Together The People Festival - Pre-Launch Party
- Written by Rob Crozier
What do people want from a festival these days? The trend seems to be a move away from the big corporate festival with many in search of small community based bespoke events.
Enter a new Brighton-based festival stuffed full of diverse acts. Together The People is set in the wide open spaces of Preston Park and features some heavyweight artists along with some more quirky, diverse acts.
We attended the pre-launch party at one of Brighton's newest bars, Dead Wax Social. A vinyl-only bar it serves up pizzas in either the 7 inch or 12 inch format. We also had the chance to mooch around and chat to a few of the organisers and a couple of the local acts who were all very excited and thrilled to be involved in this new venture.
For a relatively small festival it’s somewhat surprising to find that it has 5 stages. Jacko Hooper is a Brighton lad whose reputation is growing with his carefully crafted soulful acoustic sounds. He has also been placed in charge of the Folklore Stage which aims to bring the acoustic sounds to the waiting public.
The festival is also keen to ensure the younger audience are catered for, thus allowing parents to appease their little darlings whilst hoping to then be in a position to enjoy some of the acts themselves. Therefore whilst the little ones are being entertained by acts like The Cat in the Hat or the wonderful production that is Horrible Histories the parents and everyone else will have their eyes on the wonderful live phenomenon that is Public Service Broadcasting or such legends as Billy Bragg, Jose Gonzalez, Roots Manuva and the Brighton's own Levellers.
That's not to say that this is a festival full of aging acts, far from it. The five stages allow all taste to be accounted for and there are plenty of new upcoming acts to keep all interested. Lucy Rose is an obviously talented songwriter whose reputation is growing at an alarming rate. Add to this the wonderful talents of Ghostpoet, Brakes and Lucy Spraggan and you start to feel that this festival has covered all the bases.
All we need now is a favourable window of weather, but don’t worry if not. Speaking to one of the organisers they have already ordered in 1000s of emergency ponchos; let’s just hope we don’t need them. The festival takes place over Saturday and Sunday the 5th and 6th of September and further details of the events ethos and how/where to get tickets etc. can be found here.