Dizzee Rascal and Pusha T star as Bulmers Forbidden Fruit gets off to a storming start!

Team HP was in full Factor 50 mode heading to Kilmainham yesterday, as Day One of Forbidden Fruit kicked off in sun-soaked style.

Arriving just in time to catch Young Fathers on the opening stage, it's difficult not to stop halfway and pick a spot in the natural amphitheatre to catch some rays. Of course, we aren't the only people with such a thought, which probably explains why the Scottish trio find themselves performing to a smaller crowd that usual. It doesn’t stay that way for long though, as tunes like ‘Queen Is Dead’, ‘Get Up’ and the seminal ‘Shame’ quickly get the burger-munchers and sun-lickers altogether interested.

While Andrew Stanley gets the Hot Press Speakeasy off to a chucklesome start – and Leftfield spin some outstanding tunes over at the Undergrowth Stage – it’s at the main stage we stay for Pusha T. The New Yorker was Kanye West’s appointment as President of GOOD Music – a fact that he ain’t quiet about, leading chants throughout the set. He finds the assembled crowds in fine voice, too; while this writer was slightly disappointed that “taking it back to where it began” didn’t involve the Maccy D’s jingle, which Push apparently wrote more than a decade ago, there’s far more substance that one might expect from a man with just one solo album under his belt. ‘Crutches, Crosses, Caskets’ is a particular highlight, and the fact that the hour-long set feels undersized speaks volumes.

But space for the main man must be made. UK rap – the grime scene in particular – is seeing something of a resurgence of late; as ‘Fix Up Look Sharp’ blares across the main arena, it’s a reminder of just who started it all. DIzzee Rascal is, quite preposterously, in his 30s – a fact that made HP feel utterly ancient – yet he still bounces around the stage like a hyperactive child. His encouragement that the crowd ‘get lively’ is suitably quaint too, considering the pandemonium that’s taking hold throughout.

An Olé Olé chant prompts him to whip out his phone and take a video; a flame-throwing performance of ‘Holiday’ leads the crowd to return the favour. A cover of ‘You’ve Got The Love’, ably assisted by the audience, is uplifting, but it had nothing on the delirium that takes hold during the first drop of ‘Bonkers’. A legit festival anthem, it’s a perfect way to cap the opening evening – and get the blood racing for the rest of the weekend.

COLM O'REGAN