Tramlines Festival
More than a festival, exactly one month after Brexit, Sheffield rebooted positivity for Britain, courtesy of it’s annual inner city festival, Tramlines. "Leave" and "Remain" voters united for one of 2016's craziest and warmest hearted weekends of Britain being Great. The smashing line up starred Dizzee Rascal, Catfish And The Bottlemen, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Kelis, The Enemy, Jurassic 5, Gaz Coombes, Big Narstie, Gwenno, Deap Vally, October Drift, Allusondrugs, Trampolene, Young Fathers, Holly Macve, Asylums, Hinds, Bang Bang Romeo, Black Honey, God Damn, The Orielles, Foes, and Kryptick to name but a fraction, on a variety show of every musical genre (live performance and DJ sets), theatre, cuisine, markets, arts and crafts.
There were around 18 locations for the main festival venues alone. The definition of a hot ticket. The anti austerity free entry events were of the highest class. Tramlines Festival Fringe in around 20 additional locations, is worth the travel fare if you're from out of town and a gift for local music lovers. The Crystal Stage and This Feeling / JackRocks Stage at The Rocking Chair were busy all weekend with bands you'll pay good money to see from further away in the future.
Add to to all the above a carnival x party x authentic festival vibe in the city centre and the weekend is so much more than all that. Street performers or eccentric locals, and a funfair! Bonus!
Total respect for the Safe Walking Route signs, and the declarations of love peace and equality outdoors which Tramlines states as manifesto (nice one, Sam Briggs and the festival programme posse).
There was a spectrum of entertainment, for all ages and tastes, in all kinds of spaces. I love it that impromptu dancing broke out around pop up sound systems and that there was everything from rock to disco blaring out of different bars.
On Saturday night, when the streets were thronged with genuine revellers, especially, the whole city seemed to be totally going for it like an urban, 20th century Glastonbury. A Peace Field and a magical Folkland Forest (oh what a beautiful Sunday morning) included. No drugs required to feel high, possibly because of the hills and trees in your periphery vision the whole time. It made total sense to learn that Sheffield is the city with the most trees, per square mile, in Europe.
I can honestly say that having travelled from London, inspired by Tarquin Clark’s report and images of 2015, I came home from Tramlines 2016 in awe. People come from around the globe to Steel City for this festival. I’m not surprised.
It’s not just the band’s from the Sheffield area that are making their mark. Local photographer, Duncan Stafford is gaining reputation, globally and along with next door county, Derbyshire, based Tarquin, very kindly gave TheZineUK permission to use their fantastic images in this report.
For the full effect of their work, and a plethora of sights from the Tramlines 2016 weekend please feast your eyes on artists and atmosphere images by Duncan Stafford Photography and Tarquin Clark Photography (and click here for the mayhem of Allusondrugs by Tarquin)
For news and advance 2017 tickets (easily one of the most affordable and best value events on the nation’s festival calendar) watch http://tramlines.org.uk
2 minutes of Saturday highlights (including Kelis, Big Narstie and more) by Tramlines TV.
Words: Caffy St Luce