I’ve always been a little bit sceptical as to whether it is possible to recreate a genuine festival atmosphere in a city centre environment but I have to say that Lovebox comes pretty close. The atmosphere was chilled and there was very little in the way of obvious drunkenness or the obnoxious behaviour that often mars events like this. Situated in Victoria Park in London’s East End, Lovebox is organised by Groove Armada. They played as part of the Saturday line up but we only managed to go for the day on the Sunday, predominantly to see headliners Flaming Lips who put on their usual impressively theatrical performance.

The main stage is a good size with large screens to either side, but the sound here did tend to be a little patchy in the windy conditions. The Great Escape and Firefly stages were both of the Saddlespan variety allowing a small amount of coverage for the audience during the one short shower we experienced early in the afternoon. The Fringe Stage had an impressive array of cabaret acts throughout the day and there was plenty of dance music too both outside in the leafy Stockade and inside Strangelove and NYC Downlow, which Glastonbury goers will recognise from the Trash City area there.

A diverse selection of food was available from the many catering stalls, all at fairly standard festival prices of between £5 & £7 for a main meal. Not such a great choice at the bars however with little other than Carlsberg Lager & Gaymers Cider on offer at £3:50 a pint but the Pimms & frozen Margarita bars we saw at Wychwood were both present and you could also get shots & cocktails in the indoor venues.

And so having popped our Lovebox cherries it was overall a big thumbs up & if the line up proves to be as attractive next year as it was this, then a full weekend visit may well be on the cards.