'Venn smacked of genuine genre-hopping playfulness - a much-needed virtue as festivals increasingly shrink their bandwidth'
Anne Hilde Neset, The Wire
'One of the best festivals I've been to...a real sense of discovery and urgency and fun, all put together in an attractively haphazard way'
Frances May Morgan, editor, Plan B
'Very different to the raft of samey indie festivals that now infest the UK...this is probably their most stylistically broad programme yet'
Flux
'One of the most vital (festivals) on the UK circuit'
Rock-A-Rolla
'Everything is happening everywhere at once...there's nothing for it but to just dive in...Venn gets better every year'
Venue
After five intense and invigorating years, the team behind Venn, Bristol, UK’s early summer celebration of musical overlap, have decided to part the circles and call it Venn End Time. This year’s Venn, which took place from the 5-8th June and featured over 60 acts from typically far-flung spheres of sound, was the last. It sold out, featured amazing sights and sounds and created a heady, inspiring atmosphere that only Venn could conjure. This years 4 dayer even basked in some lush harbourside sun. The gods and the devils have backed us down the line.
The reasons behind this amicable decision are many and of a personal, artistic and family-orientated kind - one thing this is not is a case of ‘another one bites the dust’. Venn happily and willingly ends itself in its prime, having achieved its goal of providing a sprawling DIY canvas for modern music in its wildest, most vivid colours: like putting Afrobeat king Tony Allen next to young rhythm buck Chris Corsano, Bristol post-punk talisman Mark Stewart next to his unlikely new buddy Devendra Banhart backstage at an old church, and the Tag Team concept all the way back in 2004, which laid the blueprint for musical Venn with live samplesmiths hacking up acapella choirs, and local heroes such as Kid Carpet, SJ Esau, Men Diamler and Bucky – the likes of whom really were Venn’s lifeblood – collapsing into each others sets over a series of five-minute collaborations that were utterly, wondrously of their time. Venn was never a careerist festival: it was more about taking it in, ripping it up and being in the moment. That moment is over.
Venn has some history, though. Instances to will be remembered include the Radio Venn FM studio in the loins of The Cube; Justice Yeldham giving himself a free noise facial to a rock hero’s reception last year, and the similarly bloody Yellow Swans acoustic set; putting Pinch alongside Scion in 2006 and joining the dubstep/techno dots early; Maher Shalal Hash Baz attempting to play 100 songs in 45 minutes in ‘07; Fungus Moth's anarchic approach; Janek Schaefer sitting in the middle of the Croft and playing weird before DJ Quest in 2004; Paavoharju dancing to Lawrence playing Scott Walker at 3am in Clockwork, after Cobra Killer had disapproved of the venue’s unique feng shui and done a runner; five minute bursts of peace and quiet being broadcast across Bristol once every three hours in 2006; the RLF (née Bass Clef) big band revving up the top floor of Lakota; Crescent playing hushed and hymnal at St Georges, and then, this year, Phil Minton conducting a hundred untrained Bristol voices in the triumphant ‘Century FC’ project.
It’s fittingly Venn that, just as our chaotic little celebration came into being in 2003 through what we felt was necessity (Bristol didn’t have a fest like this...nor, we felt, did the UK), it ends on a high...without necessarily needing to.
In fact Venn will be survived by ‘Century FC’, which will be performed again (with a new set of voices) at the 2009 Instal Festival in Glasgow. Meanwhile, www.vennfestival.com will serve as an archive for five years of musical rallying, line-crossing, entertainment trespass, inspiring collaborations overlapping into lasting friendships, furrowing a brow that was neither high nor low but felt like our very own, diving in, making no sense and loving it. It’s been integral to our lives: back to dream-time. One is too many, a hundred not enough..five seems spot-on.
Thanks for a lovely Venn! It was my first time and I saw a lot of amazing things. Rachel Unthank, the Choir yesterday, David Hopkinson's Films, Munch Munch and Hauschka. Beautiful!
Alright fellas, just a quick update that we have 5 tracks on our myspace now. Just finished recording them, please have a listen and tell us what you think.
RECREATION NEW TOUR DATES 14 Jun The Joiners Southampton 15 Jun The Venue Derby 16 Jun The Albert Shrewsbury 19 Jun The Mill Mansfield 21 Jun ACCESS FESTIVAL Southampton 21 Jun The Railway Gosport 22 Jun The Cavern Exeter
Hey....Featured a couple of 'Venntastic' artists on my show this week. I'm also joining the Bristol Uncovered boys on Radio 1 tomorrow eve - my top track being 'Chew Magna's - Our Luck Has Gone' :) You can listen to my show via the link:
Thought you should know that Huw Stephens will broadcast a special Bristol Uncovered feature on the Venn Festival on his Radio 1 New Music Show this Wednesday (4th June) 9-10pm.
Happy Dynamic Living!
Richard Pitt & Gary Smith Bristol Uncovered on BBC Radio Bristol
We just wanted to wish you good luck with Venn Festival 2008.
Our thanks to Mark Slater for being our guest on Bristol Uncovered this Saturday morning on BBC Radio Bristol and chatting to us all about this years Venn Festival.
You can still hear the interview and Venn feature anytime this week using the on line "Listen Again" feature on the BBC i-Player, there’s a link to it from our profile.
Happy Dynamic Living!
Richard Pitt & Gary Smith Bristol Uncovered on BBC Radio Bristol
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