This May Bank Holiday weekend, Sounds From The Other City- 'a celebration of new music and performance , uniting the cream of the national and international scene with some of the city's finest independent promoters, collectives and club nights'- celebrated it's 10th birthday in style along a string of venues on Chapel Street in Salford.
'Happening regularly on the May Day Bank Holiday each year, SFTOC 2014 takes in a huge array of unusual places and spaces along Chapel Street, the historic centre of Salford and a stones throw from Manchester city centre. The festival has set up home in proper old pubs such as The Kings Arms, The Crescent and The Rover Returns, to the beautiful St Philips and Sacred Trinity Churches, Salford Central Train Station as well as the inimitable Islington Mill.'
For people into new music and having a splendid time, this little section of Salford was the place to be on Sunday afternoon!
Hosting the courtyard at Islington Mill, were the One Five Eight Collective, with Dj in a shed and live art-wall vibes!
With Mr. Breen at the helm, looking fresh and dressed to impress, the One Five Eight ship was ready to sail once more.
Joining him on the decks throughout the day were Judy Ward, Joe Smith and Sic Astley and providing the live art this time were Heather 'Face' Fitt, James Hayes, Dan Birbeck, Becki 'Moze' Miller, myself and He Dreamt Mars and Vanejulian, an artist from Castellon on the Spanish Mediterranean coast who now resides in Manchester.
We'd arrived early to set up and get our live art pieces planned out. Some of the collective had already been down the previous day as well and helped to build the structures that held the art walls up.
The idea we'd agreed on was to paint the acronym for the event, SFTOC and also OFE for One Five Eight.
5 artists with a letter each over two adjoining walls and myself and He Dreamt Mars collaborating on a separate wall for the OFE bit.
Dan Birbeck kicked things off by spraying the rough outline of the SFTOC letters, whilst myself and Mars deliberated over how we were going to play this one!
The event kicked off around 3 o'clock and as I peered out through the big iron gate onto the street, I could see a big line of festival goers, all dressed in crazy costumes bearing letters and huge eyes and various other weird and wonderful bits and bobs!
Word on the street was that if you made the effort and came in costume, you got in free and people certainly made the effort!
In, out and all around the Mill, became awash with vibrant colour and people having good times.
I don't have much coverage of what was going on inside the Mill, as I was busy painting all day, suffice to say it was bustling with activity and music, which was provided by our friends from local collectives Mind On Fire, Dub Smugglers and El Diablo's Social Club.
Back out in the courtyard, the music was flowing, the people were glowing and the good vibes were growing!
The smells of delicious food filled the air and the day was going off splendidly.
The artists were on good form and the SFTOC wall was shaping up nicely, with vibrant colour being the order of the day. Myself and He Dreamt Mars, having now collaborated at a fair few events, were getting into our usual flow, not saying much and just letting our Posca pens do the talking!
All the artists who painted at the event are illustrators at heart, but in the last few years have been picking up techniques in spray painting to help them go big at events such as this.
The One Five Eight Collective are long time friends and colleagues of mine and we have worked together on many a project at various events over the years, we are like a family now.
But that's not to say that we are in our own little circle unavailable to others. Our ethos is to get other artists and like minded people involved in what we do and it's been great getting my newer colleagues of the Homegrown Collective involved aswell. He Dreamt Mars has a great way about him and is always up for getting involved, especially when it means the two of us can join forces on a big piece.
And it's always great to meet new artists and work with them, VaneJulian being no acception. I recognised her style, but the penny never dropped until i looked at her website after the event and recognised one of her pieces I'd been looking at on the Saturday night on the wall at Font Bar.
Check her website out. (links to follow)
At certain points throughout the day, my confidence wavered a little, like with what to do with the OFE letters. But Mars has always got my back and comes with bags of reassurance!
Besides, it's hard not to feel good when there is so much good stuff going on around you and everywhere you look there are big eyes and crazy costumes!
Everyone was in high spirits and getting involved in the frivolities, trying on hats and keeping the good vibes going throughout the day.
Homegrown's resident ball of energy and all round mad man, Bobby Boulders, AKA 'Shelfstacker' was on form and kept the smiles coming all day.
The daytime part of the event went on in the courtyard until 8pm, with a smooth blend of excellent tunes to please the earholes. Us artists finished painting around 7 and were left to enjoy the last hour or so with a few drinks and some food.
Everyone who painted or spun tunes killed it! Well happy with the end results on the boards and everyone felt good having shared in the experience.
All in all, a splendid day out! The night time part of the event carried on until the wee hours of the morning, but it was time for myself and Mars to hit the road and get back to Blackpool, so we said our goodbyes and went out to wait for our lift.
There's always something good going on at the Mill. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend checking it out. Wether it's music or arts orientated, it never fails to deliver.
Upstairs, our good friends of 169a have their screen printing studio, where they create quality garms and prints. You can see some of Mark Jermyn's printing skills outside the building, in the form of detailed patterned wallpapers he created under the moniker 'Moderate Twat Kissa'
The One Five Eight Collective are holding their next event 'Expo.3' at Kraak in Manschester on the 17th May. Watch this space for coverage of that.
Now check out some of these links.