Festival preview: Love Saves the Day 2021
Love Saves the Day is one of Bristol’s biggest festivals, and we’re so glad that it’s back this year. After a year’s hiatus (due to, you guessed it – covid), Love Saves the Day were relatively swift in announcing their amended dates – the 4th and 5th of September. That’s only two weeks away!
The festival is set to be held in the (temporary) brand-new location of Clifton Downs. Love Saves the Day’s organisers explained that: "We couldn't have held Love Saves The Day at Eastville Park this year as it would have been too close to Tokyo World, which is planned to take place there in early September." Hey, it doesn’t really matter where it’s being held, it's sure to be a spectacle!
(Credit: Love Saves the Day)
It’s taken ages for Love Saves the Day to finally announce this year’s line-up. They just like to keep their fans waiting, I guess. Headlining the Saturday instalment of the festival is singer-songwriter Mahalia alongside UK grime heavyweight Little Simz. Mahalia is an alt-RnB/soul singer who has been active since her early teens. At the age of 18, she signed with the legendary Asylum label, where she issued the albums Diary of Me (2016) and the considerably more unfettered Love and Compromise (2019), the latter of which peaked in the Top 30 album charts in the UK. 2020 wasn’t a complete washout for Mahalia however, as she also released an EP called Isolation Tapes. She also featured alongside Ty Dolla $ign on Jacob Collier’s All I Need, which has received over a million hits on YouTube!
Little Simz is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed rappers of her generation. Little Simz has been around for ages, releasing four mixtapes and five Eps, and her debut album A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons (2015) through her independent label, AGE: 101 Music. However, it was upon the release of her third studio album Grey Area that she really blew up – it won Best Album at both the Ivor Novello Awards and the NME Awards, as well as being nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize. She’s doing so well for herself now that she even knows Beyonce! If Queen B loves her, then you know she’s an icon.
(Credit: Love Saves the Day)
On top of this, slowthai will be headlining on Sunday. Raised in Northampton, he rose to popularity in 2019 for his gritty and rough instrumentals and raw, politically charged lyrics, especially around Brexit and Theresa May's tenure as British Prime Minister. slowthai was placed fourth in the BBC Sound of 2019 and followed up in the same year with his debut studio album, Nothing Great About Britain. In an article for Vice, Niloufar Haidari described slowthai’s music as "caustically witty bars over abrasive beats that blend grime, trap, Soundcloud rap and even punk and screamo". His latest album Tyron (2021) peaked at number one at the UK album charts, and is all set to be one of the biggest albums released this year.
Unfortunately Love Saves the Day is sold out for this year. However, tickets will periodically become available on our official Fan-to-Fan resale marketplace! You can find out more here.
Words by Rebecca Clayton