Cocoon In The Park Review
Taking place in neighbouring Temple Newsam in Leeds, Cocoon In The Park went off last weekend with the likes of Sven Väth, Carl Cox, Ricardo Villalobos, Dixon, Enzo Siragusa and Seb Zit on the bill.
Since its birth in the vibrant years of the ’90s, Sven Vath’s Cocoon brand has grown and developed into one of the world’s most important and proud entities within the electronic music scene of today, branching out from its base of Amnesia Ibiza, to a number of venues around the world, and most recently finding a festival home in the influential city of Leeds. Arriving for a seventh year, Sven Vath, or Papa as some prefer to relate to him as, brought along a quite simply stunning lineup that just exudes talent of another level. Joining the main man at Temple Park was Intecs Carl Cox, Ricardo Villalobos and Enzo Siragusa who went b2b with Seb Zito.Having entered the park you could immediately feel the excitement that was already in the air, arriving just in time for the don that is Carl Cox we were drawn towards the enormous structure that was the Cocoon main stage. You know exactly what you will get with Carl Cox behind the decks, offering up infectious rhythms from all across the techno spectrum that prove irresistible to groove along to, he well and truly smashed it out the park (no pun intended).
Following Cox up stepped Ricardo Villalobos, who, similarly to Carl, offered exactly what you expect when being in the presence of someone with such legendary techno status. Dropping the tempo from Coxy’s final tracks, the Chilean presented a packed crowd with raw and empowering techno, bringing in a number of his own tracks to complete the Villalobos journey in his own unique way. One of the scene’s most talked about artists, his presence was highly felt behind the decks, both through the music and visually, rocking up in all white attire that only took the liquid dance moves to greater levels.As the sky began to gradually take a darker tint, Mr Cocoon himself, Papa Sven Vath arrived to take the controls from his good friend Ricardo. As if the energy levels weren’t high enough the arrival of the headliner sent the northern crowd into a frenzy. Opening with ‘It’s Just’ from Leon Vynehall, the true Cocoon sounds were well and truly flowing across Temple Park as every member of the crowd surrendered to one of techno’s most dominant symbols. Delivering a real set (four hours), Vath launched in hard with an all vinyl extravaganza, helped along by a number of stunning effects, mainly the presence of Sven’s brother armed with a CO2 cannon that proved to be just as exciting for him as it was for the ravers hugging the front rail. The builds were epic, mammoth stretches that would last for what seemed a life time, sending the tension skywards before the staging would explode in clouds of smoke, deep pounding bass and flurries of strobes. As if this wasn’t enough, Richie Hawtin was on after party duty at the famous Mint Warehouse, which proved to be the darker send off that everyone wanted from a hard day’s dancing outside, bringing tripper melodies and deep techno to close a real Cocoon session.
Once again Cocoon proved to the world why they are one, the best at what they do, and two, why Sven Vath and his accomplices are some of the most sought after names out there.
Images: CG Photography and Five//Thirty
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