Strawberry Fair 2009

Strawberry Fair, or, as I have now re-christened it, Skankberry Fair, is not without reputation. For one day a year, in an otherwise quaint and tourist-infested university town, the best nutters the South have to offer congregate, get inebriated with their substance of choice and have a hell of a good time. The following 364.25 days are spent persuading The Friends of the Common and various tight-lipped town authorities to do it again. Last year, heavy police presence and formidable sunshine resulted in an accumulation of hot and bothered drunks, and with the absence of the reggae tent in an attempt to cut down on illegal drug use, there was nowhere for them to let off steam. Although I’ve been to plenty of great Strawberry Fairs in the past, I was not without my reservations for what this year might hold.

On Friday night I started off the weekend with the Strawberry Fair pre-party – Vibronics @ Funky Fun House . Now, I’ve been to some venues in my time, but this one was quite something. The place is normally one of those indoor adventure centres where children go for their birthdays to run around madly for 2 hours whilst tanked on sugar. However, removal of most of the nets and platforms left us with a primary coloured skank den furnished with crash mats. The sound system was loud and bassy and had the punters truly skanking out in this wickedly dark venue. To my discomfort, the DJs did have an annoying habit of cutting the track just as everyone was really getting their back into it. MC-ing has its place and can really make a tune feel personal, but it’s advisable to keep the music going if you want to keep the dancers going! This technique seemed to drive people off a little, and by about 2am we were ready to retreat back home to our own record collection with our ears ringing.

I rolled into to Strawberry Fair at around 2pm the next day. I was first struck by how relatively un-hectic it was. Maybe it’s simply my new London attitude to things, but I was quite aware that I wasn’t struggling through crowds of silly hat-wearing, dreamcatcher wielding festival goers to quite the same extent. The shops too, I noticed, seemed far fewer and also far less likely to sell undeniably useless ‘festival tat’ or salmonella-nurturing kebabs than I remember. We settled down first at the South Stage where we caught 10 Ton tongue and Beverly Kills – two young and talented rock groups, the former having a more folky edge whilst the later was much more in the Riot Grrl scene. I’ve only just realised that I no longer identify myself as a fellow pier of the ‘young and talented’. Aged 19, I seemed to have moved from the realms adolescent fandom to that of a more mature appreciation. Regardless, both bands were tight and full of energy and, most importantly, just the right kind of hard-but-happy (not happy hardcore, crucially) vibe needed for the festival. Woggle the mash-up DJ was also pretty impressive. In particular, I remember a great mix of Gossip’s ‘Standing in the Way of Control’ with Baby D’s ‘Let me be your fantasy’ well as dropping some War of the Worlds samples across some hip-hop tracks in a way that reminded me of Def Cut and Life on Other Planets?.

We were then informed on good authority that the dub tent was where it was truly at, which was confirmed on our arrival. I regrettably missed Thudbox who apparently are one of the best samba bands my dad has ever seen, which is saying a lot. Through a haze of smoke came some deep mambo and salsa tunes, followed by reggae and hard bassy dub. The Uprizing Crew , who I had hoped to see at the after-party that evening has it not been shut down, pulled off a really good set and the tent was packed out with various shades of dancing. The good vibes from the band and crowd were enough to diffuse any potentially hairy situations and my feet did not stop moving until the sun set.



Boomslang that night was my ‘plan B’ after being denied a second night at Funky Fun House for the afterparty. If I thought I had tinnitus before going to The Junction, I definitely have it now. Boomslang was LOUD. We arrived to some funky house music in the main room, went upstairs to discover a relatively empty room of slightly-less funky house music, whereupon we made a hasty return. Headlining was Annie Mac, of Radio 1 fame, and boy did she drop some great records! The Strawberry Fair crowd were still lively, and that rare thing happened where people will happily dance with you without a) giving you odd looks b) trying to molest you. Moving from House to Dubstep to Salsa and back again, I was absorbed. Unlike the previous night, the songs followed each other flawlessly. Annie is a great DJ to watch, which can’t be said for a lot of those destined behind the microphone (mentioning no names... Chris Moyles). Zinc followed Annie and gave a good, although not quite as exciting, set that I was reluctant to have to depart from as early as I did. After this year’s Strawberry experience, I wasn’t quite ready to have to wait a whole year to repeat it.