Live Music Preview: The Camden Crawl

johnmcga
By johnmcga Last edited 168 months ago
Live Music Preview: The Camden Crawl

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The Camden Crawl takes place this year on 1st and 2nd May, and it's certainly a bit different to your normal festival. For a start, you can go back to your own bed at the end of each night. And with so many sweaty, sticky, sometimes-stifling venues to choose from, there's little to fear from the weather.

However, the Crawl does have a lot in common with its more rural counterparts. You'll be knackered by the end of day two. There'll probably be a fair bit of alcohol involved. And the toilets in some Camden venues are about on a par with the facilities at Glastonbury.This year's event seems to be bigger than ever - it's a two-night Bank Holiday jamboree, featuring daytime comedy and poetry, performance art and goodness-only-knows-what alongside the traditional live music. That's a far cry from the relatively low-profile, Thursday night event of a few years back.Not all the developments are entirely positive - the new, expensive, elitist VIP queue jump ticket gets a thumbs down from here (and will surely only lead to a queue of "VIPs" outside the Dublin Castle when a big name's on), but it's nonetheless great to see the event go from strength to strength.And, even after last year's exhausting schedule, we're well up for this two-day jaunt round a whole pile of Camden's best venues. Ignoring the fact that The Sugababes appear to be playing this year, the line-up is a solid combination of established acts and bands vying to be the next big thing.Our pick of the lesser-known names includes psychedelic indie-pop band Racehorses and Oxford-based zorbers Stornoway. But as half the fun of the Camden Crawl is picking a venue at random, diving in and discovering some new talent, we urge adventurousness!The Camden Crawl takes place this coming May Bank Holiday weekend and no doubt we'll be heading down again. If you fancy joining us, weekend and day tickets are available now. (Image: crowds at last year's Camden Crawl / Andy Wilsher)

Last Updated 26 March 2010