A Pilgrimage
To Jamrock
Recipes Used:
New America & A future Recipe Test
It’s a me & D adventure as we traverse the hilly urban land that is called South London.
A running joke/acknowledgment of fact that we have as friends is the the UK is simply a land of inclines and declines. Flat land in the UK is a myth.
And when you’re high like we were all day, you notice every. Single. One… But we’ll get to that.
Look Normal Challenge: Me
D took a few photos of me whilst I was fighting a mean head high. Seriously, we played Noughts & Crosses on his phone and I was OVERTHINKING Noughts & Crosses.
Mix in the fact that I was chewing gum and the result is this weird look from me. I look asleep but it helps the story so I picked the photo where I looked the least rinsed.
Black Mirror
Lucky for D, I can take a good picture of somebody. See how “not high” he looks? I’ll pat myself on the back there.
We make it to London Bridge where we wait outside for a train down to South.
Once we made it to South London we immediately focused on food but I managed to get shots of some great art scattered around:
But we hit a few roadblocks once we made it to Crystal Palace Park where South Facing Festival was being held. Unfortunately, it was directly on the other side of the park.
Now I love me a good park – if you've followed the journey you may remember my many forays at my local park. But when you're under the influence and you have D who can't firm a good walk, a hilly park landscape is the last thing you want.
But after several breaks, we finally made it.
We got there at around 6pm. The day before we were looking at 2pm…
Now I like to be on time for things, but I just did not care, we both just resigned ourselves to “we get there when we get there” and lived with it.
But we got there to catch 2 1/2 of the five sets, the first one being Grammy Award-winning Kabaka Pyramid.
Something you saw in there (and will not be the last time…) is a flag waver.
How does one apply for that?
Anyway… Next was Birmingham-based Steel Pulse who have been going for what next year will be 50 years. And when I say the music was hitting…
I didn’t take many photos of them but that was because the visuals didn’t change much. The music however was outstandingly good. I’m making it a mission to see them again. To be at a show next year to celebrate 50 years would be amazing.
But after all that. The walking, the influence, the hills…
We made it to Jamrock…
It was a long ass day and needed to sit down on the floor before Damian came on. Once he did – like a disease – a few other people around us sat down.
And it didn’t get better. Because the Crystal Palace Bowl as a location is sloped. It’s great for seeing the stage but is terrible for the feet. Once we started walking back, even my feet were screaming I can’t lie.
We didn’t get to sit down until we got to Barking just before our last train.
But amongst one of the longest travels to and from an event, we checked off a huge artist we both wanted to see live – D's favourite artist mind you – and that made all the trekking worth it.
Charlie Taylor
chillicharlie.taylor@gmail.com
Born in Camden, North London.
Bred in Leigh-On-Sea, Essex.
Screenwriter/Podcaster/Photographer/
Hip-Hop Student.