My cousin Brian came down to London last weekend from Montreal, Canada. It was a pit-stop; four days were all he had to get reacquainted with the city. Yet if ever there was an event that epitomised diving into the deep end of London street culture, it is Streetfest – and this year’s instalment stuffed Bri and I with everything that is glorious, raw and urban in the capital.
Off one of Shoreditch’s back roads on the sunny cider-must Sunday (May 29) was a hustle and bustle like no other. You walked into the transformed Hearn Street car park and immediately ran into a gauntlet of graffiti artists getting busy on the right hand side walls. Streetfest welcomed the finest, as I heard that behind the masks and paint mists were Inkie, Blam, Andy Council, Candy Flo, Elfin, Jess Douglas, Richt, Sainty, 45RPM and personal favourite – Remi Rough. If these names mean nothing to you, click on the links – zero disappointed is a promise.
The live art exhibition was the backdrop to a line up of entertainment throughout the day. My cousin wondered around like an overwhelmed overseas student at a Fresher’s Fair, with ears perked and wide eyes scoping from the hip hop b-girl dance competition (provided by the b.Supreme ladies - see above), to the bike ramps, to the spoken word poetry skills of G.R.E.Ed.S and Phresh Mentality. And all this was just outside.
Inside the Streetfest ‘arena’ were stalls, another 32ft built-in ramp (obviously a day of spoils for the skaters, bikers and rollerbladers from Lovenskate, Bicycle Union and Kingdom representing), and the main stage room with a stunning background design provided earlier during the live art battle by the globally renowned Secret Wars faction (see above). Performers Ghostpoet, Urban Nerds, rap artist Wretch 32 (see below) and eclectic duo The Nextmen blew the roof off. The bass was heavy; hip hop, dubstep, old school jungle, snippets of The Prodigy and more left me and my people raving like a couple of alcopopped delinquents - a picture thankfully left out of the Streetfest 2011 coverage.
Before we departed there were still some things to do; a go on the ingenious Adidas electronic graffiti board (see below - think advanced enormous Etch A Sketch for any budding graffer), and a few drop ins to the free photobooth, where lines of people waited to grab some funny, romantic and mental snapshots with their mates and lovers.
Brian shot back to Canada clutching our nostalgic photobooth moment below (my sisters Pam and Paola up top, crammed in with yours truly bottom left, Bri in the middle and brother from another Tom bottom right). Judging from the expressions, my bet is we'll all want to be on this side of the Atlantic for Streetfest 2012.
PHOTOS: Adidas/Ollie Adegboye
This is also published on the Media Trust Community Channel
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