St Pauls Carnival 2014 - Sat 5th July

[porno thieving gypsy]

Well that was the first time I've been to the Carnival and I was blown away by it. I'd been told by a number of people that it was much smaller than Notting Hill so my expectations were all wrong. Yes it is smaller but it still a busy beast of a carnival marauding over numerous streets and open spaces. Our day started with a quick stop off at The Red Bull stage, which I found largely disappointing but then I don't expect to hear that type of music at Carnival. But clearly a lot of young people do and the crowd seemed happy enough. We quickly departed though and found ourselves at Ghetto Force Movement, this was more like it! Then on to King Kong, wow the DJ's there looked like they we're having fun, sat up in the pod looking over the crowd. Then wandered around a few other sounds taking in the atmosphere before heading to Negus. In fact ska invita we were there the same time as you, but my mobile had run out of juice by then so didn't get your messages until the next day! Also saw William of Walworth at one point too from a far. By 10pm we were back at Ghetto Force Movement to see the night out. The music was quiet by this time. In fact you could hear the crowds singing along to the tunes louder than the actual tunes themselves. Quite surreal at times tbh. But they rinsed though Jungle, Garage and Reggae and there was a up for it crowd so all good.

We loved the carnival and saw no trouble at all. We also spent the Sunday exploring the rest of Bristol, what a bloody lovely place!

I whole heartedly recommend staying in a hotel too Ska, I was so ready to rest by the time midnight came round.

I'll be going next year for sure.

 

[ska invita]

so close yet so far....really glad you had a good one... next time!
yeah my legs were wobbling by midnight...flat feet doesnt help...wanted nothing more than a nice sit down will hotel it up next time for sure

 

[Enviro]

I was at Negus for most of the day. I may have been there when you heard the shouty MC ska invita, I popped my ear plugs in again at that point and continued to enjoy the awesome roots and the feeling of my wind pipe and chest cavity vibrating . Checked out Maasai Warrior a couple of times, and had a bit of a wander, but kept coming back to Negus. I also checked out the garden party, but they were playing bouncy carnival music when I got there - sort of like UK funky but more bouncy and ravey... Ended up in a house party at Stokes Croft which got unbearably busy - though was really enjoying the record label boss of Room 237 playing some awesome techno, before my mate changed up that vibe with some Vengaboys . Was finished and back at my mates place by about 1.30AM. Looking forward to next year

Real shame about the violence. I didn't see anything untoward until leaving the house party at Stokes Croft where police were attending someone lying on the pavement - don't know what happened. Hope they are ok.

 

[ska invita]

Little snippet from Tubbys

 

[Geri]

One of the stabbings was in bloody Eastville!

 

[JTG]

Where?

 

[Geri]

Argyle Street, other side of Fishponds Road from Eastville Health Centre.

 

[JTG]

About five mins walk from me then

 

[BlackArab]

Theres a phd about deindustrialisation and the growth of the balloon industry there for sure

My sister is not actually up on club culture and asked me why the people upstairs were sat in the garden at 10am on Sunday morning blowing up balloons

 

[BlackArab]

Glad you had a good time ska, I did most of my dancing with the asitistv/Passion FM sound system. Apols for the slightly cryptic message, it's the one that plays all the old school soul/funky house I took you to last year. Did try to call but couldn't ring out due to signal problems and I was pretty pissed by then tbh!

Had a great time although the parade was very hot, was pissed off to see that only one other group had actually thought of supplying water en-route to their kids and teachers preferring to showboat to the crowd than actually notice clearly distressed kids. I have let the organisers know about this. Fair play to the local Adventists though who were supplying free water about half way round. I actually had to stop one of the prancing ninnies behind us to get some for her kids.

Spent some time by the youth stage and got to see some of the older kids I work with perform which was great and caught up with loads of old mates over the day so was pretty good fun for me.

 

[BlackArab]

One of the stabbings was in bloody Eastville!

Reported in the BP as Easton in their oh-so-subtle way, makes you wonder how far a radius 'carnival-related' extends to.

 

[ska invita]

only got your message after midnight by which time i was already with my mind on getting home - some serious backlog on texts that day... congrats on all your hardwork BA, i hope its appreciated.

do you know anything about the finances of the whole thing? how much they are adrift, what it is they have to pay for, that kind of thing... im quite curious about that

 

[BlackArab]

only got your message after midnight by which time i was already with my mind on getting home - some serious backlog on texts that day... congrats on all your hardwork BA, i hope its appreciated.

do you know anything about the finances of the whole thing? how much they are adrift, what it is they have to pay for, that kind of thing... im quite curious about that

They are a charity and should have accounts online. Too early to say on this year but I'll let you know.

 

[JTG]

Reported in the BP as Easton in their oh-so-subtle way, makes you wonder how far a radius 'carnival-related' extends to.

Stopped paying any attention to those clowns when they made Chris Swift redundant. The news pages have been dire for many years

 

[ska invita]

night falling over at tubbys, bringing out the best in the sets little flashing lights

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Love St Paul's Carnival. Way better than Nottinghill, which always seems to get overcrowded to the point of roadblock. Would've definitely headed down to Bristol for this had I not had other plans that weekend...