Festival Review: BST Hyde Park P!nk
Unleashing Electrifying Energy: P!nk Transforms British Summer Time Hyde Park into a Thrilling Spectacle of camp, vibrant musical bliss.
If the real housewives of Clapton were at Glastonbury, then the Huns had officially assembled at London’s Hyde Park. Picnic blankets established, rosé liberally distributed and down to the last of the cigs, at 8:20pm on Sunday 25th of June 2023, the stars were aligning for a special kind of church to commence. This is no ordinary ceremony, this is led with glitter and acrobatics. This is P!nk’s Summer Carnival.
Performing across both days of the last (and hottest) weekend in June, P!nk is the first headliner of the 2023 edition of BST Hyde Park - a festival in the capital that has hosted music legends since 2013. At a rumoured 70,000 strong capacity, the site was heaving from the moment of entry, but due to nature of tonight’s all female line-up, the vibes were more giddy than rowdy, at worst you’d encounter a over protective owner of a PMC (pre mixed can), but these interactions were far and few. Everyone (and their mum) was there to have a good knees up and wail away to the songs from their favourite P!nk era.
The weekend’s lead support comes from Orange County Girl, Gwen Stefani. After bursting onto The Great Oak Stage with Sweet Escape, the drumroll intro of No Doubt classic, Sunday Morning triggers a blissful, nostalgic welcome from the crowd. We go through a healthy catalogue of No Doubt tracks, including the band’s 2001 release, Hey Baby, unlocking pre-teen memories and a word for word lyric recital you thought you forgot. We also experience Sweet Escape hits: Cool, Wind it Up, Rich Girl and What You Waiting For.
Stefani expresses her enormous gratitude to the crowd in between tracks and although it wasn’t noticeable at first, it seems the artist has now picked up quite a thick country accent. Maybe its because her current beau is Blake Shelton, or maybe our impending sunstroke that has us hearing a twang not too dissimilar to that of miss Dolly P. But if that Allure interview is anything to go by, maybe GS is a cowboy now too (as well as Japanese).
Just A Girl is the penultimate track of the set, which bridges the generational gap between audience members. The No Doubt audio bite has captured Gen Z’s hearts and is unavoidable when doom scrolling the social media fruit machine. Stefani closes with Hollaback Girl, which makes for the perfect motivational bar queue music.
Our last sighting of GS was of her dip dyed pony-tail bob off into the general admission audience, leading her to apparently join Hugh Jackman in the VIP area, triggering an influx of Deux Moi Sunday spotted submissions.
Okay now on to the main event.
After an intentionally glitchy intro on the massive screens that sandwich the stage, P!nk makes her explosive introduction with a vibrant medley of Get The Party Started and Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics) all the while bungeeing up and down, spinning in mid air. It’s a spectacle from the first beat. We are treated to the classics in the first act of the show, Who Knew is followed by Just like a Pill, the audience is later teased by a short piano interlude of Don’t Let Me Get Me in Act II.
About a third of the way into the set, P!nk takes a break from the arial acrobatics, sits at (and plays) the piano for her cover of Bob Dylan’s, Make You Feel My Love, its a calming interlude, that brings the audience of matching light up cowboy hats and 50th birthday t-shirts to complete awe as we all chant along in the sunset. The tempo lightly picks up for Just Give Me a Reason and F**kin’ Perfect as the audience echos the latter’s lyrics, the soothing energy of the pop anthem gleams as brightly as the light that bounces from the mirror balls on stage. As Willow Sage Hart (P!nk’s daughter) joins the stage, unbothered by the crowd for her part in Cover Me in Sunshine, it highlights how many other kids were here tonight. Albeit, some were completely disinterested, but a majority were so excited and were non-stop cartwheeling throughout the duration of the show. Since becoming a parent, P!nk has spoken about how this has softened her appearance to a wider audience and made her more likeable (even though the industry heavily advised this would end her career). The shows do feel more family friendly now, it’s not a bad thing.
By the End of Act IV, the gears have definitely shifted and the pace has picked up. Blow Me (One Last Kiss) has everyone and by now, their boyfriend, belting along, the spirited stamina of the crowd and performers alike is carried through to Never Gonna Not Dance Again. P!nk introduces her dancers and band - the familiar faces of the tour family that have stuck with the circus over the years.
We close with the unapologetic, So What, P!nk is catapulted over the crowd of adoring fans below, flipping around and not a note sung out of tune. Even if P!nk’s music isn’t your bag, even the soulless would find it impossible to not be converted to becoming a full blown P!nk stan after this experience. What other performer can do this?