Kamilla Rekvényi

In the beautiful summery weather on the afternoon of the 10th of September, Lower College Lawn was filled with a colourful crowd of excited students, all waiting anxiously for Starfields, the biggest event of Freshers’ Week 2016.

As the students swarmed the venue, the opening DJs entertained the guests with mainstream dance music. The mixes of the 21-year-old Bodalia, coming after student DJ Scott Gordon, were a great start to the St Andrews music festival. The performance of SAGA was also a perfect background for the majority of attendees who arrived before 6 pm, hoping to beat the queues at the face-painting station. 

Starfields, organised by the Saint Andrews Charity Fashion Show, offered big names as its performers, such as Cheat Codes, Philip George and the world famous Michael Calfan.

As the second supporting act, the Los Angeles based electronic trio Cheat Codes arrived on the stage at 18:50. Around 40% of the crowd filled the tent to dance along, while others listened from the open air bar area. Several girls (and boys) appreciated the music from vantage points on other people’s shoulders. The most hands in the air appeared when the trio’s most famous song “Sex,” which has over 300 million hits on Spotify, came on. Surprisingly enough, after the song ended a big percentage of the people left the concert and joined the queues at the bars. This could have been the reason for Cheat Codes to close up their performance with repeating the song to attract back their fans. Even so, most attendees claimed them to be the best act in the event.

Cheat Codes was followed by the English bedroom producer Philip George. During the concert, it was hardly a possibility to move in the first few rows, so tightly packed was the marquee. In the middle of the concert a group of mainly male students created a moshpit, which made it feel like your typical largescale music festival. 

The amount of people standing at the bar was inversely proportional with the passing of time, as most of the revellers made their way to the marquee, shortening the queues for the drink-focused party-goers. The reason for this could have been the fall in temperature or the increasing enthusiasm for the headlining act. When Michael Calfan played his Top 40 song “Treasured Soul,” the crowd went crazy for the hit.  Following in Cheat Codes’ footsteps, Michael Calfan finished off his performance with an encore performance of the song. The event ended in the middle of the song, however, leaving the hyped crowd in suspense.

All in all, Starfields was a great event. Many say it exceeded the last year’s standards, which perhaps can be the consequence of the very well-implemented musical background.

Featured image: Ampersand Media