sorry we not had chance to msg you all over last few months all thoese bands wanting to play the picnic, but if you are wanting to play the North London Punx Picnic 09 then please msg us with where you are from and how much money you'd like to play. Remember the gigs shall be benefit gigs so we can only pay towards transport costs and the bands asking the less trasport money shall be considered slightly more than a band needing more transport costs

Cheers

THIS TIME TO TAKE PLACE FROM JULY 3RD TO THE 5TH. WITH GIGS ON THE FIRST TWO NIGHTS, THE PICNIC ON THE SATURDAY AFTERNOON, AND A FREE GIG ON THE SUNDAY AFTERNOON.


Friday July 3rd - VENUE TBC.

Saturday July 4th - The Gaff, Holloway Road. N17.

The actual picnic will take place from 2pm onwards at Finsbury park

Sunday July 5th - VENUE TBC (free sunday afternoon gig)

WATCH THIS WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS OVER NEXT FEW WEEKS

Ok it's been a long time coming but I finally got round to doing a write up of the North London 08 punx picnic.


We have many mixed views on the event, but overall it was a success – largely due to the Saturday night though.

We decided to put on this years punx picnic in North London because there had not been a North London Punx picnic for at least 2 or 3 years now. The north London punx picnic sort of took over the hackney punx picnic from when all the punx used to live in hackney.
Do you remember those days?!
We thought that with all the big punk rock festivals rebellion, wasted, holidays in the sun – or are they al the same thing!?! If so, is this the promoters' way of trying to confuse us all into giving him and the big bands more money the next year after thinking this years event was shit? After all its punks who attend the event and I doubt the promoter not being a punk himself reckons punks have any intelligence.

Anyway back to the write up – yeah we thought with all these big money making punk rock festivals we needed more DIY punk rock festivals with cheap door prices, great bands (no fence sitters, nationalists or ring wingers) and money going to good causes. So that's why we done it. We went for proper venues this time as opposed to squats. Various reasons, namely being that currently there are no north London squats that could host this event. And also we tried it 2 years ago with the punx olympix one of us was involved with and the squat we had fell though at the last minute we were evicted and we were left with nowhere to have the event. So this time we thought to be safe it would be better to have proper booked venues in non squatted places. These were non commercial venues though and booked by us and not some shitty promoter. We also spent quite a bit of money on flyers 5000 actually and spent many a hours at gigs and outside gigs leading up to the event flyering people.


The Thursday night at the cross kings with HEADJAM, DISKELMA (finland), DREAD MESSISAH and POLITICDE was a great start to the whole event. It was quite a surprising turnout for a Thursday night. Well the venue being quite small I guess made the turn out look even better. But still, it was as good or if not better than we thought for that night.

On Friday night with CONSTASNT STATE OF TERROR, BUG CENTRAL, RABIES BABIES and it was a bit of a different story. Although there were a few people there it was still a disappointing turnout. Many punks decided it was better to stand outside drinking than to come inside to pay which was only 5 quid. And that's not a bad price seeing as though it's a benefit with 4 bands, one from Finland and one from Brighton. Quite a few people tried to blag it in as well by saying they had no money. I'm sure these same people went to rebellion festival this year and did not try to blag it in. I'm sure they all had the money for this event but thought as the punx picnic was a DIY event they would try and blag it in because they have more respect for commercial bollox. It was amazing how many people didn't even turn up for this night either.
Ok you could say that they were all saving up for the big night which was the Saturday night, and fair enough if they could not afford to go to more than one night of the punx picnic, but come on, how many of these people saved up over 60 or 80 quid for the big commercial punk rock festivals?
We lost money this night, but everyone there still had a great night and the bands were amazing and it was great to get Deek from Oi Polloi his other band over to England at last.


Saturday the punx picnic in the park I coud not attend myself because I was so busy organising the gig and doing equipment runs. I'm quite disappointed I missed it because I've heard it was amazing. I heard over 100 punks sitting in London fields for the best part of the day drinking and catching up with people they have not seen in months or years. This is what the punx picnic is all about.
Getting people together and having a very cheap good time!
Saturday night at chats palace was a much more successful gig than friday. On Saturday night playing was Oi Polloi, Cress, Active Slaughter and chester.
An amazing night maybe the best gig of the year in London??? We had a full house at chats palace, between 250-300 people?
The atmosphere was great too. I wouldn't say there was any trouble. Maybe a couple of idiots but they were soon escorted out of the venue. Quite a bit of dosh was raised for anti-fa that night and everyone had a great time so it was very successful. The only thing that I can think of that was not good was the amount of people just waiting to see the so called big named bands. Although amazing they are and were that night CRESS and OI POLLOI, it was a shame people didn't come in to catch Chester and social schism who were on first and second starting at about 8pm.


Sundays gig at the boston arms was always going to be a much smaller turnout. But with The extinguishers, rejected, dogs abuse and Italian hc legends Raw Power we didn't expect the turnout to be so low.
You could blame the hangovers and lack of money for the low turnout of punters due to Saturday night, but again I now I keep bringing it up, does this happen at rebellion festival? I doubt it
We lost a bit of money on this night too.


But all in all the whole event was a great success and all in all a good turn out (largely due to the Saturday night )
We learnt a few things, a few lessons that we can take onboard if we decide to put on next years event (we probably will). We probably won't have it 4 nights of gigs next year, maybe just 3 nights, possibly even 2. It's a shame because that means fewer bands we can put on the bill. We'll have to see nearer the time what we decide to do. We had such a great time though and everyone kept congratulating us for the whole event and saying what a success it was that i'm pretty sure we'll do next years event.

So see you all soon and please support your local DIY punk scene and local bands. There's a lot of great bands out there you may not have heard of or heard their music and you won't now till you see them play.


cheers and beers from the punx picnic 08 crew, possee, firm, collective, or whatever you wanna call us :)  And a big thanyou to everyone who attended the gigs and especially the bands for playing for either free or just transport money

 

Leave your feedback below on anything you wanna talk about or any suggestions for next years picnic. nows your chance to voice them....

so what happens after the whole punx picnic event?

 

well if it all goes well which im sure it will, then we will have bulit a very good reputation up with the venues we are putting the gigs on at, and we hope to bring diy punk back to north london on a regular basis with many great bands who did not make the punx picnic lineup and also lots more money raised for various benefits.

thats providing we all survive the punx picnic eh?!?!?!

Watch this space I guess

ITS IN TWO COZ ITS DOUBLE SIDED

NEW PUNX PICNIC WEBSITE JUST CLICK HERE

Thursday 29th May 2008 - Cross Kings, 126 York Way, Kings Cross
Diskelma / Headjam / Dread Messiah / Politicide
benefit for No Sweat

Friday 30th May 2008 - Nambucca 596 Holloway Road
Kansalaisttelmettomus / Constant State Of Terror / Rabies Babies / Bug
Central / benefit for local animal rescue/rehoming group


Saturday 31st May 2008 - Chats Palace, 42-44 Brooksby's Walk, Hackney
Oi Polloi / Cress / Active Slaughter / Social Schism / Chester
benefit for Antifa

Sunday 1st June 2008 - Boston Arms, 178 Junction Road, Tufnell Park
Bickles Cab / Extinquishers / Dogs Abuse / Raw Power
£4 in - benefit to be confirmed

THE LOGO HAS NOW BEEN DESIGNED FOR THE PICNIC AS YOU CAN SEE. (thanks to Kit, who is avalible FOR designs for people/bands etc. - Contact kit )

THIS WILL BE THE LOGO APPEARING ON THE FLYERS, WEBSITEs AND T-SHIRTS WE SHALL BE GETTING PRINTED UP IN TIME FOR THE PICNIC. IF YOU WANT ONE OF THESE SHIRTS RESERVED OR SENT TO YOU LET US KNOW WHAT SIZE AND WE'LL SORT YOU OUT AT THE TIME OF THE PICNIC.
ALL THE SHIRTS SHALL BE BLACK WITH THE PP LOGO IN BLACK AND WHITE

YEAH AS SAID ON THE MAIN PAGE THE PICNIC IS NOW CONFIRMED AND SHALL BE HITTING NORTH LONDON ON THUR 29TH MAY ALL THE WAY TO SUNDAY 1ST JUNE. 4 NIGHTS OF GIGS, AND ONE AFTERNOON OF PICNIC IN THE PARK.
ALL THE GIGS SHALL BE BENEFIT GIGS.
WE ARE HERE TO MAKE PUNK A TREAT AGAIN AND WE HAVE TEAMED UP WITH "MAKING PUNK A TREAT AGAIN" WHO USED TO PUT  ON PUNK GIGS AND A PICNIC OR TWO HERE IN LONDON A FEW YEARS AGO NOW

KEEP CHECKING BACK ON THE NORTH LONDON PUNX PICNIC MYSPACE FOR MORE UPDATES OVER THE COMING WEEKS INC VENUES AND BANDS!