Holi Festival of Colours London

Holi Festival:

Today, what makes a festival different and exciting is not simply down to the music. These days, there are so many amazing artists out there who love performing at festivals that it’s not that difficult to provide an impressive line-up. What really shows the potential of a festival, is the other forms of entertainment on offer to attendees, and how much enjoyment they can really provide you with. Over the last few years, Holi Festival of Colours has become a festival name that has started to spread. This year, the festival will once again take over Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. Although Holi Fest is usually only a one day event, this year they’re opening their doors for two days instead, from the 12th – 13th September.

Prepare for Paint Powder:

Holi festival is your excuse to say you got a bit of culture over your summer break, even if you do spend the entire day not entirely sober or upright. Holi is a Hindu spring festival in honour of the God, Krishna. You learn something new every day right? Although London’s version of Holi festival isn’t quite the cultural experience you’d gain from the real thing, it adopts many of the same traits, in a passionate homage to the original Holi celebrations. At Holi, it is common to throw paint powder into the air and over one another, and that’s exactly what happens at London’s Holi Fest. When buying your ticket, you also have the option to buy five bags of paint powder to do what you please with at the festival. This is literally the most colourful festival you’re ever going to attend, and this year Holi fest promise more colour than ever.

 

Dress code:

As you can imagine, this is 100% not the festival to wear your new £60 Topshop playsuit to. Most people choose to wear something white (and something which you don’t mind getting completely destroyed), because once that paint powder gets into the air, there’s no going back. Plus, once your white dress / T-shirt / whatever you’re wearing, is covered in colourful powder, it’s like the coolest ever festival souvenir to keep. Just be prepared for some funny looks on the train home, because you’re literally going to look like a walking rainbow – embrace it. Also, like twelve showers are going to be necessary once you get home, to get the matted clumps of blue and green paint out of your hair – embrace that too.

Line-up:

Maybe we should get on to what actually puts the ‘festival’ in Holi Festival. Holi Fest puts a lot of emphasis into being bright, colourful and fun, so the line-up is sort of a secondary factor. People buy their tickets for the paint party experience, and the music is like an added bonus added to the mix. However, the music on offer is still pretty great. Holi festival brings together, house, techno, electronic and dance music to really set a vibe for attendees. On the Saturday, acts such as Nervo and Dubvision will be pumping up the crowd, while on electro house DJ Boize Noise, as well as many others will be taking over. Holi fest doesn’t offer the same huge mainstream acts as other current festivals do, but that’s kind of the beauty of it. It means you can be off enjoying the atmosphere and getting mortal whilst coated in a thick layer of paint powder.

 

Camping:

Although Holi Festival is a two day event this year, camping is not being offered. But think about it, is that really such a bad thing? Imagine trying to crawl into your sleeping back after a long day at the first festival you attend in 2016, and finding that it still has a thick layer of paint powder resting inside it. Not okay. However, tickets are still available for both days of the festival, so if you’re lucky enough to be a London resident and want to buy tickets to the Saturday and the Sunday, you can get both here!

http://licklist.co.uk/holi-fes tival-of-colours-london

By Lauren Chassebi