In the middle of a summer heatwave, I headed to a beach in Lowestoft. The sea breeze kept temperatures to a respectable 21°C, chilly enough to need a fleece. Still, there was plenty of time for the temperature to rise, it was only 4am.
The promenade was busy with dawn watchers heading for the shore and young late night revellers swaying home, wondering why the seafront was so busy at this hour of the morning.
Although it was the festival’s second day, First Light was being reborn afresh for Sunday. This was the start of a festival day like no other I have ever been to. There were people on the shoreline singing seal songs to welcome the Selkies – seal-like creatures who take on human form to dance on land at mid-summer.
Those who braved the dawn waters for a swim, or who danced with the Selkies, or like me, were eccentric enough to be on the beach so early were treated to a fish feast breakfast on what must have been the region’s longest trestle table. The region’s longest 5am coffee queue was close by as we all, especially the swimmers, felt the need for hot drinks.
After dawn’s headline act had taken her bow, along with her backing group, The Rumbling Thunder, there followed for me a five-hour lull before the music stages and entertainment tents opened. I strolled along the beachfront admiring the symmetry of the Victorian architecture along Kirkley Cliff Road.
Time spent wandering by the sea is never time wasted. I grew up on the coast, the constant sound of the sea always soothes. I watched early morning dog walkers chat to each other. The beach hut owners opening their doors and setting up for the day – festival or not, they would be here every Sunday. Everyone I passed nodded acknowledgement or said hello, I was made to feel very welcome in Lowestoft.
As the temperature rose, the sound engineers from Synergy Audio set about getting their stages ready for the day ahead. Tucked away behind barriers Gofer’s power generators, some solar powered, were quietly humming. Without this portable infrastructure the mics, amps, lights, coffee machines, pizza ovens and phone chargers wouldn’t work.
At 10am The Sunlight Stage opened with Ocean Songs, a strangely hypnotic cross genre performance by a collaborative ensemble including a ‘community choir of sirens’. It was a peaceful, deep and thought-provoking way to start the musical day.
By now the beach was beginning to fill up with a mix of locals and holiday makers wondering what all the fuss was about, as well as hardened festival goers pitching their deck chairs and picnic baskets in advantageous positions. Elsewhere on the beach there were people throwing frizbees or playing football oblivious to the fact that anything else was happening.
On stage, local band Jazmine Banks and The Wild Hearts brought a country and western tone to the beach including a C&W cover of Abba’s Dancing Queen and were obviously enjoying the big stage and the sunshine.
The primary stages, Sunshine and New Dawn are adjacent and cleverly programmed so that they don’t overlap. I spent time catching acts on both stages, being naturally drawn towards new upcoming bands on the later.
There was also the DJ in The Dunes stage which, despite its name, was nowhere near a sand dune. More a DJ on The Shore stage – that being totally irrelevant to the fact that many of the region’s foremost singer-songwriters were performing there. This included Millie Kirkpatrick who will be at EAFN25, the East Anglian Festival Network’s conference in October.
As a first timer I didn’t have a plan, I wandered about to see what was going on. It rapidly became apparent that I wasn’t going to see everything, there is so much happening. Punch and Judy on a beach doesn’t get any more quintessentially English, contemporary dance from Dance East, artworks abound – there was even a bookshop! Everywhere the wind keeping flags horizontal and the people cool.
I found all the First Light crew, whether they were staff or volunteers incredibly friendly and helpful. It was obvious how delighted they were that their months of meetings, planning and marketing had finally made this thing happen. First Light is relatively new, having first taken place in 2019, but already has made a name for itself alongside Latitude and FolkEast as the ‘go to’ Suffolk summer festivals.
Andrew Kettle of Merry Hell, from Wigan, summed it up well during their set: “We’ve never been to Lowestoft before, and we didn’t know what to expect. What we found were warm, welcoming people that it has been a pleasure to play for.”
Most of this festival takes place in the vicinity of the South Beach. There are, however, other events at East Point Pavilion and the Seagull Theatre. Neither of which are far away but which eluded me because a) there was so much happening on the beach and b) I kept bumping into people I knew!
The adjacent Kensington Gardens hosted a ‘sober space’, catering for those recovering from addictions. In the glare of festival joviality, it is easy to forget that behind the smiles and the laughter and bonhomie many people struggle silently. Hats off to the organisers for recognising this.
By 4pm I made my way back to the car park along the packed promenade. The final tunes of a very lively Molotov Jukebox drifting across the sands. Had I really been here for twelve hours? On the trip home along the Waveney Valley, I resolved to come back to First Light next year. It will be a two-day trip… might even hire a campervan and sleep under the stars. First Light is a unique festival experience and deserves to be experienced to the full.
Although I have said this before, when you cover as many festivals as we do at the East Anglian Festival Network, you get a feel for an event the moment you walk through the gate.
Here there is no gate, no perimiter fence. It is a free festival on a public beach. No festival wrist bands needed and if you want to you can bring a bucket and spade.
There is an unparallelled air of freedom about First Light Festival, it is worth visiting for its unique setting alone.
