O2 Wireless is a curious festival, the predominance of advertising and sponsorship is one of the most noticeable aspects of it with a special Blue Room for O2 customers, which acts to irritate everyone on other mobile networks during rainy periods as it's undercover, and a mass of big companies giving away freebies, rather than the usual collection of quirky festival stalls. Only 10 minutes into my festival visit I'm even approached by a researcher with a questionnaire about brand awareness at the festival and I work my way through a list of several dozen brands that I've spotted on site so far.
The line-up, especially this year, feels rather more designed for commercial gain than musical congruity. Parts of Friday's line-up were allegedly put together by Morrissey with Siouxsie and New York Dolls being astute choices to put together with the Mancunian legend, but elsewhere there's a rather random mix with Bowling For Soup playing the same day as Counting Crows and Amy Studt and Jay Z mixed with Hot Chip. The quirky Bella Union Stage provides some great indie acts on all days, but it's line-up is unannounced on the festival website, making it hard to factor into your plans until you arrive. Friday night and Sunday night are definitely the most rock and indie this year with Thursday seeing a few hip hop acts thrown in to complement Jay Z and Saturday having a distinct dance bent. The most curious line-up decisions are the headliners on the Sandisk Stage on Friday and Sunday night; while The National and The Hold Steady are two of my personal favourite bands, both had smaller crowds than the preceding acts - Siouxsie and Bowling For Soup respectively. This was no problem for the eager audiences, but surely the point of headliners is to pull the biggest crowd?
Special guest slots on the O2 Stage gave fans a chance to catch up with some of their favourite acts (Dirty Pretty Things, The National…) in a more intimate setting, but most of these seemed to be used to repeat parts of their performances on the larger stages, whereas an acoustic performance or some older tracks could have added a unique element.
There's a fun atmosphere with chilled cider garden and plenty of places to relax (so long as it doesn't rain) but it's impossible to escape the commercial aspect with adverts about O2 Angels giving away free wristbands to exclusive O2 areas all over the screens on the Main Stage. While Wireless is a thoroughly enjoyable experience you can't help but think that toning down the sponsoring and concentrating more on fan-friendly line-ups would improve the experience no end.