They did it again, for the sixth time in a row… Last Friday and Saturday, London Remixed Festival mixed & matched the British capitals diverse sounds, assorted beats and variegated grooves to give life to another sundry cultural event up & down Rich Mix’s four floors.

Even if the 2016’s edition of the East London event enjoyed less hype, big-names and expectations compared to its previous appointments, it poured on its audience the usual passion and even more experimental tunes. Throughout two nights, Global Local and fellow promoters like Movimientos, Arts Canteen, Wormfood, Continental Drift and Two For Joy presented a cross section of the contemporary global music scene on the three stages (plus a disco-lift) of the Shoreditch venue, by means of some of its most colourful and intriguing exponents.

London Remixed Festival indeed hosted acts which are shaped and rooted in distant traditions. At the ground floor, the main Tropicarnival Stage offered Afro-Caribbean and Latin rhythms like the ones played by Venezuelan, South African and British quintet Baldo Verdú y su Tonto Malembe with their psychedelic, tropical and funk amalgam; Ghanaian & South Yorkshire Afro-fusion project K.O.G & The Zongo Brigade; and Native Sun’s Mozambique afrosoul, Carribean upbeat and London urban rhymes. Thee floors above, Polka Club entertain its audience with Gypsy, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern grooves like “electro-mijwez, shamstep & choubi” with Anglo-Arabic aroma of 47Soul or Balkan and Southern European atmospheres of Gypsy Butter. While next door Folk Ghetto gathered together with more rooty, hearty and stomping melodies like the tradition-inspired ones played by Theo Bard or Honeymoon’s Ethio-jazz oriented…

London Remixed Festival’s crowd had the run of the cultural centre, wandering from stage to stage, congesting the silent disco dance floor, overloading the disco-lift and dancing the nights away. Because next to almost 20 bands and solo acts, Remixed Festival was also a celebration of deejaying and, as its name clearly anticipates, remixing. That’s how DJ Chris Tofu opened the doors to his Vintage Remix Club, Movimientos DJs Cal Jader and Russ Slater wined and dined with the audience with South American vibes and our very own DJ Tash_LC dropped down the curtain on the festival with her “Croydon to the Tropics” selection.

Let’s hope February 2017 will come soon, because we can’t wait to be Remixed over again!

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