Sugarhill Festival - 8-9 September 2007
Sugarhill festival was a new one for us this year. The ska/reggae theme of music had made me decide to go to this one and then over the weeks building up to it more and more of us decided to go until there was a posse of us from the Dreadzone forum along with friends and family. Ian made a massive Dreadzone banner for our 'Dread village' camping area and others brought music, food, smiles and the now famous Dread punch! As usual I was the last to arrive and bumped into old friends as soon as I got out of the car, Don my old Oxfam stewarding mate and drinking buddy at last years Reading festival, Paul Mellow ex Military Surplus bass player and some of the Dub the Earth crew. I found my friends at the Dread village and set up my tent just in time to go and watch RDF.
Great set from them with loads of old tunes and a couple of new ones. Afterwards we went back to the Dread village to drink lots of Dread punch and get very stoned! Later on we went to see Neville Staple and after him The Beat. Both were good with lots of old ska from the 80s being played. I guess the music there must have finished about midnight, after a chat with some random people we headed towards the fire poi and fire staff display. When that had finished we walked over to the small tent pumping out some reggae music. Over the couple of hours we were there it changed from reggae to drum n bass which was cool and we had a good boogie around. Whilst there I met the most amazing person who I ended up spending a lot more of the weekend with which was really nice for me although not so much for my friends who didn't get to see me much after that! On second thoughts they were probably glad!
The next day we chilled out in the sunshine getting stoned and chatting whilst listening to good music. The rest of Dreadzone who weren't camped at the village came and visited and we all had some Dread punch and photo taking session. Later we went to see Dub The Earth who were as usual brilliant and then went backstage where we met Mad Professor. We watched his set and afterwards Dreadzone played and they were of course excellent.
This is a must-do festival for 2008, small and chilled with a great friendly atmosphere and brilliant music. This is now up there for me with Endorse-it. Always great to have loads of your friends around and that certainly made the weekend even better for me.
Massive shout out to all you special people, Si, Jan, Kelly, Ian, Sally, Phil, Jill, Alex, Doug, Terri, Lee, the wonderful Greg Dread, Da man Spee, Sweet Earl 16, Chris 'too much punch' Oldfield, Leo 'birthday boy' Williams, Chris Compton, Loki Dread, Lady Lou, Scary Dave, Marlon Dread, Jonny, Don & Tom, Paul Mellow, Lynne, Steve Swann, Emma, James, Matty and anyone else I've forgotten..... I love you all to bits xxx
Below are a selection of photographs from the gathering.
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