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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Lifestyle
Rachel Pugh

Review: Size? sessions featuring AJ Tracey, Nines, Backroad Gee, Clavish, Kenny Allstar, M1llionz, Kwengface and more

On Saturday, major fashion brand Size? made the O2 Victoria Warehouse come alive with one of the biggest and best festivals of the year. The Size? Sessions festival featured a mammoth line-up with some of the biggest names in UK rap and drill,

If you've ever been to the O2 Victoria Warehouse, you'll know it can be a blank canvas. But walking into the warehouse, it was completely transformed - and it looked hard. Virtual Size? logos ardorned the walls of the three seperate rooms, along with other sponsors like Berghaus.

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In the centre of the venue there was a chill-out space adorned with bean bags and giant psychedelic mushrooms in its iconic 'home grown' aesthetic. If you follow Size? you'll have seen it before - earlier this year Manchester legend Abnormal Sleepz collaborated with the brand for its first HomeGrown collection, and the festival gave people a chance to get their own pictures of the the 'psychadelic outdoors'.

There were a few different bars available for drinks - including a prosecco stand - and the waiting times were pretty good. I think the longest we waited for a drink was probably around 10 minutes, which, for a festival, is impressive.

The venue consisted of three seperate rooms - each with their unique (and equally brilliant) flavour. The stages included main stage - where you could see the likes of AJ Tracey, Nines, Knucks and Backroad Gee.

The Mixtape Madness stage was hosting acts like Radio 1Xtra DJ Kenny Allstar (I've never seen him do a bad set), M1llionz, Kwengface, Arz, AJ Tracey and Clavish.

Room three did Manchester proud, with our very own DJs like AK Gramm and Stylxo keeping the energy up inbetween the main room sets. Some people were enjoying Room Three's vibes so much, they stayed there all day and night. Not that you can blame'em.

Because of the huge variety of artists on the line-up, it was impossible to see everyone. I felt like a kid in a candy shop trying to decide who I wanted to see, but that's when you know it's a good festival. No good line-up would make it easy for you to choose who you want to see. So kudos to Size? for managing that.

The highlight of the festival came courtesy of Backroad Gee. The energy of the set was UNMATCHED. I won't forget the performance of Under Attack (it's one of my most-played tracks at the moment, so maybe I'm biased, but it was SO GOOD).

Nines, too, brought some serious energy. The room was absolutely packed out for the set, and people were loving it. The audience was completely engaged, and if that's not a successful set, I don't know what is.

I met several people who had come from all across the country to enjoy the festival, and that says a lot. People had got minibuses down from places like Birmingham and London to see the impressive line-up - well and truly putting Manchester on the map.

Overall it was a brilliant festival, and I hope there's another soon. The collaboration between fashion and music has been a beautiful partnership for years - and this was no exception.

If events like this continue in Manchester, we'll be taking over from London in no time. There's no energy like Manchester energy - that's just facts.

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