The hype behind this event was massive, with Nas advertised to headline months before the actual event, although circumstances prevented him from making it down. Instead High-Fi promotions brought down some smaller names, but much more suited for this type of festival party atmosphere.
The day started slowly with people waking up on Sunday and slowly filtering through the temporary gates of Elder Park. Ticket prices were incredible value for money considering we were promised over 10 hours of live entertainment. I rocked up right before Terra Firma stepped onto the High-Fi stage, and while they were setting up I spent a bit of time lining up for drinks at one of the two drink stations (which proved to be a recurring theme for the day). Terra Firma did a nice job, unfortunately only playing one new track – when I thought they’d do a few more considering I hear they’re new album is just around the corner. Flak also stepped up for a quick guest spot which was a pleasant surprise.
After a short break of sitting down on the grass by the rotunda, A-Love stepped onto the stage ably assisted by Jim Blah and BVA. I was a little underwhelmed by her set as I wasn’t a huge fan of her record, but in her defense she handled the stage like a professional. After A-Love had finished up I took the time to mingle, relax and check out some of the food that was on offer (which was surprisingly good, although a little overpriced for my liking). By the time I’d finished scoping out the setup, DJ Staen1 was doing his stock standard set so I headed over to watch it for the umpteenth time and was still amazed at his skills. Delta came up soon after and I thought the sound was a bit iffy, as well as his voice struggling like it’d been put through a full day of karaoke. Things got better slowly as he dropped a couple of new tracks from his new album The Second Story that sounded nice.
After Delta finished it was time for the “mystery guest” to come on, and to the people that hadn’t heard the new earlier it was a bit of a surprise with drum n’ bass DJ Patch stepping up behind the decks and assisted by a couple of emcees. I’m not a huge fan of DnB music and don’t try to understand it at all, so after sticking around for a few tracks I sauntered off to mingle again. The next act to come up though was the prophet himself Jeru the Damaja, who was one of the main reasons why I wanted to go to Groove is in the Park in the first place. The New York legend was charismatic and funny on stage, not shy to poke fun at the crowd and get them involved as well. He did everything from Come Clean to crowd favourite Da Bitchez and Ya Playin’ Yaself and a bunch of tracks from his latest album. He certainly wasn’t as energetic on stage as I thought he’d be, but he still held it down with ease – even with a handy-cam in his face for the whole set.
After another short break the Funkoars stepped out to a slowly growing crowd. The four members held it down like only they can, causing a ruckus on stage and through the speakers. They did most of the tracks that you’d expect to hear in their live set, as well as a new track set to be released on their up-coming album The Hangover. The new track was aptly titled Alcohol and featured a nice little Eazy E inspired breakdown with Trials putting his own spin on a classic line; “Cruising down the street in my shit ford…”. Straight after the Oars had finished up, the world famous Beatnuts took to the stage with JuJu and Psycho Les finally back down under after a lengthy hiatus. This was the first time I’d seen the Beatnuts live and my expectations were pretty high because they’re music is designed to be bumped at high-octane parties and festivals. The duo kicked things off with Do You Believe, then swinging from hit to hit until finally closing their set off with Watch Out Now to the ladies’ delight. While I was excited to see the Beatnuts live, they just seemed a little lacklustre to me and didn’t really get into the vibe as much as I’d hoped they would. It was kind of ironic that the Funkoars, who came on before the Beatnuts and whom take a fair amount of influence from them held down a lot more entertaining and enjoyable set, in my opinion.
Next up were DJ Marky & Stamina MC, but unfortunately I only got to hang around for a couple of minutes because I could hear Grandmaster Roc Raida beginning his set in the VIP Area. As much as I like DJ Marky, there was no competition in my mind so I headed over. This was basically the epitome of a classic hip hop party set, with Roc Raida kicking in a lot of the classics while doing mini tribute sets with a bunch of Wu-Tang songs together, a bunch of Biggie tracks together and the same with Dr. Dre.
By the time Roc Raida had been told to start packing things up, my voice was shot and I was overwhelmed by how enjoyable the day had been. The turn-out was enormous for the event, everything ran smoothly (though a little behind schedule), sound bleed between the stages was a bit of an issue – but such is the case for festivals like this, and drinks were a little rich for my blood, but I guess High-Fi could charge that much because people would still be buying food and drinks all day. If you missed out on Groove is in the Park, then I feel sorry for you and hopefully High-Fi will be back with a similar event in the near future!
