James Barton (Creamfields) Blog #3

Remembering '88 and looking forward to '09

United Kingdom | by James Barton | 05 June 2009

More thoughts from the Creamfields camp...

Here comes the sun and here comes the festival season in full. June is always a big month for festivals, but more so this year me thinks.

With the mighty Glastonbury along with fellow heavyweights Isle Of Wight, Download, Hyde Park Calling, Wireless and my mates Rock Ness all happening this month, June tends to be the month that sets the tone for the whole season.

We at Cream are always keen to see how the season starts and what the general vibe is going into July, this is especially the case with Glastonbury being so big and having its huge media impact. The feeling here is that if Glasto has a big one then the whole summer gathers momentum. I think this is even more important this year with the current economic situation and some people predicting doom for our industry.

But out of adversity can come some inspiration and some real creativity, this mixed with sensible thinking could mean this summer turns out to be one of the best yet. If I can take some of you old ravers back to the summer of ’88 and the real launch of dance music, you will remember (or maybe not!) that the country was depressed by what was happening with the current government.

We had a very unpopular prime minister, un-employment was high, and the country was facing a bleak future - but out of this came Acid House! Thousands of young people partied in green fields and dodgy warehouses’ the length and breadth of the country thus creating a new musically movement. See where I’m going with this?!

Maybe it’s a stretch to see a new musical revolution this summer, but I hope that in the mist of a pretty dreadful time people will still look for that release at the weekends and party like its 1988!

James Barton

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