Ever wondered what the atmosphere is like in an office full of festival organisers days before the big event? “Not just hectic, it’s chaos! It’s obviously chaos! I feel like a large-scale event like this is kind of like a theatre production in some ways. There are so many moving elements, so many parts,” says Ben Cross, co-founder of south London’s Cloud X Festival, which takes place this weekend in Lewisham’s Beckenham Place Park.
Cross and his childhood friend David Dabieh have grown the event — now in its third year — into the UK’s leading independent festival for R&B, Soul & Alt rap, hosting more than 10,000 people. When we meet, on a miserable Monday afternoon, it’s hard to conjure that festival feeling. That said, theirs is the type of office where there’s always some sort of party afoot. They give me an excited tour of their new, multi-use Brixton space and invite me to an acoustic jam night they’re hosting later this week.
