FIELD GUIDE Volume One
Field Guide began as a blog in the summer of 2014, in celebration of the production, fashion and performance surrounding festivals worldwide. It originated from the vision of a group of young creatives, brought together by their passion for the wilder side of culture, and looks to focus on festivals as a lifestyle, both within and beyond the events themselves. Field Guide is a coming together of people who believe in what festivals are and what they can be. What you are reading is the outcome of that coalescence.
Cover: LILIANE SPIELMANN photographed by AGNES COSTA @agnescosta
www.the-field-guide.com Copyright Š Field Guide, 2015 Illustrations copyright Š Rhiannon Archard, 2015 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
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Contributors EDITOR Sabrina Dallot-Seguro GRAPHIC DESIGN Sam Rowe
Francesca J Goodwin
Chris Heasman
Rhiannon Archard
Noah Fowler
Dream dinner party guests? Nancy Mitford, Susan Sontag, Martin Amis Best decade for fashion? 1920s What’s your motto? Never to be bored and, more importantly, never to be boring @francescaj_s
Which event you should have gone to, yet didn’t? Swingamajig Festival, in Birmingham, last week. The vibe looks incredible, the music sounds incredible. But I really, really don’t want to have to go to Birmingham. What’s your biggest fear? Spiders. Missing out. Missing out on a party and then being attacked by giant spiders. What is your favourite festival? Glastonbury @KingdomOfTheEgo
Favourite place? Sinai Book recommendation? Ishmael by Daniel Quinn What’s your motto? To truly discover a place, you need to get lost in it first. @rhicreates3
Favourite destination? Beach 93rd street in Far Rockaway any day in June. What are you listening to right now? Afro-Harping by Dorothy Ashby What’s your motto? Ride Then Die. @parenthetica
Laura Parkes
Rosy Pendlebaby What are you listening to right now? Watermelon by Tom Rosenthal Best party in history? Sparkle Hard What’s your motto? More is more. @thependlebaby
Mike Massaro Favourite book? The Island by Aldous Huxley Best party in history? Emperor Nero’s 30th What’s your motto? I do what I want @mike__massaro
Dream dinner party guests? Jim Morrison, David Attenborough, Kate Moss and my ever-entertaining friend Truffle. Favourite festival? Glastonbury is just epic but the Green Gathering is also a really beautiful and chilled little festival. Career highlight? Styling the dancers for Lenny Kravitz’s world tour @23loulu
Emily Gale Favorite destination? San Francisco, California. What are you listening to right now? Radar Radio What’s your motto? Don’t ask don’t get. @emlygale
Contents
9 Some Of Us Are Looking At The Stars Francesca Goodwin looks back to the start of her love of costume
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Baby It’s Cold Outside by Noah Fowler & Sabrina Dallot-Seguro
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Z is for Zola Photographer Zoe Lower shares her travel diary
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From The Pit Noah Fowler photographs Iceland Airwaves
39 Off The Wall Oliver Tindall meets Dj Anna Wall
PHOTOGRAPHY Zoe Lower STYLING Gyspy East & ZOLÀ MODEL Emily-Louise McGuinness LOCATION Bondi Beach, Sydney
43 We Are Revellers Chris Heasman introduces our new collaboration
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No More Fomo Chris Heasman fights the 21st century affliction
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Oh My Goa Laura Parkes styles a dreamy fashion spread in sunny Goa
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How We Met A history of comedy duo Robin and Partridge
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The Great State Strut Fashion flash mob shot by Mike Massaro
T h m e o R E F d itor e t o N
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h a t makes you happy? Waking up to discover a blue sky; dancing on a balmy summer afternoon; sipping cold cocktails at sunset? If these are just some of the things that make you light up, then we hope that the first issue of Field Guide will also lift your spirits with our celebration of happiness in its myriad forms - from the joyous colours of our shoot in Goa, to our writers’ reflections on moments of pleasure.
We begin with the cultural movement surrounding festivals worldwide, which we believe is source of inspiration for their bold, playful vigour and ability to bring people together. We recognise everything else that contributes to a sense of enjoyment - the love and comfort of those nearest to us and the knowledge that we are understood as well as being capable of understanding.
Take it, enjoy it, share it with someone you love. It’s yours.
Sabrina Dallot-Seguro Editor
Photography - Zoe Lower Styling - Gyspy East & ZOLĂ€ Model - Newsha Syeh Location - Bondi Beach, Sydney
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US CON NE REIUSDAM HICABOR IBUST, CORIA DIGNIM
Where does the lure of dressing up begin? Francesca J Goodwin shares her own personal love story Illustrated by Rhiannon Archard ‘We played; we laughed a lot; we fell in love… time stood still and care was a stranger’ - Cecil Beaton, diary entry 1940s
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erhaps it comes from being an only child but i spent the vast amount of my younger years playing at being grown up. I liked nothing better than rummaging through my mother’s old boxes and climbing to the back of her wardrobe– eager to discover snapshots of an adult life, just beyond my grasp. My fantasies of this life were characteristically spectacular. Like a magpie, my
NULLIQUAM NIS VOLORRUM QUE
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05EQUAESCI AESCIETU
Some Of Us Are Looking At The Stars
SED QUI OPTAECTATIAM EXPLIGNAT DIS PA NIMO QUE NON RESSUNT APISIM QUI
scavengings were those that hinted at a glamorous secret life, which bore little resemblance to the mother who patiently taught me to spell, to make cupcakes and to wash my hands before dinner. There was the floor length, fox fur coat with a pop up collar. There was the red sequined evening dress that sparked a fleeting memory of a flash of scarlet; glimpsed from behind the rwailings of the old oak staircase at my aunt’s house, on the night of one of her elegant parties. There was the hand embroidered evening bag. I still have the evening bag and can still almost smell a musty hint of my mother’s signature Chloe perfume. In my mind, its scent is the image of her favourite orange and beige silk scarf, windsnatched and thrown back across her sun– freckled face. Dressing up, for me, was an retreat from the realities of being something of an intense, lonely child who, like northanger abbey’s catherine morland, was more at home behind the covers of a book and the glamorous landscapes of the imagination, than real life interactions. For a long time puberty, with all its gossip magazines, mobile phones, marathon FRIENDS viewing and kissing boys, didn’t attract my interest. What i could conceive of in my mind was far more exotic than anything i could garner from the flicker of the tv screen and, safer than the potential rejection by the social hierarchies of teenage life. In my dreamscape of the world, every pathway held something curious, every potential meeting glittered with mystery and charm. Rather than having to be ‘something’ and fit in; i could dress up, i could do anything, i could be anyone. Dressing up parties have been in fashion since the victorian era but, found their zenith in the heady days of the 1920s and 30s. On the continent, festivals and celebrations were integral to life at the bauhaus, where design met revelry in a whirlwind of monumental events. T h e m e s ranged from the ‘beard, nose and heart party’ to the ‘metal party’, for which costumes were constructed of tin foil and kitchen utensils. In england the ‘bright young things’ raced across
city and countryside, leaving a riotous trail of costume balls and treasure hunts behind them. At the centre of this pageantry was the near mythical figure of the artist, photographer and socialite, cecil beaton. He was renowned for his love of costume– often not confronting the world in ordinary dress for 10 days at a time. Famously he wrote in a 1937 column for Vogue: nowadays an effective grandeur can only be legitimately achieved with everyday utensils, and materials being used for purposes for which they were not meant. Steel wool pot-cleaners, egg-beaters, egg-separators, dish-cloths, tin moulds and patent hangers all make excellent costume trimming. In both case of the bauhaus carnivals and beaton’s excessive parties at his restored red-bricked house in the sleepy wiltshire village of ashcombe, the revelry was tinged with the pathos of the war that would take so many vital young lives. Dressing up was an escape but, also a reminder of the fragility of human experience. M a n cannot live on imagination alone and– as with beaton’s eventual loss of ashcombe and Catherine morland’s realisation that life is not a gothic novel– my own loss of innocence to popular culture and the practicalities of life, shaped me into the (hopefully) more relatable adult i now am. As you mature and reach the age that your imagination had inhabited with star spangled gusto in youth, you realise that life is not all fox fur coats. As i look back now at images of my mother, i see that the parties which spawned the sequined dresses and beaded shoes are but punctuation to the holiday snaps in the rain, the first birthday of her first baby (me) and, the surprise of the camera as she lies bleary eyed and tousled haired in the morning. T h e r e is a place for the kind of make- believe and beauty that allows us to suspend our disbelief, to pretend for a moment that ‘care (is) a stranger’. Yet, perhaps the most powerful facet of the imagination is the ability to recognise that we breathe a world of infinite possibilities in the tangible, simple pleasure of living between one moment and the next.
SA DOLUPTATEM EL IMODIS
“Dressing up was an escape but, also a reminder of the fragility of human experience.”
“ Man cannot live on imagination alone
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“ There is aplace for the kind of make- believe and beauty that allows us to suspend our disbelief ”
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Baby It’s cold OUTSIDE Furs and feathers accentuate the essence of Nordic romance in our Icelandic photoshoot PHOTOGRAPHY Noah Fowler ART DIRECTION / RETOUCHING Sabrina Dallot-Seguro MODELS Elva Drofn Sigurjonsdottir / Don Panicko
Elva wears HEADDRESS Vagabond Couture, COAT Models Own. Don wears FOX STOLE Vintage, JACKET Models Own
COAT Antoni & Alison, FEATHER COLLAR Rosa Bloom, HEADDRESS Vagabond Couture
CLOTHING Models Own STOLE As before
Z is for ZoLa
Fashion photographer-turned-designer, Zoe Lower shares her Australian travel diary. INTERVIEW Emily Gale. PHOTOGRAPHY Zoe Lower.
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t’s easy enough to claim you love colour, print and design, but not so easy to create a clothing line that represents everything you love about those three elements. For Zoe Lower, these passions manifest themselves physically in the form of ZOLÀ - designs so wonderfully unique and striking, she has girls all over the world dancing in them. Inspired by her own creations from a fine art kaleidoscope series, Zoe embarked on a side project that in the last year has blossomed into something far greater than first anticipated. From the fields of Cambridgeshire, to the beaches of Croatia, this past Christmas ZOLÀ took Zoe even farther afield to the nirvana that is Australia. Why did you feel like Australia was the best place/next logical step in the brand’s journey?
Hot yoga, juice bars, an insane amount of walking… I almost managed to convince myself that I’d be able to keep up this newly cleansed version of myself... Well, it was lovely while it lasted! WEEK 3 SYDNEY After a couple of weeks in Melbourne and yet to set foot on a beach, it was time to lay eyes on the Aussie surf lifestyle that enticed me from the start. Bondi Beach lived up to all the tales I’d heard (I will never tire of watching wetsuit clad, shaggy haired surfer babes roll out of the ocean), and on day one of arriving there also proved itself to be ZOLÀ central, after finding my second stockist in a gorgeous little boutique called Love Grace, set back 100m from the beach. How did the Gyspy East collaboration come about?
I was born there, so I’ve always felt a strong connection. I first returned when I was 12 and since then have been adamant I would one day treat myself to a solo adventure there. It’s taken a while to make it happen but I couldn’t have asked for more from the trip. Spending cold wet mornings getting lost in my Instagram feed, looking longingly at all of the incredible locations Aussies are blessed with. That’s what really started to draw me in. There is so much opportunity out there for small independent brands, and my trip was perfectly timed to give ZOLÀ a second summer and a chance to shine on the other side of the world.
I had met the Gypsy East girls on the UK festival circuit last summer, and when they heard I was heading to Australia they linked me up with the third of their trio, Emily. She moved out there a few years ago and heads up the Gypsy movement down under. She was two for the price of one, as not only is she incredibly talented at making unique headdresses and jewellery, but she also happens to be a total beauty, so became the perfect model for our impromptu collab shoots.
WEEK 1 - MELBOURNE
WEEK 4 SYDNEY
I arrived in Melbourne practically skipping down the street, overjoyed to have finally begun this journey. I spent the first few days indulging in a Vietnamese obsession… the variety of international cuisine out there is incredible. I quickly found a favourite lunchtime spot in Hanoi Hannah, which has arguably the best Beef Pho in the city (trust me, I did the research). Each day I took to the streets exploring various boutiques, hoping to find the perfect fit for ZOLÀ’s first stockist. There are some amazing vintage stores out there, particularly the ‘Shag’ sister stores in Chapel Street and Fitzroy. However it was the Design A Space Fitzroy store that became ZOLÀ’s first home down-under, in one of the city’s most dynamic areas.
With Christmas approaching I decided to try my hand at my first Australian market, opting for the popular Glebe Markets. I spent a roasting day with the lovely Emily of Gypsy East, parading around in her handmade flower headdresses and my ZOLÀ twin sets, trying our best not to stray to the treasure chests of stalls surrounding us. I like to think it was a perfectly timed act of fate that made me choose this market, as it was here at our stall that I was luckily enough to meet the beautiful Newsha, instantly bonding over our mutual love of sequin bumbags. So of course I had to shower her with ZOLÀ outfits and we booked in a shoot then and there.
WEEK 2 MELBOURNE More exploring of beautiful Melbourne… I spent some very relaxing afternoons reading under a palm tree in the stunning Botanical Gardens, although Melbourne’s temperamental weather means always being on guard for the unexpected… Radiant sunshine one minute, gale force winds and rain the next! The banks of the Yarra River are the perfect spot for weekend barbecues, and early evening meetings with rooftop views never failed to amaze.
WEEK 5 SYDNEY I began my festive period with a 5am wake up and sunrise shoot on Bondi beach on Christmas Eve with the gorgeous Emily of Gypsy East. The first of many collab shoots, it was pure magic having such a famous beach entirely to ourselves. Emily braved the early morning waves, basking on the beach like a genuine mermaid pro, and we captured some pretty special shots on purple film, marking the first photoshoot introducing ZOLÀ to the shores.
Photography - Zoe Lower Styling - Gyspy East & ZOLĂ€ Model - Newsha Syeh Location - Bondi Beach, Sydney
Photography - Zoe Lower Styling & Jewellery - Loz Mathieson (Native Riot) Make Up - Tara of Mercer Make Up Hair Feathers - The Feather Lady Model - Christina Macpherson Location - Byron Bay
After slightly skipping over Christmas Day itself (it’s just not the same without turkey), the first big highlight of the trip arrived in the perfect package of Lost Paradise festival. After researching into doing a stall, I decided against it and instead went for unapologetic fancy-filled frolics. Set in a scene like something out of the Lion King, it was here where my mind fully opened up to the adventurous side of things. I’ll hold the memories from this New Year so fondly for the rest of my life. I met some hilarious local Aussie boys, who rivaled our jazzy attire with effortless ease, as we spent the days hula hooping, lounging around in the creek like hippos in the scorching heat, snoozing in hammocks (oh so many hammocks), all soundtracked by an incredible line up of familiar DJ faces from home. It was quite literally Heaven. What were the major differences between your Lost Paradise festival experience and other European ones like Outlook, SGP, Farr etc.? Although I can only compare with the one festival I went to, Lost Paradise, they definitely have got the boutique element down. There were similar hints of the character of festivals like Secret Garden Party, but with a more stripped back element. Lost Paradise definitely focused on people connecting and enjoying the experience of coming together in a totally uncommercial way. I think the setting has a lot to do with this - you are completely spoilt over there with the weather and the environment. While catering to every musical need, with amazing live bands and international DJs, there was also a huge focus on pushing local talent. It was great to see and be introduced to so many acts I’d otherwise probably never have come across. WEEK 6 BYRON BAY New year, new place. At last I was ready to embark on my final journey and zoomed straight to Byron Bay, setting up camp (literally) in the jungle of the Art’s Factory. It was one of the most magical places I think I’ll ever go to. Landing myself right in the middle of what felt like the set of the film ‘The Beach’, I spent the coming weeks on the doorstep of the jungle hut, complete with bush turkeys, water dragons and an international crowd of musically gifted, creative wanderers. One big hippy cuddle puddle. I immediately scoped out the one stop shop for all things vintage and retro, ‘Trash’. It was there that I secured my third (and favourite) stockist. WEEK 7 BYRON BAY One of Byron’s greatest attributes is its unrivalled beauty and natural environment. I spent the majority of my second week scoping out the
best tea tree lakes, beach spots and waterfalls, taking my new jungle friend Stella for a hike up the rocks, until we arrived at a stunning water pool. It was here that we spent the rest of the day bathing and exploring. This is what this trip was all about for me - being able to combine my love of photography and my clothing creations with such surreal, beautiful settings. Inspiration was at an all time high. WEEK 8 BYRON BAY Somehow finding time between jewellery making, acro yoga sessions and jungle jams, I organised one of my favourite shoots of the trip. ‘Pastel Sands’ was a project close to my heart, as it set out to fuse the talents of UK and Australian creatives with an all female cast of independent designers and local Byron artisans, such as Miranda (aka The Feather Lady) and Tara of Mercer Make Up. Loz Mathieson, designer of the incredible jewellery brand ‘Native Riot’, was actually the person who put Byron Bay on the map for me, so it was an obvious step to come together and shoot some beautiful imagery. Our incredible model Christina truly shined, channeling her inner water nymph. Together, our babe squad produced a girl-power infused editorial. WEEK 9 BYRON BAY 25 years on I was lucky enough to celebrate my birthday in the country where it all began. Armed with 20 of the amazing jungle tribe, together we mountaineered down a pretty steep cliff face to a totally deserted nature reserve beach where they threw me a birthday I’ll never forget. I couldn’t think of a better time and place to attempt to learn how to surf… it’s all about just bobbing around in the waves pretending you’ve got things under control. As if one wasn’t enough, a second beach party came round later in the week. Watching the sun come up over the hill behind the lighthouse is honestly one of the most breathtaking sights you can ever hope to see. WEEK 10 BYRON BAY With my time in Byron coming to an end, I felt I couldn’t leave without challenging myself physically. So a group of us drove off into the night at about 2.30am to Mount Warning, where we embarked on a three hour hike, mostly in the dark, racing against the sun to make it to the top for sunrise. On the way up, and without realising, I managed to get bitten by a snake - though it was all worth it in the end, as it was the perfect vantage point from which to say my farewells to such a
PHOTOGRAPHY Zoe Lower STYLING Gyspy East & ZOLÀ MODEL Emily-Louise McGuinness LOCATION Bondi Beach, Sydney
PHOTOGRAPHY Zoe Lower STYLING Gyspy East & ZOLÀ MODEL Emily-Louise McGuinness LOCATION Bondi Beach, Sydney
special place. The 6am view was spectacular, the near vertical and sleepless descent was not. What was it like working with Newsha? She is an absolute dream babe! I’m so lucky that I got the chance to work with her and thrilled that we managed to fit it in. She has such a huge following, which is amazing, yet she was so down to earth and just a genuinely lovely soul. We share a lot of love for festivals and those experiences of just letting out your peacock side, so inevitably we got on really well. I’m looking forward to hopefully working with her on some more shoots when I return. WEEK 11 SYDNEY I made one last pit stop in Sydney before heading home and had just enough time to get the beautiful Newsha in front of my lens. We clambered over the rocks on the edge of Bondi beach and draped her in all things Gypsy East and ZOLÀ. An absolute joy to shoot, this girl literally cannot take a bad photo. She gave me some of my favourite shots from the trip. Taking off was a tearful, bittersweet moment but I just had to tell myself I’d be back before I knew it. Officially home from home, Australia is where it’s at for me. Any plans to return? Immediately! It can’t come soon enough. I’m planning to head back around September/October for a couple of months to launch the second collection of ZOLÀ prints and styles. The new prints were actually created using imagery which I shot whilst out there. The collection’s theme is tied together by the Australian landscape, resulting in aquatic, mermaid-fuelled pieces. A very limited run of the new pieces will be available in the UK over the summer so watch this space.
PHOTOGRAPHY Zoe Lower STYLING Gyspy East & ZOLÀ MODEL Emily-Louise McGuinness LOCATION Bondi Beach, Sydney
Photography - Zoe Lower Styling - Gyspy East & ZOLĂ€ Model - Newsha Syeh Location - Bondi Beach, Sydney
FROM THE PIT: Nordic favourite SAMARIS headline Iceland Airwaves 2014 PHOTOGRAPHY Noah Fowler
OFF THE WALL Delicious, down-to-earth DJ Anna Wall proves she deserves every bit of her rising star status. By Oliver Tindall
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inding through the fuzz, 104.6… 104.7… Bass lines crackle as they gloop down into a shuffling groove. Tuned drums click into static as the warbled cries of an excited MC fizz into the airwaves. Fuzz.. 105.15. Itch FM. A steady hip-hop beat locks into prominence. A cockney, rebel, poet spraying cheeky bars over a thuggish beat. Oooiiii Oooiii! “I still like to mix like that sometimes” accounts Anna Wall, flashing a smile as she reminisces about her youth in Stoke Newington cutting between garage 12s on her mixer and falling asleep at night to the hubbub of Pirate Radio. “Although it is fun now to play around with it a bit more, you start to make your own timing.” We’re talking about Anna’s mix series – ‘The Bricks That Built My House’ – an expansive sequence of mixes that catalogue much of the zest and influence that has gone into the shaping of her live sets and her music promotions company, Brick PR. If the foundations are made from Garage and UK Hip-Hop, the rest of the house can be seen as being carefully crafted from bricks made of all variants of house and wtechno. A cool, moody basement made of shimmering blocks
of Deep House sits underneath a mosaic of UK Funky and Minimal. An Acid hallway finished with Pewabic tiles from Detroit leads to a terrace area borrowed from Space, Ibiza surrounded by the wilds of Breakbeat and Jungle. There are fancy Italo pillars dotted around but the main fortitude comes from buttresses of Big Room Berlin Techno. These bricks are not mined wholesale either. Each brick has been carefully sourced from Anna’s travels and adventures across Europe. She is as at home dancing at a localsonly, hippie, party in Ibiza as she is rubbing shoulders with the island’s superstars or leaving her Kreuzberg apartment in Berlin at four in the morning to begin a fresh shift of DJing, raving and day-partying. “I remember the first time I went to Berlin. I’d been booked to play at a friends night there but I was desperate to see what it was all like before I played. I had a little bit of money left for bills, but some flights came up. Let’s just say the bills could slide for a little. I went out for the weekend and came back and went straight into work. It was completely worth it. After that I was flying out so regularly it became home so I moved there.” While in Berlin, Anna used her downtime as an opportunity to try her hand at producing. Her first finished effort, ‘Broken’, was picked up by Amsterdam’s 22tracks, and released on their 5 year anniversary compilation which came out last October to coincide with the city’s ADE festival. ‘Broken’ houses a slowed-down, shuffling beat beneath soft, textured chords and haunting, cut vocals. “I had it finished for a little while before it was picked up so it was really cool when 22tracks said they wanted to put it out.” The slowed-down funky homage to Garage two-step and the organic nature by which the track got its exposure are both testament to the “make your own timing” ethos expressed earlier. It’s fitting too, that ‘Broken’ was released on a city tastemaker’s compilation and featured beside some of the most exciting names of in electronic music’s underground – such as Medlar, Fantastic Man and Francis Inferno Orchestra.
You see chances are, Anna’s involvement in the next underground night you go to might be more than you might think. There’s a good chance that she will have done some promotion or A&R for one of the tracks the DJ is playing, about to remix another one or knocking about backstage about to come on. So, Anna being a resident of three of Europe’s party capitals; a DJ who is no stranger to international appearances at festivals such as Snowbombing; and in lieu of some of London’s most influential and tokenistic dance floors disappearing or in fear of disappearing under a reel of red tape, I thought it would be fitting to ask what she thought of London’s much maligned party scene and how it had perhaps changed since her return to the UK. “Well obviously it is a shame but I don’t see it as being the end of the world. “ she starts. Through things like online ticket sales the way we go to events in the UK has changed. We used to go to things and see the same people every week but that doesn’t happen anymore “I think more and more people now are looking to get back to that underground thing, fiver on the door and more of a community within the crowd. That’s what I remember when I was partying in London and that’s what it’s like in Berlin. You know in Berlin you feel safe and free. There’s no prejudice. I think we’re about to see the start of more alternative spaces being opened up in London and the beginning of more interesting nights happening ” There are exciting things happening for Anna herself, too. This year she will be playing Secret Garden Party – something of a “ritual” for her now, the third time she has played there – and by the end of the year, she will have two more releases under her belt. The first a collaboration project with (the French) producer Tom Bulwer that will be one for any techno hardware fans. It will be continuing where ‘Broken’ left off, being released under the moniker ‘Cassé’, ‘broken’ in French. Currently, Anna is working on a remix project (as ‘Cassé’) for Tough Luck Records which will be coming out shortly with a full EP set to be released in December.
“A cool, moody basement made of shimmering blocks of Deep House sits underneath a mosaic of UK Funky and Minimal.”
“I think we’re about to see the start of more alternative spaces being opened up in London and the beginning of more interesting nights happening ”
(both pages) CAPE Fuud London, SEQUIN PLAYSUIT Rosa Bloom, TROUSERS Fizzy Clothing, JEWELRY Model’s Own
WE ARE ALL REVELLERS Introducing our new photography colloboration, Chris Heasman talks to wandering powerhouse We Are Revellers
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e knew from the moment we found them that we needed to establish a collaboration with the creators of We Are Revellers. Based out of Victoria, Canada, Kim Jay and Craig Shutko traverse the American festival landscape, shooting portraits of festival-goers they encounter. Their work celebrates art, community and openness as the foundations of a cultural movement that, in Jay’s own words, is “reminding people that there are others that share their vision, zest for life and ideals.” Artists after our own hearts.
“I remember my first festival experience, at Bonnaroo Music Festival. I had no idea what I was going to be part of. It had a lasting effect on me. I felt freedom, and acceptance, which I had never felt on such a large scale. This is what changed my style inside and out. I felt like I could be me.�
“Connectedness on a human level is a constant issue in the modern world. I think that events centered on art, music, and self-transformation offer a venue that can connect people on an intimate level.�
“People will embrace the energy and interests of others around them and forge lasting relationships that are meaningful.�
“For some people that means dressing up as their spirit animal, for others it means decorating themselves in jewels. The nature of these events is that they allow people to explore and express.�
“The cultural movement of festivals, I think, is only growing and bringing more people together and reminding people that there are others that share their vision, zest for life and ideals.�
“Our photos put a face on the sea of people dancing in front of the stage.�
PHOTOGRAPHY We Are Revellers
NO MORE FOMO Chris Heasman makes peace with the 21st century affliction.
Illustrated by Rhiannon Archard
I
didn’t go to SXSW this year. In fact, I’ve never been to SXSW. It’s not the only festival I’ve never been to (I’d daresay that I’ve probably never been to most of them), but it’s the one for which my failure to attend has always stung the most. I’ll spare you my wistful imaginary depiction of what it’s like to experience the artistic magic and many corporatesponsored wonders of the world’s biggest conglomeration of music, film and interactive festivals, though – SXSW is not what this is about. This is about that concoction of shame, frustration and guilt I felt every time I saw some acquaintance on Facebook or Twitter posting a photo of themselves gallivanting around Austin, Texas, discovering new bands and leeching off the self-aggrandising charity of the festival’s sponsors. This is about the sheer, unbridled disappointment I felt every time I saw that #SXSW hashtag pop up on my screen. Hell, this is about that little twist of the knife you feel every time you realise you’ve got three parties to go to on one Saturday night. This is about FoMo.
Facebook account. There’s actually a whole load of serious-faced science behind it - something to do with self-determination theory and emotional dissatisfaction and various other things most of us neither understand nor care about – but I’d be willing to bet that I wouldn’t need an academic journal to explain the syndrome to you. You know it, don’t you? Our experience of FoMo isn’t all about causes and correlations. It’s about what we’re up to this weekend, and how rubbish we’re going to feel after when someone posts the photos from the one thing we didn’t go to. No matter how much fun we’ve had or how many friends we saw, there’s always that chance you’ll feel like it wasn’t enough. FoMo is a symptom of a unique strain of perpetual greed, and it’s one that might never be going away. So with that in mind, it’s probably worth discussing.
“FoMo is a symptom of a unique strain of perpetual greed, and it’s one that might never be going away. So with that in mind, it’s probably worth discussing.”
“It’s the 21st Century equivalent of ‘Keeping Up With The Joneses’”
A quick OED for those of you who read the above introduction and only saw the written equivalent of white noise: FoMo is the Fear Of Missing Out. It’s the 21st Century equivalent of ‘Keeping Up With The Joneses’ – according to some online dictionary I found, an ‘anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website’. FoMo is the social disease that nowadays afflicts more or less every fool with a
I’m told our generation loves to blame things, so let’s start by doing that. The concept in general is an old one, though, and I’m sure that socialites in the 20th, 19th, 18th Centuries and beyond found themselves feeling a similar, if more muted, anxiety, inspired by the very basic, very human need to be around other humans. It is technology, however, that has transformed that need to socialise with a small few into a need to socialise with as many as possible. I have little doubt that a Victorian gentleman a few hundred years ago would have found himself immensely distressed upon opening his Twitter account, having a quick browse, and realising that he’d missed a proper banging opera because he’d been too busy at that dinner party over in Marylebone.
“Social media has taken over our lives, and in return it offers us almost total omniscience when it comes to the social lives of others.”
Social media has taken over our lives, and in return it offers us almost total omniscience when it comes to the social lives of others. Sadly, omniscience does not come hand-inhand with omnipresence, and with the oncoming of this newfound ability to plan and advertise events online comes a great deal more double, triple or quadruple-booking of our days and nights. At time of writing, I have three different event invitations for this Friday on Facebook. A few different friends are attending each one, so which do I go to? The one which looks more interesting, but has fewer people I know in attendance? The one more of my friends are going to, but looks less engaging as an event? If I go to one, will I regret not going to the other? Which of my friends take priority over the others? This is the essence of FoMo, and whilst social media may not be the only root of it (after all, I’m pretty sure more than one social event happened every night prior to 2007), it certainly highlights our failure to be everywhere at once in such a way as to cause us no small amount of distress. So thanks, social media. Thanks a bunch.
One weekend in August this year hosts Kendal Calling, Standon Calling, Y Not and Camp Bestival. Another, in July, hosts Latitude, Benicàssim, Soundwave Croatia, Lovebox, Guilfest and Larmer Tree, amongst others. Take it from me – if you miss any of those festivals, just one, then you’re missing out on something. Within the context of the meteoric rise of music, fields and good vibes, too many festivals is the best thing in the world. Within the context of FoMo, it’s your worst nightmare.
‘“If I go to one, will I regret not going to the other?”
So that sucks, then. But there’s one more thing left to blame for FoMo: you. The fear of missing out is exactly what it’s called – fear – and, like any other fear, it can be overcome. There are three ways to end this anxiety. You could give up social media (ha ha ha). You could teach yourself mitosis, and split into many different versions of you every Friday night, and re-form on Monday morning like some sort of weird, party-mad version of Loki from The Avengers. Or, of course, you could just goddamn deal with it. If you’re triple-booked for this weekend, then don’t panic and flit between parties because you’re terrified of missing anything. Commit to one and make your presence at that one matter. Choose the one you want to go to the most, go to it, and enjoy yourself – and when someone sticks those photos up from the other two you missed, a few days later, just remember the good times that you had – not the good times somebody else had ten miles away. Things happen without you. They always have, and always will. And until we as a generation accept that, then FoMo will rule us forever.
“The fear of missing out is exactly what it’s called – fear – and, like any other fear, it can be overcome.”
What else to blame, then? Well, there’s always the ever-increasing concentration of social affairs in our lives. This, I think, is where festivals come into play. There are very few festivals I’d turn down a chance to go to these days, and a cursory glance at one of those online festival listings guides will tell you that we now live in a time where there are far, far more festivals than there are weekends in the summer. Don’t get me wrong, this is pretty fantastic – who could possibly complain about too many festivals? – but there are downsides.
“Things happen without you. They always have, and always will.”
Oh My Goa Stylist Laura Parkes transports us to India for an explosion of print and colour PHOTOGRAPHER Durga Davies STYLIST Laura Parkes MODEL Amara Wilson MAKE UP Bredon De Gee ASSISTANT Marco De Gee
CLOTHING Dadablui HATS Lady Gonzalez
C
omedians Robin Clyfan and Charlie Partridge met in 2006, when the latter was holding auditions for an improv comedy group. “I was auditioning Robin,” he explains, “who looked like he was out of Klaxons. We were looking for six people, and we ended up taking eight – Robin was one of the contentious ones. Others in the group were worried he would be too good.” After another two years apart, and thanks to a run-in with each other in Edinburgh, the two joined forces once again, and Charlie convinced Robin to move down to London. “He saved me from a happy life and a prosperous career,” says Robin. “That was seven years ago, and we’re still pretty much doing the exact same thing.” The two have, and still do, undertake the occasional bout of solo work, though both claim to prefer working as part of a duo. Charlie points out that he ends up “sitting down to write solo stuff and thinking, ‘this would be better with Robin.’”
INTERVIEW Chris Heasman
“That’s funny,” Robin replies, “because when I do double stuff, I often think, ‘this would be better on my own.’” It’s not just the writing which is more difficult alone, however. “It’s just not fun doing stuff by yourself,” Robin states. “The life of a stand-up, where it’s just constant gigging on your own, is a hard one. It’s a lonelier existence.” Seven years of throwing themselves around the British
was “very odd, very silly… and then the BBC burst in.” In another, Charlie dressed as Johnny Rotten, “telling rich people to fuck themselves”, whilst Robin wandered around Notting Hill in his underwear pretending to be Rhys Ifans – or in yet another, performing at a party for the owner of a certain popular restaurant chain, at which all the tables were named after different kinds of
HOW WE MET ROBIN+PARTridge
comedy circuit have, it seems, paid off in exactly the sort of utterly surrealistic ways that you’d expect – in one case, being asked by Jarvis Cocker (“Or the J-Bomb, as he likes to be called”) to host Pulp bassist Steve Mackey’s stag do, fighting Mackey dressed as robots and stringing him up like a puppet at a party that
drug. The two have no shortage of stories between them – and fewer than you might expect involve them pumping up the crowd at insurance companies’ Christmas parties for the appearance of their managing director (“the biggest threat we’ve been under for the last twenty-five years,” said one corporate manager at one of those events,
“is loving the lash too much.”) The duo’s newest show, Let’s Get Weird, is taking place on the 24th May at the Arcola Theatre in London. The show, a “psychedelic comedy party, in a room”, takes its inspiration from the smorgasbord of bizarre things Robin and Charlie have found themselves doing at festivals in the past, from playing the Voice of God (Robin) and a perverted St. Christopher (Charlie) in a “celestial garden centre” in Shangri-La at Glastonbury last year, to stalling the crowd of a life drawing class for 90 minutes as the host retrieved his effects from his car. “We decided we wanted to take that weird spirit stuff that we do at festivals and stick it into a theatre, with some sketch and some improv thrown in,” explains Robin. “The spirit of our festival shows, in welcoming the audience into creating stuff with us,” says Charlie. “It’s kind of what we do best.” ‘Let’s Get Weird’ is at the Arcola Theatre on 24 May.
THE GREAT STATE STRUT Flashmobbers clad in dancewear by key festival fashion player, State of Disarray make their mark on the streets of London PHOTOGRAPHY Mike Massaro WORDS Rosy Pendlebaby DANCEWEAR State of Disarray
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“
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n the depths of a gloomy, wintry November, a tribe of brave disco warriors assembled in North London.
United by a common yearning for long summer days and sparkling nights in festival fields around the UK, they spandexed up and glittered down and strutted forth to bring a ‘State of Disarray’ to the streets of London. They took the reckless fashion revolution from Disarray Headquarters via the London Underground to Covent Garden and onwards to Piccadilly Circus and Soho, encountering and enchanting the SA DOLUPTATEM EL IMODIS
locals, bemused officers of the law, flocks of dazzled tourists and nonplussed Londoners. They pranced through the piazza, raved through a festive fairground, vogued along Carnaby Street, and ended up bopping around a gallery full of the late Chris Bracey’s neon artworks in Lights of Soho. Hugs were shared, tourists photobombed and the light fantastic well and truly tripped. Festival spirit bubbled forth and was shared with the unsuspecting public. After the sun fell, with smiles on their faces (as well as on those they’d encountered) and a trail of glitter in their wake, they scampered home again, raised their glasses high and toasted a day well ‘Disarrayed’ and a glorious summer to come.”
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