The first day of FYF Fest opened on an idyllic Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles’ Coliseum in Exposition Park. Started in Chinatown, FYF has grown exponentially, packing in a serious lineup into just 2 days. Along with the standard festival food fare, we were stoked to see some of L.A.’s famed food trucks were also around.
Our first stop for the afternoon was at the Tree’s stage for Peter Bjorn & John. Kicking off their set with summery tunes from their new record Breakin’ Point, the tracks made a perfect soundtrack to the pristine, sunny afternoon. Jagwar Ma surprised the hell out of us by throwing down some complete face melters at the start of their set. We didn’t think it possible their Britpop-vibe tunes would sound even more epic in a festival setting. They’ve got basslines running through their tracks that you can feel deep in your bones. We can’t recommend prioritizing a Jagwar Ma live experience at a festival enough. Their set got us really hype for their upcoming album Every Now & Then that’s dropping in October.
Long Beach’s finest Vince Staples owned the Main stage. Strolling onto the stage dressed like Mister Rogers in a polo knit sweater and khakis, Vince fooled anyone in the audience who had a shred of doubt that things were about to go off. Grimes came through to represent Canada on the Main stage, and her live performance has evolved to include some seriously cool dancers, a sick designer wardrobe, and an awesome light show in tow. Grimes openly talked through a few minor technical difficulties with such ease that even we forgot we were one of the thousands of people hugging the barriers to watch her show.
Tame Impala tore up the Main stage with their psychedelic set flourished with a multi-colored backdrop. We’re pretty sure all festival goers turned up to see them and all of their glory – even Lady Gaga made a surprise appearance on stage during their final song of the set, “New Person, Same Old Mistakes.” A nice chunk of the crowd that were at Tame Impala made a mass exodus from the Main stage over to the Lawn stage to get down to Hot Chip. These dudes are veterans to putting on festival shows, and the crowd responded in kind with dancing the night away.
All of Los Angeles really pulled through to support their greatest musical asset. We aren’t exaggerating about all of LA coming to hear Kendrick Lamar: the streets surrounding the outside of FYF Fest were lined with residents trying to peer over the fences to get a glimpse of hip-hop’s finest. The first night of FYF Fest couldn’t have ended on a better note than with K-Dot bringing the LA community together with his raw energy through the power of his music.
See photos of day 1 below.
Kendrick Lamar
Tame Impala
Vince Staples
Jagwar Ma
Peter Bjorn & John
