Ipswich's newest music festival got off to a fantastic start on Saturday as thousands flocked to Trinity Park for Halo Festival.
The first edition of the festival proved a success as local, national and international artists came to the town to perform a selection of their biggest songs.
Among those who performed were Scouting For Girls, who got the festival goers up and dancing before Natasha Bedingfield took to the main stage. The Vaccines then performed and the headliners on the night were Two Door Cinema Club, who performed their biggest hits in what was their first performance in Ipswich.
On the Suffolk Stage, Afterdrive drew a big crowd for their headline set, after Esme Emerson and Connor Adams entertained people with their sets.
The DJ Tent was also a popular venue for many, with lots of people dancing and enjoying the music that was happening in the tent.
Something that was really well done was the organisation of when music artists were performing. It was done so that the Suffolk Stage would perform, and then the Main Stage, and each would perform while the other is being set up.
No artist overran on their set, and every artist appeared on time according to when the schedule said. This may be considered what should be done, but having been to festivals in the past where artists are late on, so hundreds are left standing and waiting, it was great that you knew what was happening and when.
People started coming in from 11am onwards, with the area in front of the main stage filling up quickly during the first couple of acts in anticipation of the bigger artists.
Halo had a lot of local companies also trading from the festival. A number of the food and drink vendors are local to Ipswich, they had Ipswich Town selling the new home and away kits, Brighten The Corners were there in the Suffolk Stage area alongside Suffolk Mind and Aspall had their truck set up.
On the other side of the festival area, Jimmy's Farm had a large section where they were selling their own Bear Beer as well as their own Jimmy's Market area.
They also had enough bars set up, which was very good for many as the queues for alcohol were vast a lot of the time, but it looked as though they were very quick at serving customers.
For what was Halo's first festival, they did a brilliant job. The music, the number of bars, the food on offer, and the range of artists, all culminated in a great event.
I have no doubt that in the future, it will get bigger and better.
