By Suvi Loponen / All photo credit: Jack Dunsmuir
The sun was oot when TRNSMT hit off the second day of the three-day festival. Finding the way to the entrances was not much of an effort if you just followed the trails of garbage generously scattered on the streets of Glasgow.
Saturday’s sold out line up included some really big names on the main stage. Cabbage and Circa Waves opened the day and were followed by Stormzy. Performing not only his own songs but also a refreshing cover of Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You, the grime rapper definitely knew his words. The artist praised all the performances that have ever graced the TRNSMT stage – after all, it is a promising first year for the event.
After Stormzy it was time for The Kooks, who lit up the atmosphere with all those catchy songs from throughout their career. With the sun beaming from the cloudless sky onto delicate Scottish skin, The Kooks hit off the summery festival vibe that was continued by, unquestionably, the day’s most laid-back set by George Ezra. Despite the heat, his low voice with sing-along-lyrics did deliver the first chills of the day.
It was maybe due to the number of people on the Green, closing to 50,000 on the day, that moving between the main stage and smaller stages was difficult. Securing a good spot close to the main stage meant also a good while squirming your way out from the crowds between the acts. Hence, I missed most of the good sets happening on the two smaller stages. Half an hour between the main stage performances was not enough for both a toilet break and getting one of those generously priced pints from the bar, unless you possess some kind of special skills.
By the time it reached the evening, many enthusiastic glittery faces were looking severely sunburnt around the crowds, but this did not seem to slow the spirit. The main stage Catfish and the Bottlemen seemed to be almost as anticipated as the later star group of the day, and after Ezra’s summery tunes they brought back the rocky attitude to the audience – leaving just one question hanging in the air: how are Kasabian going to outweigh this?
Obviously, they had no problem doing it. The whole one-and-a-half-an-hour set was so energetic that after standing for the whole day it was hard to keep up with Serge Pizzorno and Tom Meighan’s pace. It did get almost too wild at times in the audience; with little space to move, one person falling resulted in a chain reaction all around. Like almost all the main acts, Kasabian left the best for the last, lighting everyone on Fire for the last five minutes of the amazing day.
It was a bit of a downer to leave the venue traipsing through the sea of bottles, cups and half-eaten chips after such a great atmosphere and performances that will be forever remembered. And sadly, no. Arctic Monkeys did not make a surprise appearance on Saturday – but hope was not lost – another music-filled day was approaching.
