It seems so distant now, but my August Bank Holiday weekend was spent in a field near Chelmsford, Essex with the Empire Skatepark and Triple Sword crews. Plus around 6000 festival goers each day.
This Festival's selection of music was not at all to my taste, apart from De La Soul. They were great, the crowd were not*. I also realised early on Saturday that this festival had nothing to do during the day apart from wait for the next music act. Surprising for a festival that's in it's 10th year and quite disappointing considering the high quality of other festivals in the region I've visited in recent years.
*the crowd did give them polite applause after each track but I'm convinced that at the end of the set, the trio would have returned to the stage to play Three and a couple of other classics, purposefully left out of the main set IF the crowd called them back on. But the crowd stopped applauding before the performers had even left the stage and didn't call for an encore. The crowd just walked off! From my position in the crowd, I could just make out the three rappers solemnly getting into the back of a black bus and promptly leaving the site.
resence was high on the surrounding roads throughout the weekend. This was promoted as an effort to avoid any further incidents. A number of members of the crew were stopped on supply trips to a local supermarket. Mainly as I understand for drivers not wearing their seat belts.
Luke had asked me a few months back to come along with the camera and cover the 10th edition and with no idea of the plans or the festival itself, I agreed. A couple of weeks before the event I was informed that a mini ramp would be erected and there were plans to create a more extensive skate area.
On arrival, following a long wait in the wrong queue and then the right queue to pick up my triple A pass, I found the site at the furthest point from the main entrance and as I approached I could see a couple of security staff talking to Blackwell who was attached to a bottle of red wine and as I closed in I could hear the hi-viz pair explaining that he'd "have to move it as it can't be left in the middle of VIP camping".
After a lot of arguing, and the rest of the crew explaining to the security staff exactly who Lee Blackwell was, the car was eventually moved by a member of the festival staff due to Lee's level of intoxication. He found his car later that evening.
Later in the afternoon Luke explained that the site footprint had been reduced without any consultation so at this point we had a ramp, a small, rickety flat bank/wedge ramp run, a few bails & tractor tires for free running and 2 slack lines. We'd be doing 3 skate demos a day which were not advertised and we'd not been supplied with lights so demos stopped at dusk.
Due to the death of a festival goer on the main road outside the site last year, police presence was high on the surrounding roads throughout the weekend. This was promoted as an effort to avoid any further incidents. A number of members of the crew were stopped on supply trips to a local supermarket. Mainly as I understand for drivers not wearing their seat belts. My positive spin on this is that at least the police were not busy peeling someone ejected from the festival, off the road...
Clunk, Click.
The ramp, built (I believe) by the organisers' carpenter from scaffolding and surfaced with ply rotated by 90 degrees = skated like mud. I'm not sure how so many tricks were made on it!
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| Lee Blackwell - eggplant |
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| Taylor Jones - heel block |
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| Elliot pointing the VX in the direction of a J-Thax's ollie up to new deal |
The festival site was closed to the public on Friday night at 12 midnight and so we congregated at our VIP camping plot. A little after 1am a couple of lads returned with breathless stories of flying fists and disappearing equipment. We all legged it through the security gate and across to our locked and "permanently guarded" shed, the door swinging in the breeze. I went straight in and checked that all my gear was safe, it was. All other equipment had been gathered from the thieves.
Luke spent the next couple of hours being harassed and bullied in an office of security staff who denied that an incident had even occurred. We chose at this stage to store all expensive gear in cars over night. All were up until dawn telling and retelling tails of rugby tackling thieves on BMXs and fighting. Not the best start...
The rest of the weekend went off with much less aggravation and some sick skating went down as well as some very strong partying from many of the crew.
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| Lewis Fitzpatrick - f/s air |
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| Lewis Hall - b/s shovit tail grab |
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| Lewis Hall - nollie hardflip |
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| Lewis Fitzpatrick yanking in a switch blunt |
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| Lewis Hall - f/s halfcab flip? |
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| Lewis Fitzpatrick - high to low f/s boneless |
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| Nick Remon - b/s nose blunt |
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| Taylor Jones - side f/s rock & roll |
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| Taylor Jones - b/s boneless |
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| Nick Remon - b/s tail |
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| Taylor Jones (minus left hand, I know) - f/s rock & roll |
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| Taylor Jones - f/s air |
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| Taylor Jones - madonna |
This random fella appeared under one of the ramps on the last day. He looked pretty partied out as the security team woke him and moved him on. Not quite sure when he got there, but all of us were surprised to find him!
#uk #skateboarding #ukskateboarding #brownstock2014 #photography #summer #2014 #essex #brownstock #festival
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