Last weekend Love Saves the Day returned to Bristol and with the summer of 2021 coming to an abrupt end, thousands of festival goers made the most of the last dose of sunshine and headed to Clifton Downs for the weekend.

The Love Saves the Day team has always come through with a line-up of influential and diverse artists and their stages have previously been graced by the likes of Stormzy, Loyle Carner, and Mabel and this year was no exception, with names like Mahalia, Ghetts and Little Simz due to perform.

The festival was already kicking off when we arrived and even the smaller stages were jam-packed with dancing attendees throughout the day. We went and caught London based singer and rapper Biig Piig who’s chilled out voice backed by smooth electronic beats created the perfect day time atmosphere.

Lil Simz drew in a huge crowd to the main stage, and was not to be missed. She was on top form and her performance featured tracks from her new album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert alongside her captivating band.

Mahalia was a top highlight of the weekend. Playing popular songs from her album Love and Compromise. The energy from the crowd was accelerated by huge flames erupting out the front of the stage.

The energy on Sunday started off a little slower. People are strewn across the floor eating food from the local food vans and drinking cold beers from the bar. The same can’t be said for the smaller stages which are serving up heavy mix of drum and bass, dub and techno for the people who aren’t taking their Sunday so easy. Enny played mixture of laid back beats and up tempo tracks, featuring a freestyle over a J Dilla beat, finishing off her set with her 2020 single Peng Black Girls.

Pa Salieu was up next and impressed with a high-energy performance including tracks from Send Them to Coventry.

Jelani Blackman was one our Sunday favourites, taking the stage by storm with the most fired up performance of the weekend. The most notable part of his set was him jumping into the crowd during his enigmatic performance of Hello, as his fans were reciting every lyric back at him. You can find Jelani at the Wordplay stage at Wild Paths festival this October.

The highly anticipated Ghetts did not disappoint. Accompanied by Rude Kid on the ones and twos, he played tracks from his new album Conflict of Interest as well as classics from his impressive back catalogue such as One Take, DunknoAlready and many more.

Slowthai finished off the weekend on the main stage delivering a hyped performance in true Slowthai style. Everyone in the crowd completely lost it and the energy levels peaked. Highlights of his set was tracks from his album Tyron and the return of Pa Salieu for Gliding.

Love Saves the Day was the festival we all needed to end the summer months and continues to exceed expectations year after year. If you missed out, be sure to feel the love next year. As always, a big thankyou to Team Love for having Wordplay again!

Check out the gallery below to catch our main highlights.

Words by Katie Pill

Photos by Andrew Busby & Anis Ali