just bees n things n flowers

Carnival Encounter 2004
22-23 May

Wow, what a weekend!

Carnival Collective organise this whole weekend - the last weekend of the Brighton festival - Carnival Encounter. We invite loads of carnival bands down and there are processions through town.

CC paraded through town with our kraken for our Depth Charge event. The kraken's a float with a hoofing sound-system on it for the brass, bass and samples, dressed up as a sea-monster and pulled along by four bicycles. It sounded great!

All the bands paraded down to the seafront where there was a stage set up and we all got ten minutes each to play on there. It was fantastic sunshine all day and a lovely evening as the sun set over the stage with the pier in the background.

Our set was tight and everything went swimmingly!

After a bonfire at my friend's allotment, much singing of "Kum bah yah" (or however you spell it) and a very late night, it was up at 8.30 for a completely pointless soundcheck at the EventII where we didn't actually play a drum.

The Event II is a big club down town where we staged the second night of the weekend, the Carnival Showcase. Some of the bands playing were The History of Samba, SambaYaBamba and us.

I've never been so nervous about a gig. It didn't help that SambaYaBamba who were on before us were really good, and it didn't help that we didn't know where or when to meet before we went on stage. But when we got up there and did our thing - it was amazing! I've never been so excited with a CC gig! We were miked up properly and the sound was fantastic! The crowd were loving us! I went into a zone where I felt like someone else was playing the drum! I broke a drum-stick that I only use for one tune and didn't even notice! Excellent! There just aren't enough exclamation marks to express my excitement about this gig!!!

We were followed by the Weird Attractors from Edinburgh who were amazing too. I saw them when we played with them in Edinburgh and thought they were fantastic then. Top band!

So a great weekend was had by all. Our summer of gigs has started now - we've got Cardiff in a week or so, then off to Glastonbury!!!

©Bob Seago