Cross The Tracks '24

Date Taken: Sunday 26th May

I’m back in Brockwell Park for my yearly drop of my day at Cross The Tracks and this one was a special one for me because the good people @ XTT gave me a ticket after submitting last year's post to them! (Feel free to spin '22 as well!)

This year's line-up was juicy as always and I saw a majority of the artists I wanted to see – barring Erykah Badu & Jalen N'Gonda – the prior pulled out on the day and the latter due to schedule clashing. (I'm confident I'll see Jalen in the future)

But that's festivals for you! You will never see everyone you want to see. Unless you're one of those people that pull up for one artist…

ANYWAY! I have 210 photos for you on this one, so buckle up as I take you through my day at Cross The Tracks '24.

Welcome Sign

The weather was threatening rain all day, clouds covering The Sun every few minutes it seemed, as a Photographer that annoyed me because it really affected the consistency of light but we move!

It actually showered for 5-10 minutes as we were all lining up to get in but stopped once the line started moving. Happy to report that it only rained once during the festival.

Onto the first act @ Locomotion, which began about 20 minutes before the official beginning: SuperJazz Club.

I made an effort this year to see acts I’ve never heard of before. SuperJazz Club were sitting there as a good beginning and I was validated. Solid group with great music, topped with a “One spliff a day-a keep di evil away-a” call-out which is an All-Time sample.

Big up Billy Boyo.

After their performance, I took a walk around the park to take in the sights, see some of the DJ sets and get some of the beautiful people around me. This mini-set involves Yazmin Lacey – who was on the Mainline stage last year, now doing a DJ set – and the legend Gilles Peterson.

Shout out the Asian brudda cutting up shapes on his one. Respect the energy!

The father dancing with his two kids was a nice moment to capture as well.

More vibes from the people to come but now we had to the Mainline stage for Summer-Pearl.

A great moment that happened too quickly to capture was a middle finger thrown to the side of the stage in response to her set seemingly being cut short. This was the first act after the announcement of Erykah’s no-show.

She attempted to go on for one more song but got silenced halfway through. Shout out to Visaka who came on for a song midway.

Next was a run over to the Terminal stage to catch Atlanta’s own Lady Wray who I personally got into after her album “Piece of Me” dropped a few years ago. But she’s been around for a minute and the love shown was amazing.

The flurry of acts continued, forcing a rush back to the muddy Mainline stage for an act I genuinely thought I would never see in my lifetime: Eve…

Finer in person if I say so myself! The dancers were a great touch; really impressed with her performance considering she doesn’t do it much these days. I could only imagine how gassed the festival bookers must’ve been when they got that confirmation.

But we can’t waste time! We got The Cavemen next, back at the Terminal stage.

You can probably tell but this was when a fat cloud loomed over us and it started raining, which was great timing for the show itself since they had a song relating to rain! It was admittedly a great moment even though the shower came down hard but it was only for 10 minutes so consider it worth it.

Shouts to Friend of 5E Lams who put me onto The Cavemen a few months ago.

Now with the schedule mixed a little, I decided to cop some brownies (regular, unfortunately) and wait for the next act.

Let's see some more of the people as we wait…

Shout out to dude who was chilling on the floor. I don't know if he was smashed or what but hope his day finished okay.

Let's get to our next act – Mansur Brown at the Locomotion stage – who took long preparing for the set but I got enough photos to dip early and get to the last act of my night.

But funny enough, apart from SuperJazz Club, I didn't get a more equal set for every band member. So I'll stagger it between the band and Mansur himself.

The drummer might be familiar to you if you saw my Blue Lab Beats post a couple months ago!

Onto Mansur himself who is up there as one of the most expressive faces I’ve taken pictures of. Mind you, I only stayed for two-three songs…

I wish I could’ve stayed, but a legend was at the D-Railed stage…

But before that, a step-by-step guide on how to dance to Cameo’s “Candy”.

On a day where I checked Eve's "Who's That Girl" off my "Want to see live" list; on a day where I was filled with good music, sightings of the likes of Joy Crookes, Paapa Essiedu and bumping into Friend of 5E Apex Zero, (Yes, I forgot to get a picture of him…) it was time to finish the night with the one and only Dennis Bovell.

In between his stories and belting out “Silly Games” (another “Hear it live” list check-off) I got a bit experimental and decided to slow the shutter speed.

Interesting results!