A bewitching 'Dance Fever' dream - Florence + The Machine live in Bournemouth

The energetic frontwoman of Florence + The Machine bewitches audiences as she performs at the Bournemouth International Centre.

The audience seem entranced by everything Florence Welch does, mimicking her every movement. During a performance of Free, she draws her arms up and down, encouraging her fans to copy as she sings: ‘It picks me up, puts me down, picks me up, puts me down.’ And they do everything she says as if under some kind of spell. Later on in her set she jests ‘Is it a cult?’ ‘Am I safe?’ Before continuing ‘It’s really so much better if you just give into it, do everything I say and you’ll be absolutely fine.’

Everything about the singer is enchanting from the way she quite literally came out floating onto the stage to the floor length sage coloured gown she wears which catches elegantly in the light that shines down on her as she performs in front of what appears to be a white altar covered with candelabras, later to be adorned with ‘offerings’ of flower crowns – an item that seems to be a statement piece at a Florence + The Machine gig.

Early on in the show the band performed fan-favourite Dog Days and it was midway through that Florence asks the audience to put their phones away so that the show can really begin and all of a sudden, it’s like a switch has flipped. A whole new energy fills the room, not only by Florence, but from the audience too who are no longer glued to their devices.

After this, the singer was whirling, spinning and running across the stage and through the audience, with unfaltering vocals the whole time, just months after she had to reschedule the concert due to discovering she had been performing on a broken foot. However, the love she has for her fans was undeniable and particularly evident during a performance of Dream Girl Evil. She approached a fan stood at the barrier and sang the lyrics directly to her whilst stroking her face.

As the band reappeared for the encore, Florence introduced Never Let Me Go, a deeply emotive song that she has avoided playing for the past decade because as she put it: ‘It reminded me of a time when I was very, very sad and very, very drunk.’ She continued that over the last couple of years she had the chance to think about the songs and the impact of her fans and what they mean to her. She explained: ‘You put the things that you’re most afraid of, embarrassed of or ashamed of into a song and you give them away to people and they keep them safe and they love them.’ Even though she tried to push the song away, people loved it and she felt that she was ready to start singing it again as a thank you. The performance was enough to bring on goosebumps as the singer left it to the audience to fill in the never let me go’s.

The sincere performance was followed by Shake It Out, a song that encouraged more of the same energy that had been present throughout the gig from fan-favourite songs like Dog Days, You Got the Love and Ship to W,reck. During the final song of the night, the singer asks for ‘human sacrifices,’ but not in the literal sense. She clarifies that she wants audience members to raise their neighbours up onto their shoulders as she gets ready to perform Raise it Up (Rabbit Heart). The whole performance lived up to the Dance Fever name – a kind of dance-based fever dream, full of energy, dance singing and incredible showmanship.