Tribal Gathering Returns At Pontins

Tribal Gathering, the 90s festival brand that paved the way for Creamfields, Homelands and all the other outdoor commercial raves in the UK, is to return, five years after their last triumphant event when Kraftwerk played live.

The brand has been brought back to life by new promoter David Vincent, who will shortly be putting on a 4,000 capacity weekend event at Pontins holiday camp, Southport (near Liverpool).

"Tribal sees itself as the rebellion, fighting to throw out the darkness that corporate clubbing has sewn into dance culture, (we'll be) taking things back to how they used to be."" the accompanying press release suggests.

Reviving the original TG spirit could prove tricky, howeverm given that original founders Ian Jenkinson and Paul Shurey are no longer involved. From conceiving and putting on commercial outdoor events, the pair become involved in sometimes fiercely political arguments over licensing, and in the process played a major role in legitimising rave culture. They were also instrumental in helping club culture cross over via Britain's mainstream media, which up until 1996 predominantly snubbed it.

Speaking to Muzik in 1996, Paul Shurey revealed the extent of the media's then indifference.

"I knew The Face were doing a piece but up to that point they had largely ignored rave culture," Paul recalled just after the lifestyle magazine had published a 10 page cover feature on their Oxfordshire event.

"I'd been expecting them to print a half page of pure cynicism."

While Tribal Gathering's first incarnation went on to crash and burn just one year later, rave culture continued to cross over, paving the way for Creamfields followed by Homelands and today's glut of outdoor events.

However successful the new event is, it's certain to be different, being dramatically smaller (crowds of 40,000 packed the 1997's Kraftwerk event) and also indoors. Sasha, The Avalanches and X Press 2 are amongst the headline acts.


http://www.tribalgathering.co.uk (Tickets @ £99 which includes chalet accommodation).
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