Great start for Flow Festival with Lianne La Havas, Chic and Major Lazer
Flow Festival, the biggest gathering of international artists in Finland, has started on Friday. The festival that will last until Sunday was opened by a bunch of great international artists like Lianne La Havas, Chic feat. Nile Rodgers and Major Lazer.

The Flow festival area opened at 16:30 and loads of eager music fans lined up to receive their whristband and dance the night away. Elliphant was one of the first to appear on stage and she opened the Black Tent. The Swedish alternative pop star, who actually sounds like she just flew in from Jamaica, had a rather large audience and her catchy hooks and thick beats made the first hands go up in the air. And this wasn’t even her last appearance on the Flow stage…

Lianne La Havas was scheduled to play on the main stage. The British singer-songwriter just released her second album Blood and this was a great opportunity for her to introduce her new material to the Finnish crowd. The incredibly talented young lady has a crystal clear and soulful voice with an emotive power and she plays bass, electric guitar and acoustic guitar during her set. Out of the new tracks, especially ‘Grow’ impresses with its vocally explosive chorus, that she absolutely nails live. Of course the soulful and swinging singles ‘Unstoppable’ and ‘What You Don’t Do’ are highlights of the set as well. She also plays quite a few tracks from her debut, like the folky ‘Age’, about a crush on an older guy. The crowd loves it and seems to love her humble and thankful attitude. When she closes her show rocking the tracks ‘Never Get Enough’ and ‘Forget’ Nile Rodgers declares his love for Lianne on stage while he photographs her from the side of the stage. He clearly wasn’t the only one who loved Lianne La Havas tonight!

Of course Nile Rodgers wasn’t at Flow Festival just to watch Lianne La Havas. He was the next performer on the main stage together with Chic. Although most of the tracks they played were released long for the majority of the audience was born, almost everyone knew the timeless classics and sang along. One of the highlights was a medley of Nile Rodgers’ hits with Diana Ross and Sister Sledge, that got the Finns swinging like they were actually in a 70s disco. The crowd completely went mad when he played ‘Get Lucky’, the track he wrote and produced with Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams. Of course everyone in the crowd knew the words to this worldwide hit, and the Chic version by incredible vocalists Kimberly Davis and Folami and the funky band went down well. Rodgers repeatedly tells the crowd how happy he is to be still alive after surviving cancer and he celebrates this with his biggest hits ‘Le Freak’ and ‘Good Times’. For the last one, all kinds of other artists and backstage people join the stage for a true Chic party. They still got it!

In between the acts on the main stage, one could dance to house, deep house and some techno in the Resident Advisor Backyard where Mano Le Tough, Dixon and Seth Throxler all played sets. The cute looking garden stage became more crowded with every hour. The last act on the main stage on friday was Major Lazer. The electronic producers went all in with an impressive staging with a huge light show, screens, four female dancers and loads of confetti. For every beatdrop, the hands were in the air and the Finnish people jumped like there was no tomorrow. Towards the end they played their new single ‘Powerful’ (which features vocals by Ellie Goulding) and Elliphant came on stage once more to sing her track ‘Too Original’, that was produced by the guys of Major Lazer. Of course, the last song of the night was their worldwide hit with the Danish MØ. A great ending of a perfect first day at Flow Festival.

Stay tuned for more reviews of the saturday and sunday, when Pet Shop Boys, Years & Years, Florence + the Machine and others will perform!