Optimus Alive! - Optimus Alive!12

Optimus Alive!12

The sixth year of the festival drew crowds of more than 55,000 people to hear bands like Radiohead, Warpaint, The Maccabees, and The Kills. The festival's atmosphere failed to charm all its attendees, like The Line of Best Fit's Suze Olbrich, who described her first impression of the festival grounds as a "car park with an enormous hulking main stage, two smaller hooded stages and more branded eateries and stalls than I’ve ever come across in one place". Olbrich did compliment the sound quality blasting from all three stages, but mentioned the first day artists had no hope of filling the "cavernous" arenas, zapping some energy from the performances.

Headliners Radiohead's performace capped off the final night of the festival. The band mostly performed works from its 2011 album King of Limbs. Radiohead was called back for two encores, and performed a section of REM's 'The One I Love'.

The Maccabees also performed on the final day of the festival. During their set, the band broke into a rendition of "Happy Birthday", as July 15 was also the band's bassist Rupert Jarvis' birthday.

The Sunday performances wrapped up well after 4 a.m. Monday morning.

Optimus Alive 2012 was nominated for several European Festival Awards—Best Major Festival, Best European Festival Line-up and Artists' Favourite Festival. Ultimately, Optimus went home empty-handed however.