Jun 28

Haunt: a story-walk through Harrogate in search of spirits

The beau­ti­ful spa town of Har­ro­gate in York­shire is host­ing a ghost walk with a dif­fer­ence this sum­mer… spec­tres and shades, some (but not all) from the dis­tant past. Some are haunt­ing the life of Har­ro­gate now… and some are haunt­ed by the town itself. Haunt: a sto­ry-walk through Har­ro­gate, with music and per­for­mance is by Imove Arts,…

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Relaxing The bar at Port Eliot festival
Jun 21

If Location, Location did festivals…

If the TV pro­gramme Loca­tion, Loca­tion, Loca­tion were to fea­ture fes­ti­vals instead of hous­es, I imag­ine the fol­low­ing would be select­ed. These have a mag­ic loca­tion ingre­di­ent, being either gor­geous, rur­al, coastal or just unique. A fes­ti­val in a great loca­tion can inspire you in the way a good hol­i­day does. Blue Dot (above)  22 – 24 July A new…

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36 Ashley Road interior
Jun 21

The Secret Life of No:36 – an art project in a London terrace

An unas­sum­ing ter­raced house in north Lon­don trans­formed into an excit­ing, exper­i­men­tal art project proved to be one of the most intrigu­ing and orig­i­nal events in the cal­en­dar of a local fes­ti­val. Enti­tled The Secret Life of no:36, the project, shown as part of Crouch End Fes­ti­val, was inspired by the his­to­ry of the house and its…

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kill your darlings
Jun 16

Live Music Friday at Hornsey Town Hall

There’s a great line­up tomor­row night – Fri­day 17th – at Hornsey Town Hal­l’s gor­geous­ly 40s style Sup­per Room. Five artists will be appear­ing at the final Live Music eve, all part of Crouch End Fes­ti­val which ends this Sun­day 19th June. Here’s the line­up: Steve Pud­dle Local Hornsey singer song­writer Steve Pud­dle has his first…

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Jun 15

Field Day festival 2016

I was tempt­ed to call this review of Field Day, in its 10th cel­e­bra­to­ry year, “A Tale of Two Fes­ti­vals”. Sat­ur­day was pri­mar­i­ly pop­u­lat­ed with a youth­ful crowd, offer­ing plen­ty of dance music and DJs. The cen­tre of the site fea­tured the fes­ti­val’s delight­ful Vil­lage Men­tal­i­ty area where games and gen­er­al silli­ness were in full flow on the ‘vil­lage green’,…

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The Supper Room HTH
Jun 15

Music night at The Supper Room, Hornsey Town Hall

Crouch End Fes­ti­val 2016.  What a fab­u­lous and very suc­cess­ful night at the first of the Crouch End Live music events. It took place at the beau­ti­ful­ly atmos­pher­ic Sup­per Room at Hornsey Town Hall which resem­bles a speakeasy or a ’40s jazz bar (see pho­to above).  Tues­day 14th was the Char­t­house Music acoustic night. First on stage…

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Jun 2

Bearded Theory review 2016

The weath­er gods smiled down on Beard­ed The­o­ry again this year: I can only imag­ine it was at the sight of so many hir­sute indi­vid­u­als dis­port­ing them­selves in the Mag­i­cal Sounds dance tent, stomp­ing along to The Lev­ellers on the main stage, or maybe it was the giant pink pup­pets pranc­ing about the fes­ti­val site. Each year, Bearded…

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May 17

Summer of Love

The Sum­mer of Love On May 22 Black­tooth Pro­duc­tions will be going back to the Six­ties with an evening of read­ings, music and anec­dotes. Expect lash­ings of peace, love and lib­er­a­tion along­side a cel­e­bra­tion of key per­son­al­i­ties. The read­ings include: Ston­er talk from Wood­stock ● At home with RD Laing ● The Dead meet Tim­o­thy Leary ● The 14 Hour Tech­ni­colour Dream…

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shirley baker invite
May 12

Shirley Baker: On the Beach exhibition

On the Beach is a new exhi­bi­tion of less­er-seen work by Shirley Bak­er, held at Photo­fu­sion Pho­tog­ra­phy Cen­tre, Brix­ton from 12th May to 16th June. The pri­vate view was a huge suc­cess and cura­tor Anna Dou­glas gave a fas­ci­nat­ing gallery talk. In a depar­ture from her more well-known pho­tos of 1960s Man­ches­ter and Sal­ford, as seen at…

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Field Day CFaruolo
May 10

Field Day curate a street-food feast

Field Day fes­ti­val has built a rep­u­ta­tion for intel­li­gent cura­tion and secur­ing exclu­sives – this year PJ Har­vey and James Blake are head­lin­ing, with artists such as Float­ing Points, Blos­soms, Goat and Fat White Fam­i­ly as part of the eclec­tic line­up. I’ll always be grate­ful to Field Day for man­ag­ing to entice the elu­sive Mazzy Star onto their stage in 2012. The team are work­ing sim­i­lar magic…

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