The Outside-In Festival @ The Sage (3)

Reviewed by Adam Williams

T4’s Outside-In festival brought together some of the biggest acts around for a day of music at the iconic Sage Gateshead. Using a similar formula to T4 On The Beach, each act performed 3 or 4 of their most popular songs which kept the festival moving at a fast pace but often left you a tad unsatisfied when a band had to leave the stage just as they were getting into their set.

The event began with the woeful N-Dubz wannabe Fugative but thankfully he wasn’t a sign of what was to come. I spent most of my time in Hall One where the more alternative acts were playing but still caught Pixie Lott and the Sugababes on the main stage; they wowed the young crowd with recent hits as I headed to watch the impressive Courteeners on the second stage. I’m not that big a fan of the Courteeners but they put in a strong performance and really won me over by the end of their brief set.

Local band Polarsets were the pick of the lesser known artists on the bill before the highlight of the event came as Danish pop band Alphabeat took to the stage. There was a huge influx of people from the main stage and they really brought the event to life with their popular hits The Spell and Fascination.

The fantastic Marina and the Diamonds followed, romping her way through her most well known material and the Automatic put in a solid show before headliners Lostprophets rounded off the evening with a slightly underwhelming performance.

At the same time the more chart friendly acts such as Taio Cruz, Example and N-Dubz rounded the evening off on the main stage. It was an enjoyable day which flew past, leaving everybody in the crowd wanting more.