A packed crowd get their teenage kicks

10:35am Friday 15th August 2008

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Over 10,000 teenagers descended on Victoria Park, Hackney, at the weekend for the Underage Festival, a unique music event which is only open to under-18s. ANNA BINNS saw what all the fuss was about.

THE Underage Festival certainly has an energetic atmosphere - but that is something to be expected when you think that the crowd is made up entirely of 14 to 18-year-olds.

Following the success of last year’s sell-out event, the festival returned for a second year, on a larger and more impressive scale.

In keeping with the young theme, fresh-faced acts from across London dominated the bill, along with some top acts, including Dizzee Rascal, The Maccabees, and the Foals.

For Sophie Kasakove, the lead singer of Care Bears on Fire, who is aged just 13, an underage crowd really makes for a more appreciative audience.

But performing on the main stage was still a slightly daunting experience for the youngster: “It was a pretty big crowd, and only our second show in the UK.”

Also performing on the main stage was Bombay Bicycle Club, whose members are aged 16 and 17.

The North London band only formed a year ago and have achieved almost instant success with their fresh sound.

The festival had seven different stages, showcasing numerous acts with different sounds.

The tented Topman stage provided an intimate, yet energetic atmosphere, with acts such as Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds and Florence and the Machine really getting the crowd going, provoking plenty of crowd surfing and mini-moshing.

“The underage gigs are always the most rowdy, I love them. There’s nothing like an intimate gig, it’s like you’re all in it together and you get more back,” Florence told me after her performance.

On the main Converse stage, despite the Mystery Jets having to pull out after band member Blaine was hospitalised following a foot injury, the crowds went wild for The Maccabees and headliner Dizzee.

Walthamstow band The Rifles also put on an impressive show.

But behind all the fun was a serious message from the anti-bullying initiative CUT-it-OUT.

The campaign which invited teenagers to make their own short films about bullying, was launched last year by X-factor winner Shayne Ward, Vodafone UK and Beatbullying.

The winning three ideas were turned into short films and were transmitted on stage-side plasma screens between the main acts.

It was certainly a packed-out day, and judging by the faces of the youngsters as they left back into a world of parents and grown-ups, many will be returning again next year. That is, of course, assuming they’re not too old by then.