Massive Attack inaugurate LIDO Festival with poignant, pitch-perfect set

At the “100% battery-powered event”, the Bristolian trip-hop icons’ messaging put humanity at the fore.

The message was loud and clear. Throughout Massive Attack’s near-on 40 year tenure, they’ve been immovable in their political stance and have consistently used their platform to promote social justice. But their headlining set for LIDO festival’s maiden voyage was also a major step in the right direction for the live events industry, proving that cutting edge festivals of this magnitude can be executed without contributing to global pollution.

Billed as a “100% battery-powered event”, LIDO’s first ever festival headliners ensured the event aligned with their Act 1.5 Project, their initiative to reduce carbon emissions and air pollution that events of this scale typically produce. Hopefully, it becomes the norm. Though the ethos likely wouldn’t have had the same impact if it weren’t for Massive Attack’s masterful performance – as entertainers, the Bristolians remain as vital and electrifying as ever.

Ostensibly the same set-up as fellow Victoria Park dweller All Points East, LIDO’s main stage is situated in the natural amphitheatre surrounded by trees towards the western side of the park – where the second stage is for APE – which aided the sound quality no end.

Another important distinction for LIDO is that the headliner curates the lineup from top to bottom. There was an immaculate set from Air earlier in the day – who virtually played Moon Safari in full with a gorgeous crossfade of ‘Highschool Lover’ and Pink Floyd’s ‘The Great Gig In The Sky’ ushering dusk in. New duo FORENSICS (made up of Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def and Action Bronson collaborator The Alchemist) packed out the tent, whilst Tirzah and 47soul opened up the main stage, the latter of whom dubbed themselves “anti-colonial music” and emerged whilst the sun burst through the clouds donning a Kneecap t-shirt. Every facet of the event had Massive Attack’s fingerprints all over it – from the absence of single-use plastics to the sea of Palestinian flags present throughout the 35,000-strong crowd.

The trip-hop icons’ set was replete with anti-war, pro-Palestinian sentiment – to be expected if you’d ever paid attention to their journey as artists. Actor Khalid Abdalla opened their set with a poignant speech about how the Palestine solidarity movement is the “civil rights movement of our time,” and Massive Attack didn’t stray far from that message throughout. It was like an Adam Curtis documentary; slogans about the digital dystopia we’ve succumbed to and eye-popping visuals that hammered the theme home, the crimson and white flashing lights in binary code echoed a stock market detailing data about the horrors that we’re witnessing beamed through our tiny screens on a daily basis. Heavy for the average gig-goer, for sure, but Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall have consistently used their voice for progress and change. Talking of voices, the pair’s vocals still sound remarkably urgent and imperious in their 60s as they did 30 years ago.

Landmark album Mezzanine makes up the majority of the set, with the band introducing a revolving door of guest performances too. Yasiin Bey performed their 2003 collaboration ‘I Against I’ for the first time since 2018, Deborah Miller came on for ‘Safe From Harm’ and ‘Unfinished Sympathy’, whilst “collaborator-in-chief” Horace Andy sounded as haunting as ever on the monochromatic drama of ‘Angel’. Elisabeth Fraser’s presence was as celestial as it comes though, her agelessly angelic voice elevating ‘Black Milk’, Tim Buckley cover ‘Song To The Siren’, and encore ‘Teardrop’ to tear-inducing heights.

Now, like when the lauded trip-hop collective broke into the public consciousness all those decades ago, they’re completely unignorable. More cerebral art performance than your typical headliner show, we can only hope that Massive Attack’s pitch-perfect protest will be more than a mere symbolic gesture.

All photos credited to: Sophia J Carey.

LIDO Festival continues on 13-15 June – find tickets here