So Scarborough is now officially the Most Enterprising Place in Europe?! I can't quite get my head around that one but there's a trophy and everything so it must be true, haha. Even the guys who went to Prague to the awards seemed rather baffled. Oh well, I guess we must be doing something right.

I can't believe Coastival was five months ago and I still haven't submitted any photos. Damn it was good! Oh well, summer's here again which means there's plenty going off. No Beached Festival (see my previous journal) but what the hey, there are still plenty of other fantastic gigs, music festivals and shenanigans coming up in Scarborough. Like Edwina Hayes, 3 Daft Monkeys and Acoustic Gathering IV. Not to mention the grand opening of Hairy Bob's Skatepark which should be an awesome event. Huzah!

I've been working at Fitzpatrick Design for about nine months now. Time flies! Things are going well for us which keeps me busy and out of trouble. Plus the more I'm at work, the more lunch hours I spend at Mojo's Music Cafe which practically means I'm paying the waitresses wages and keeping Steve topped up with Jack Daniels.

What the hell is going on?

Fellow Scarborough people will know of Beached but for those who don't, it's a great music festival which takes place annually here in my home town and has been going for eight years now. Like many others, I have a great fondness for the festival and every year I look forward to it with anticipation, having seen it grow from the start. Last August I was fortunate enough to be involved as a photographer which was a brilliant experience. I have huge respect and admiration for the organisers who work hard and for free to bring us a fantastic event.

Unfortunately though, for many reasons things have gone a bit crazy recently and the fate of the festival is uncertain and in delicate balance. I'm sure I speak for many people when I say it would be extremely sad to see it die, especially in the way it seems to be going.

There's so much confusion and frustration surrounding it at the moment, tempers are running high and things are getting a little out of hand. I recently received this message which shines some light on the rather dire situation:



BEACHED 2009 Cancelled... or is it?!

Who knows, the whole situation is getting a bit ridiculous in my opinion.

The story so far:

Last week, I heard through several different grapevines that the production company that runs beached every year (H20 BEACHED Ltd) had gone into liquidation. This is fact.

I also heard that to save the festival, the staff and volunteers that run beached every year would be starting a new festival named "The Beach Festival" which would be very similar to, but in no legal sense related to beached. FROM WHAT I HEARD the problems relating to the liquidation and the current economic climate blah de blah (usual story) meant that "The Beach Festival" would not be taking place this year and would hopefully return in 2010, so as the person that set up this group to keep people informed of beached-related news, I sent you all a message.

Since sending that message I have recieved a series of rather obnoxious emails from the organiser of beached saying that I had "incorrect information" and the festival will go ahead this summer, even though AS FAR AS I AM AWARE, nothing has yet been confirmed.

So now I have heard two very compelling stories, each from different groups of people saying there may or may not be a festival on the beach this year. As a great fan of said event, I certainly hope that it does go ahead, I think its a great boost for Scarborough and the highlight of the summer events calender. However, at this stage, as a completely independant individual who just wanted to set up a facebook group and have an easy life without being accused of infringing any trademarks.... I have not yet been able to confirm that anything will be taking place on the beach this year.

As a fellow beach-goer I can only tell you what I know, please remember I am in no way linked to any festival, I am just the guy that made the group!!

All the best and hopefully see you on the beach in August
Ryan

As some of you may have noticed in my recent journals I've been plugging Coastival which is a arts and music festival coming up over the Valentine's weekend (Friday 13th to Sunday 15th) right here in my home town of Scarborough.

If you're local then you've got no excuse not to come along to at least some of the events (a lot of which are completely free). There's plenty going on so well worth the visit even if you have to travel.

On Friday the 13th we've got Feeder playing in the Grand Hall of the Spa. They will be supported by the fantastic local band, Mum Locked in Castle, who won the support slot thanks to their brilliant performance at the Battle of the Sands competition back in November.

Some of you may know that Mark Richardson is the former Little Angels drummer from Scarborough. Since he joined Feeder back in 2002 many people (especially those who know Mark) have been eager to see the band play here and finally it's happening!

As you may have guessed I'll be on photo duties on the night so you might see me down in the pit with fellow photographer Mike Jackson. As far as I know we are the only photographers for the event apart from press.

Another fantastic Coastival event for all you music fans will be the Acoustic Lounge which is to be held on the Saturday and Sunday at the Spa's Vitadome.

40 acts including Chris Helme, Carl Woodford, Ashley Hicklin, Jon Gomm and Edwina Hayes will perform over the two days from 12:00noon 'til 11:00pm each day.

The Acoustic Lounge is a free event!

The Vitadome isn't huge so get there early to grab yourself a seat. If any of you know the Acoustic Gathering which is held in Scarborough at Peasholm Park each year then think of this as a scaled-down, more intimate version.

Again, I'll be on photo duties for both days at the Acoustic Lounge so come and say hi. I shouldn't be hard to spot.

We've got lots of interesting things planned for the Acoustic Lounge including projections of photos and a display of work by myself and Mike Jackson.

Tickets for Feeder and other events over the weekend as well as all the relevant info for everything that's taking place can be found here [link]

Oh crap, it's nearly 6:00am!

Wow, so I finally hit the 20,000 pageview mark. I'm not sure when exactly this happened but woohoo none the less. Thank you watchers and random visitors so much for all the comments and favourites!

Also it's 2009 so I hope everyone had a happy New Year. Great things are on the way such as Coastival (as mentioned in my previous journal) which kicks off in just a few weeks time here in Scarborough. There's loads going on so don't miss out...

Check out [link] for more info and tickets!

I'm so pleased that Mum Locked in Castle won the Battle of the Sands competition yesterday. I've seen them play a few times and I really like the band. They are a mix of bluesy hard rock and metal.

So here comes a big Coastival plug:

We're pleased to announce that Feeder will be the headline act for Friday 13th February at Coastival, supported by Mum Locked in Castle - winners of our Battle of the Sands competition.

At a time when most bands come and go almost too quickly to even notice, Feeder are a welcome, all-too-rare exception to the norm. First formed an incredible sixteen years ago, Feeder are stronger today both in creative terms and as a band than they have ever been.

The band have had 24 top 75 singles and have sold over 4.5 million albums worldwide in the last decade. They have toured consistently since their formation in 1992 and have appeared at almost every festival in Europe. REM, U2, The Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters and Coldplay are just some of the acts the band have toured with.

Feeder remain equally passionate about their music now as then and are still driven to ensure more and more people hear what they do. They have weathered the sort of ups and downs that often destroy lesser bands yet, crucially, continued to forge their own path regardless of passing scenes or fads, building a loyal and startlingly diverse audience on the way who know that bands like Feeder don’t come along every day.

Mum Locked in Castle beat 9 other bands on 30th November to win the coveted Feeder support slot. Their mix of breakneck riffs, sudden tempo changes and solid groove in an incredibly tight and focussed performance wowed the judges who awarded them the first place prize. Runners up, We Heart Katamari won a support slot with rock band Gun on the 15th December in Scarborough. The judges commented on the high quality of all the entrants for Battle of the Sands.

Tickets for Feeder on 13th February are now on sale on the Coatival website:
[link]

Details of the Jazz line-up are also on the website and look out for the much-promised-but-coming-this-week-honestly World Music ticket offer later this week via the Coastival e-newsletter.

Bye for now...

The Coastival Team
[link]