Festival preview: Underage

by Jon Fletcher

Lots of kids, lots of bands, no booze. Sound like your idea of hell? Just as well - you're not allowed in anyway

"With booze banned from the site and the festival web page promising parents their offspring will be subjected to a “light pat down search” by security, the only draw for the kids is the line-up"

 Underage
 When: Friday 8 August
Where: Victoria Park, London
Official site: www.underagefestivals.com
 Past New Noise coverage
 No previous coverage
 Click here for line-up details.

“It’s not that easy wearing skinny jeans in South East London,” said 14-year old Sam Killcoyne to a Guardian reporter back in 2006. It can’t be any easier putting on a 7,500 capacity festival for under 19s either, but Killcoyne has pulled both off, if you'll pardon our turn of phrase, launching last year’s inaugural Underage Festival off the back of his eminently successful Underage club nights.

If you thought under 19s were only interested in necking superstrength cider and knifing one another, Underage is there to prove you wrong. With booze banned from the site and the festival web page promising parents their offspring will be subjected to a “light pat down search” by security, the only draw for the kids is the line-up. For a demographic generally deprived of such delights by licensing laws, this year, as last year, the billing is an indie-pop treasure trove, though you can’t help be struck by the fact that many of the bands playing probably qualify for entry into the festival even when offstage. Included in the mix for 2008 are New Noise favourites Bombay Bicycle Club, Foals and Swedish schoolgirls cum popsters Those Dancing Days.

In stark contrast to Field Day, which took place for adults on the same site the following day, the feedback last year in the ever-honest melee of blogs and message boards was overwhelmingly positive. The difference, perhaps, was that the Underage crowd didn’t need constant and unmitigated access to bars (and consequently toilets) to enjoy the bands.

Be the first to comment on this article

Elsewhere On The Site

NEW NOISES

NEW ALBUMS

NEW SINGLES

LIVE