On a very chilly Saturday afternoon, music editor Lulu Jones and lifestyle writer Olivia Reed headed down to Tobacco Dock in Wapping for Wahaca’s Day of the Dead festival. The venue’s cobbled floors and network of intimate rooms created an intriguing setting for the festival (though Lulu did get lost multiple times trying to make her way back from the bar, this may or may not have been because of all the margaritas). The main focus of the festival was music and food, but just in case this wasn’t enough, there was a whole host of shops selling clothes and trinkets, a Mexican wrestling ring and a tattoo parlour.
After seeing the line up back in the summer, Lulu knew she just had to go. Headliners were The Horrors, Crystal Fighters and Savages, with plenty of incredible acts on the line up. Divided into two stages, the music followed the Mexican theme of the day, particular notice has to go to Camden based Mano de Dios, who have been described by Vogue as gypsy jazz-cum-Ian Drury-cum-Madness, which is actually pretty spot on, they played an incredible energy filled band and Lulu will definitely be looking out for when they play in London next! Mexrissey put on a great show, with their latin inspired covers of The Smiths and Morrissey – translated into Spanish obviously. One criticism of the venue however, was the queue for Crystal Fighters which meant that not everyone (including the After Nyne girls) got to see them, though The Horrors who were on at the same time played a great set.
The foodie element of the day saw Wahaca co-founder Thomasina Miers host the finale of a series of supper clubs with Enrique Olvera, whose restaurant Pujol is currently voted 16th best in the world. Enrique Olvera is known for re-inventing traditional Mexican recipes and being a pioneer of Mexico’s new and sustainable cuisine. Cooking is a key part of day of the dead celebrations and the supper club showcased this in dishes such as beef tartare with a serrano chile and spring onion tartare sauce and green tomatillo salsa and burrata in green salsa with quelites, coriander and dandelion greens. For those without supper club tickets there were still plenty of street food stalls dotted around the festival. Wahaca stands were serving up tacos, salmon sashimi tostadas and freshly fried churros with melting chocolate and DF/Mexico were cooking up steak tortas and corn esquites. The perfect food to grab between sets.
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