Csenge Krokovay reviews the ‘Kentish Pip’, aka the City Sound Project, held in Canterbury at the end of April each year.
I must say I was excited about this weekend festival. The weather was beautiful, although it was raining everywhere else; it seemed like the sun shone only on that spot of the globe, specifically for the two days we were at the City Sound Project. It was a perfect start!
The first thing I noticed was that the main streets of the historical town was packed full of people, when usually Canterbury is rather a quiet place. However, this time it felt as busy as North Street in our hometown of Brighton. I heard the first beats coming from further away, like a sign: come follow me. From my stay, I can now say I understand the name better than ever. City Sound Project is a project that flips Canterbury upside down and full to the brim of loud of music.
On the first day, walking down the high street I could hear different varieties of music coming from all angles. Earlier, I could hear the calling sounds of The Block, where Bad Influence was playing; we also visited the Dane John Gardens where lots of good festival food and grass sitting opportunities awaited us. After trying a Haloumi Burger and Kentish Pip, and getting a random big hug from a pirate, we went back to the high street. We read ‘Secret Garden’ on the festival program, and decided – let’s try it! It gave such a magical vibe about it, which we were eager to see. The fairy lights, yurts, head massage and the compost toilet were all a signs of a hippy fairy tale.
After a bit of chilling and looking at the program, we found out that the Wise World Festival was held here at Secret Garden, with programs for art, music and poetry lovers. We stayed for a while in the Quinn Yurt, to listen to the Young Poets vs. MC’s vs. Comedians. Sharp and eye opening, I would recommend this to everyone. We later went back to the high street to continue our tour. This time the queue at The Cuban’s caught our eye, where amazing DJs like Rob Cockerton and GotSome hit the bassline that night. After a short walk to the left, The Cricketer Local Pub was calling for participants for amazing jungle DJ set. On the left side, the Griffin Local Pub set the music player up. Finally, the bell rang; it was enough for the first day – time to camp for the night. It was a shame we could not make it to the Westgate though, where we could’ve heard the talented Lady Leshurr playing; I have always wanted to hear Brush Your Teeth live.
The worst thing about festivals is that you have to decide what you are interested in the most. And when you are interested in everything, you must accept you can’t clone yourself and be everywhere at once. The next day after a nice, makeshift ‘Festival Camping Breakfast’ (bread and tomatoes) we headed to the city again, with the plan that we were going to try to make it everywhere. We started with chilling in the sunshine on the grass at Secret Garden, and were taken on a journey listening to Depths of the Cosmos. What started as a very interesting experimental set of psychedelic rock, became a blend of blues, rock, and indie from Himali Blues, who came on stage after.
After that we headed back to Dane John for Jazz Beams, Coco and the Butterfly and for some more delicious burgers, and finally decided to close the last day of the festival in peace.
Overall, I would definitely say City Sound Project is worth going to! It’s cheap, student orientated, friendly and has a diverse range of music, and huge variety of programs. We had great fun, and would love to go again.
Canterbury rocks!
