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Exeter Respect 2007

Sunday 1st to Sunday 8th July 2007
Exeter, Devon, England MAP
various. Many free events. Phoenix World Music Extravaganza - Tickets £11/£12.50

I have to say we weren’t really expecting to enjoy the night much, we’re not really big fans of urban music (least I thought we weren’t) and I was actually pleasantly surprised by the event hosted by Hold It Down. The marquee was busy with one of the biggest crowds of the weekend dancing away to a live set from Cyantific while in the auditorium Imperial Leisure had also drawn quite a crowd.


Okay so the people gathered anywhere else seemed to consist of blokes flitting from one Room to the other looking for the women. There weren’t a lot of them about, so it was amusing to watch these groups of lads return to the same room every twenty minutes in a never-ending circle.

The Ninja tune room sounded great and had some groovy lighting but there weren’t many people there when I popped my head in, in fact not even a DJ. Although DJ Food was to take to the decks later and many of the festivalgoers I spoke to were looking forward to that.



The Hold It Down Tempo room looked lovely with nice visuals playing on the walls and some great tunes, but was also failing to hold crowds. Shame, it had a great vibe. The nearby terrace with Jelly Jazz had quite a few dancing and a crowd of smokers happy to hear music and still inhale!

With the prospect of Killa Kela and Sway in the Hip Hop Auditorium I thought that’s where I’d be spending most of my time, but no, the Drum and Bass Marquee and Cyantific, Grooverider and Mampi Swift had the crowd and me delighted. Plus the Otter bar was in the same marquee offering three ales and a couple of ciders. Lovely!

Seriously, it was terrific, lots of people, lots of lights and lots of tunes, I had a great time, which I really wasn’t expecting to. Damn good value 5 rooms of music for £11.