This August saw the return of the local Derby FREE festival, Ponce in the Park, which is held annually on the Bass Recreation Ground, Derby. Promising to be bigger and better than ever this year, with a full third day of events, running from Friday 11th – Sunday 13th
We arrived on the Saturday, unfortunately we’d already missed a day of bands on the Friday, something I didn’t realise until afterwards, as I hadn’t seen any mention of stage times.
To be honest we nearly missed the event entirely, hearing only at the last minute it was still running this year, via a rather ambiguous link to a flyer on a forum.
Being smack in the centre of derby, next to the busy loop road PITP must be a curious site to oblivious locals, with clusters of tents scattered around the field along with canvassed stages, stalls, and a few hundred unwashed festival goers.
Maybe it was this apparently lack of promotion or the somewhat unseasonably bad August weather, but PITP just didn’t seem to have the turnout of what I saw the year before.
However PITP still offered a wide variety of music and entertainment, with over 40 diverse bands of all genres, spread over 2 stages, on 3 days, workshops, DJ sets and a crazy dance off that we were witness too.
The atmosphere remains small and friendly despite the troubles you would expect from being in a city centre, however there were a few incidents of theft reported, but this is expected in any festival, all you can do is urge people not to leave valuables unattended.
The fact that PITP happens at all, to me still seems like a small local miracle. Its organisation for an event such as this is remarkable, more astonishing in the fact that its all done by only 2 people, Laura Fletcher (22) and Jodie Craven (21).
Further more Ponce itself, from which the event in the park takes its name, has been running for 5 years now.
It began with the setting up of gigs on a Wednesday night at Raffles on Normanton Road, Derby. Where the fee was only a mere £1 for 2 bands, Laura stated that the reason they started Ponce was because “we were fed up of going to over priced gigs.” After attending the local Punx Picnic (saggy-pants #8) “We decided we’d put on a free outdoor music event called Ponce in the Park!”
PITP was born and has been an annual event ever since. Ponce now sets up gigs every Monday at Five Lamps, charging £2 entry, with the proceeds going towards PITP, ensuring it can remain a free event.
