Manchester has been host to quite a few festivals, the most notable of recent years being Dpercussion at Castlefield. However, the one I attended out of curiosity on 1st September 2007 was a little different to say the least! Labelled The New Islington Festival, the event was hosted in Ancoats, soon to be New Islington, presumably to make the rich young Londonites moving to the newly regenerated area feel more at home. The problem is, the area isn't quite regenerated fully and work is still ongoing on some of the sites. This would probably explain why the festival itself was held on an actual building site, complete with cranes, half-built structures and fresh plant tyre marks. The festival was quite out of the way, and as we trudged through a run-down neighbourhood, picking our way through the broken glass, I was relieved I'd picked trainers to wear that day! And while it was well organised and staffed, with toilet facilities and an array of tents offering all kinds of different music from rock to 'rap-offs', it still felt pretty peculiar.
This picture is my favourite from the day. There's nothing quite like a dilapidated building looming over children's carnival rides to really emphasise the strangeness of the site. But this festival offered more than just music tents, temporary toilets and overpriced burger vans. It also boasted pedalos! Now that does make it a little bit different ;-)
Weird:
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