Common Ground Festival
Common Ground Festival is a not-for-profit punk rock festival held in the United Kingdom every September since 2004. Profits go to various grass roots charities focusing on political activism, animal rights, and other causes. It is generally dominated by anarcho-punk, crust punk, and hardcore punk bands but also features dub, ska punk, and folk punk acts.
Common Ground Festival | |
---|---|
Genre | Punk rock, anarcho-punk, hardcore punk, dub |
Dates | September |
Location(s) | Forest of Dean, England, United Kingdom |
Years active | 2004–present |
Founders | Dave Cox |
Organised by | Pumpkin Records |
Website | www |
History
The festival emerged as Dirty Weekend Festival in Rhyl, Wales in 2004.[1] Originally a one-day event, the festival soon became a 2-day festival, moving from venue to venue around North Wales until managing to find a more permanent location in Wrexham from 2011 until in 2013 the festival was cut short by an electrical fault caused a fire at the venue. In 2014 a new home was found for the festival at the workhouse in Llanfyllin,[2] however, even before the festival occurred, local residents were up in arms due to the controversial nature of some of the bands booked to play there.[3] The festival went ahead with no problems but under pressure from the council and local MP, the venue wasn't able to allow the festival to go on the following year.[4]
2015 saw the festival move to a location to the south of Chester. This year saw crowds of approximately 500 people but again had problems, this time due to noise complaints from local residents .[5]
2016 will see the festival move south, to a location near the Forest of Dean under the new name of 'Common Ground Festival'.[6]
Notable previous acts
- Extreme Noise Terror
- Oi Polloi
- Inner Terrestrials
- Neville Staple
- The Restarts
- Culture Shock
- Antisect
- Radical Dance Faction
- Police Bastard
- Hellbastard
- The Mob
- Anti-System
- Concrete Sox
References
- "Interview: Dave Cox – Founder of the Dirty Weekend Punk Festival". Backseat Mafia. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
- "Dirty Weekend Festival 2014 announces new bands". Punktastic. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
- "'Dirty Weekend' music hits sour note". County Times. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
- "MP offers to help over festival 'Dirty Weekend' row". Border Counties Advertizer. Archived from the original on 14 May 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
- "Complaints of 'unacceptable' noise from Chester Lakes' Dirty Weekend 2015". chesterchronicle. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
- "The Dirty Weekend Festival finds Common Ground". link2wales. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
External links
- commongroundfestival.co.uk Official site of Common Ground Festival
- pumpkinrecords.co.uk Official site of Pumpkin Records