REVIEW: No Tomorrow

Thank god the sun came out.

A few suspicious festival-goers still wore the wellies and lugged around coats, but thankfully after a horrific morning of rain and ‘Is it too late to sell our tickets?’ the sun showed its face and kept things cute right until the end.

Tons of glitter and floral headpieces were the poison of choice for the day, with one too many disco shorts on show…

Please note: just because the sun’s out in full force doesn’t mean your ass needs to be.

If music wasn’t your thing there was a whole host of activities provided: team tug-of-war and sumo wrestling were amongst the choices if you were feeling brave.

All the best festival food was in various carts and stands, plus bars on every corner – although those who didn’t get their drinks tokens before queuing lived to regret it.

The whole thing was set on the most beautiful backdrop possible with Wollaton Hall behind the crowd.  So much Instagram.

It meant you could go sit on top of a hill to watch from afar or throw yourself straight into the action of mainstage, but still get an amazing view.

Duke Dumont

Things really kicked off at 5ish with Duke Dumont playing in what became known as the ‘Duke Dumont tent’. IE the big green one that wasn’t mainstage. All the crowd pleasers were played and of course, when you like a song obbbbviously the only way to express yourself is to shove everyone then start jumping.

Things got very sweaty very fast, but it was a good, high energy start to the afternoon.

Clean Bandit

Clean Bandit were the next act everyone was waiting for, and we were back to main stage for that. A big crowd gathered and it was fairly obvious that everyone was waiting for their summer smash ‘Rather Be’.

When it eventually played everyone inevitably went nuts, and the energy stayed up right until the end of their set with a brilliant cover of ‘Show Me Love’ that had everyone’s throats raw.

Artful Dodger and not so Eton Messy…

Next came blast from the past, Artful Dodger. Old skooool chart-topper ‘Moving Too Fast’ went down a treat, but  the tent was very chilled despite being electro music.

It got the crowd going without overkilling the vibe by someone being stupid and starting a mosh pit, and the atmosphere in the tent was a perfectly balanced.

Eton Messy really drew the short straw playing at the same time as Sam Smith.  Almost everyone was having a torturous inner battle about who to go see, and more often than not Sam Smith won.

We were so sad to miss it, and curious about how big the crowd was? Tweet us @TheTabNotts with any photos!

Sam Smith

Sam Smith. There really are no words.  London Grammar were the main stage headliners at No Tomorrow but Sam Smith was arguably better.

An enormous crowd turned up to watch him and were not disappointed (except perhaps by his outfit… awful jacket Sam. Purple and velvet bad).  He kept the crowd in a constant emotional turmoil, picking things up with with crowd pleaser ‘Money on My Mind’ and then emotionally cutting everyone with an acoustic rendition of his number one ‘Latch’ and new album favourite ‘Lay Me Down’.

The set ended with newest tear jerker ‘Stay With Me’, and if you were stood on the right side you could see London Grammar watching from backstage. Not really sure whether we wanted to kill ourselves or marry Sam Smith after that ender, but all in all it was epic.

London Grammar

Rounding off the festivities were Nottingham alumni London Grammar.  They opened their set with the haunting ‘Hey Now’ which was completely impossible to ignore.

Everyone had scattered after Sam Smith (presumably to cry or throw up) but the melancholic strains cut straight through the festival from the mainstage to the far corners of Wollaton, and all came flocking back for No Tomorrow’s headline act.  The sun had finally gone down at this stage and London Grammar put on an incredible lights show with their set.

It wasn’t the most high-tempo, adrenaline pumping way to end a festival, and the vibe was very lighters in the air/ arms around your friends/ sit on the floor and have a listen.  Chart topper ‘Strong’ was the penultimate song played and had the crowd singing along, and the headliners closed the festival on an excellent, if slightly mellow and soporific note.

All in all, No Tomorrow was a 10/10. Even though Wollaton Park is enormous, everything was kept close together and easy to navigate.  Queues for entry were efficient and the facilities were fantastic.

Everything ran almost exactly to time, and despite being overrun with students if you stayed away from the rabble it would be an easy family outing too – everything was rounded off and finished by 11pm, and then onto the after parties.

The best part was that although main stage was almost always packed, from every angle you could get a nearly perfect view of whoever was on stage.  It had all the best qualities of an intimate gig experience despite being set in a park.

All in all, we were huge fans. If you didn’t go this year, beg, borrow and steal to get yourself there for 2015.