you prefer to stay back.
The encore consisted of ‘Payphone’ and ‘Sugar’ – brilliant song choices and reminds you of the sheer range of songs and hits they’ve had over the last 25 years!
As someone lucky enough to have been here several times – for very different genres of music and singers spanning across multiple decades, I have yet to find a better open-air venue to soak up the music in Britain in summer.
