Venn festival calls it a day

Bristol's Venn festival which has taken place around June for the last five years has announced that 2008 was its last year.

A statement the festival organisers have released says, "The reasons behind this amicable decision are many and of a personal, artistic and family-orientated kind - one thing this is not is a case of 'another one bites the dust'. Venn happily and willingly ends itself in its prime, having achieved its goal of providing a sprawling DIY canvas for modern music in its wildest, most vivid colours."

Highlights amongst this year's line-up, which featured nearly 70 acts of all manner of musical types, included the colourful conceptual electronics and Bjork collaborators Matmos, psychedelic rock/poetical hip hoppers Why?, new English folk stars Rachel Unthank & The Winterset, Fuck Buttons, Flying Lotus, Heliocentrics, and Century FC which was an ambitious, specially commissioned project involving maverick vocal improviser Phil Minton and a 100-strong civilian choir.

In previous years the festival has played host to Tony Allen, Chris Corsano, Mark Stewart, Devendra Banhart, and the Tag Team concept all the way back in 2004, which became the blueprint for Venn with live samplesmiths hacking up acapella choirs, and local heroes such as Kid Carpet, SJ Esau, Men Diamler, and Bucky.

Pinch was put alongside Scion in 2006, Maher Shalal Hash Baz attempted to play 100 songs in 45 minutes in '07; Fungus Moth, Janek Schaefer, DJ Quest all appeared in 2004; five minute bursts of peace and quiet were broadcast across Bristol once every three hours in 2006; and a format of a round-the-clock programme of diverse gigs, sessions, workshops and broadcasts, took place inside and out in unique venues like planetariums and car parks.

The statement concludes with, "Meanwhile, www.vennfestival.com will serve as an archive for five years of musical rallying, line-crossing, entertainment trespass, inspiring collaborations overlapping into lasting friendships, furrowing a brow that was neither high nor low but felt like our very own, diving in, making no sense and loving it. It's been integral to our lives: back to dream-time. One is too many, a hundred not enough..five seems spot-on."

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