The first Evolution Festival was held back in 2005 and has seen the likes of The Futureheads, Super Fury Animals, Maximo Park and Hard-Fi headlining the event, which takes place in venues across Newcastle and Gateshead. Evolution started as a free music festival but in 2008, it ended its sponsorship with Orange meaning a ticket charge was brought in, but with tickets costing just £3 for the day with all ticket profits going to the charity Water Aid the festival continues to be a massive hit.

However, this year things changed again, with Evolution turning into a two-day festival and tickets being priced at a still very reasonable £15 for the two days. With the line-up looking as good as ever, few complained and tickets sold out for the festival within days!

The centre piece of the festival is based at two sites either side of the River Tyne; On the Gatehead side was the Baltic Square Stage (Dance Stage) hosting a range of dance acts including Boys Noize, Chase & Status, and Kissy Sell. The main stage for the festival was called the Spillers Wharf stage on the Newcastle side of the river, featuring a more familiar range of indie, rock and pop bands.

Day 1 – Sunday 24th May – Spillers Wharf Stage

Arriving down on the quayside on a wonderful sunny Sunday morning you could tell there was something special happening, with a great buzz of people in sun glasses all heading the in the same direction.

Upon entering the main arena (a massive car park which had been transformed for the weekend), you see all the sights you expect at a festival; a mass of burger and ice cream vans, porter-loos, a massive bar and lots of people in their summer wear enjoying the stunning weather and looking forward to the impressive line up of bands.

The first band of the day The Chapman Family took to the stage in front of a modest sized crowd. After the first few songs the lead singer encouraged the crowd to flood the stage with rubbish, which then lead to the stage being barraged in bottles and who knows what for the rest of their set. This almost local band (Stockton on Tees) have spent the last few years building a fan base in the local area and was greatly accepted as an opening act, their slow melodic breakdowns and energetic performance kicking the festival off to a flying start.

Next to take to the stage once it had been cleared of litter was the Detroit Social Club. The 6 member band’s slow alternative indie could be compared to the likes of the Red Light Company with a dash of Kasabian, with the rough vocals from the lead singer really seeming to complete their sound. Another local band who again had a good home crowd reaction with quite a few people visibly singing along and really getting into their set.

The Puppini Sisters where up next, a jazz a'cappela band from London fronted by three female vocalists dressed in burlesque styled costumes. Their chilled out style was a totally different sound to a lot of the other bands on the line up today. Even so, their music went down great with the crowd, and they even managed to squeeze a Blondie cover into their set too - perfect to listen to in the basking sunshine.

Twisted Wheel took to the stage shortly after, their indie sound seemed to win over the crowds but they were lacking visually in there live performance. There was no interaction with the crowd, with all the band members seeming very static with little stage presence.

Irish singer-songwrtier Imelda May was up next, having recently been getting a lot of radio air time. A decent sized crowd come along to watch her set, by far the biggest of the day. Her 50’s style blues rockabilly sound seemed to be well accepted.

After Imleda’s set the crowds didn’t seem to leave, they just got larger in anticipation for the While Lies. One of the opening songs of their set was their recent single ‘Fair Well to the Fairground’; their alternative rock sound seemed to please the flocks of people that came to see them. After this song the rest of the set was injected with energy both from the band and onlookers, the lead singer seeming to really enjoy the crowd’s reaction and playing up to them even more.

It was like the whole arena had travelled back in time, when 80’s synth-pop group The Human League took to the stage. An aged Philip Oakey (it has been 20 years since his hayday) and his two backing singers took to the stage to perform to a crowd who’s average age probably didn’t even top 25. What seemed to be quite a long, tedious set was finished with the one song that most people were there for - ‘Don’t you want me?’. A massive sing along uplifted an otherwise quite boring set.

The final act of the evening was The Wombats. The 3-piece pop indie band from Liverpool opened with a bang, the first and only band to hit the stage after the sun had set, meaning that as well as a tight live sound, the crowds were in for some stunning lighting too.

All these factors together meant that it was a crowd pleasing performance full of energy and their classic singles including ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’ and ‘Moving to New York’ to name a few of the feel-good hits that the crowd hoped and loved to hear.

Day 2 – Monday 25th May – Spillers Wharf Stage

Blessed by a second day of beautiful weather, the quayside was noticeably a lot busier than on the first day. The Baltic Square Stage plays host today to some impressive acts such as Ebony Bones, Ladyhawke, Friendly Fires and Mystery Jets, with equally exciting bands playing throughout the day.

Over at the Spillers Wharf stage, first act After opening act Marina & the Diamonds, second band on the Spillers Wharf stage were a local act called Little Comets. The band's set went down well, seeming to take every chance possible to interact with the crowd.

The sun still blazing high in the sky, next to take to the stage was a London based band going by the name of Kid British. These guys came into the public eye last year when they entered Channel 4's ‘Orange Act Unsigned’. Even though they didn’t actually win the contest but that really hasn’t fazed these guys. They took to the stage with the most energy witnessed all weekend, and the crowd reaction was just as energetic. Their reggae dub style could be compared to the likes of The Specials and Madness, the perfect type of music to be listening to while the sun is shinning overhead. One song that got the crowd moving was a song titled ‘Our House is Dadless’, a mixture of there own lyrics with the chorus of Madness’s ‘Our House’. They also chucked a cover of Katy Perrys ‘Hot ‘n’ Cold’ into their set but with their own reggae dub twist to it, they then finished with their new single ‘Lost in London’.

Next up was VV Brown, another London based female vocalist. She had a tough job to follow the Kid British guys but she really did rise to the challenge. Her sound has been described as retro pop with and indie punk edge style sounds - she loved being on the stage and there’s nothing better then watching someone put everything into a performance, which she really did. An act to keep you eye on for big things in 2009.

Nouvelle Vague were next up, a French act with a mixture of female and male vocals, perhaps best described as ‘Lounge Reggae’. Their extremely laid back sounds were a pleasure to listen to, with their set including a cover of Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass’ and endedd with one of the biggest sing-a-long’s of the weekend with Joy Divisions ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.

Next to take to the stage was Little Boots, a female solo artist who as well as singing and writing great music plays the piano, synthesizers, a Japanese instrument called a Tenori-on and the stylophone. Little Boots is quite a new artist to the UK music scene only having broken through in the last few months but she is again someone to watch for in 2009 and already has a rapidly growing fan base. Her new single ‘New in Town’ was what a lot of the crowds were there for and she really didn’t disappoint with her performance.

At around 6.30 the sun seemed to disappear and the sky clouded over, but the rain managed to just hold out for the next act - The Maccabees. A Brighton based band that have been on the music scene for a good 4 years, but they have never quite broke enough and got the recognition for what a great band they are. Their live performance seemed visually quite poor but some how the energy they produced in their sound was something quite epic. The crowd really seemed to be enjoying every song of the set, with their newest single 'Love You Better’ being the biggest crowd-pleaser.

The View took to the stage shortly after to the now rainy Newcastle, umbrellas as far as the eye could see. The Scottish indie band started off grand considering the weather, with some great songs and the wet onlookers seeming to lap it up. But then the middle of their set was a bit of a blur, not much happened really, the crowd calmed and they seemed to play some weaker songs. I was on the verge of totally loosing interest when they finished their hits ‘Same Jeans’, ‘Superstar Tradesman’ and ‘Shock Horror’. Maybe their set had been to long for a festival crowd but the managed to save it at the end and leave everyone with a smile on my face.

All day today I have seen a lot of people in red or yellow t-shirts all branding the same face on the front, all ages from people as young as 5 to people in there 50’s. Now me and around 10,000 other people are going to feel and see what today has all been building up to. Onto the stage walks headliner Mr Dizzee Rascal, as casual as ever; "Yo Newcastle! What’s happinin’?".

A now completely full arena, from front to back go mental as Dizzee kicks off his set. Dizzee, wearing one of his own t-shirts with an image of his face on the front and his backing MC spend the first few songs strolling up and down the front of the stage working the crowd up into a frenzy. He played all his classic tracks like 'Fix up' and ‘Dance with me’ that Dizzee released with Calvin Harris, that got a massive crowd reaction, by far the biggest and best of the weekend. After a good 50 minute set including classics like 'Fix Up, Look Sharp' and 'Dance Wit Me', Dizzee leaves the stage, and then minutes later returns to play his most recent single simply titled ‘Bonkers’ - and that was exactly what the whole arena was doing.

Visit the photo section of the website for images from this festival.

Thanks to Suzy at ‘Goulding public relations’ for helping arrange passes for the event.