I came to the festival for love

I came to the festival for love slate. Now loose on the street.

I came to the festival for love slate (front)

I came to the festival for love slate (back)

Here we have the third installment of our Back to the Future mixtape project which sees us combine two of our loves – music and street art.

Our plan is simple. Get some new mixes together, burn them on CD and then put them out on the street with some exclusive slate cover art to see what happened. The piece is the size of a standard roofing slate (about 40 x 28 cm) and has the CD securely taped to the back so she should last a reasonable amount of time out in the open. It has been completed using the magic of paint pens, spraypaint and stencils. They are signed on reverse with our trademark id-iom stencil and logo.

With sunshine the prevailing weather condition for once we can finally get round to the idea that summer – and the always amusing festival season – is on the way. I’ve been to Glastonbury every available year since 1999 and thoroughly enjoyed myself every time – come rain or shine. I’m sure this year will be no exception. The poor lady in this piece however is not having such a great time as she’s gone to a festival and someone has callously broken her heart. My best advice to her would be to head to the bar…

We are also now open to submissions – so if you dj at all and fancy taking part just get in touch and if we like your mix then you’re in! You can find more information on our facebook page here.

Happy hunting!

Cheers

id-iom

Related articles

• Futility – Back to the Future mixtape project (thisisidiom.wordpress.com)
• Back to the Future mixtape project (thisisidiom.wordpress.com)

Sand, Sea & Spray

We’ll be painting at venue no.4

Another week and another art festival. This time in the sunny climes of the North West – specifically Blackpool! We’ve never been to Sand, Sea & Spray before so we are quite excited to be taking part. And if you add to that the extra excitement of not having been to Blackpool for about 20 odd years you can tell we are good to go for this one. We will be painting at venue 4 and I’m just hoping the weatherman is telling lies like usual…

The last time I went to Blackpool I went to the Pleasure Beach and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I can’t really remember much apart from the Mousetrap and the Grand National. I think my life flashed in front of my eyes that many times whilst riding the Mousetrap when I was a child that I have somehow become desensitised to such frippery unless they are truly rickety and life threatening. Maybe if we have a few minutes I can go and see what all that childhood fuss was about…

Cheers

id-iom

Come rain or shine…

Glastonbury isn’t on this year (which is a shame but at least we have the Olympics) but that’s not going to stop me crafting a small memento commemorating past years and commiserating the fact that we’ll all be unable to attend this year. I have been fortunate enough to attend all available festivals since my first attendance as a festival virgin in 2000 – and have thoroughly enjoyed every one come rain or shine…

Glastonbury 07 - A year to forget!

Glastonbury 08 - A year to remember!

With it being held in the UK the one thing you can never guarantee is the weather and regardless of whether it’s glorious sunshine or raining cats and dogs there is always superior levels of amusement to be had. In fact I perversely enjoy the inclement weather somewhat as it really does sort the men from the boys. In 2007 we had the torrential rain for pretty much the entire festival (just like in 2005!) which left the site like some apocalyptic swampland. Then a year later it’s blazing sunshine and tans all round.

A couple of punters enjoying a quiet sit down in 2007

Punters enjoying the sun in 2008

Both pictures are based on a photograph of me enjoying the comfort of a pile of rubbish whilst sheltering from the blazing sun under an umbrella I’d found lying around. It probably prevented me from getting sunstroke that year…

One half of id-iom enjoying a brief break from the festivities...

If you are interested you can find our other Glastonbury related posts here, here, here and here! Bring on 2013 (as long as karma allows me to get a ticket!)

Cheers

id-iom

id-iom @ Mannifest 2010

We were at Mannifest last week which is a fledgling music festival on the Isle of Man that is now on it’s 2nd year. We were invited to do some painting (and also djing) at our friend’s ‘Sin Cabeza’ tent. We arrived on the island late on Wednesday and then on Thursday went up to the site to get our boards set up (by our good man Dean – many thanks for that!) and it was then that we made our first mistake. Rather than going out of our way to find some outdoor paint we used some white indoor emulsion that was available on site. When we arrived on site on Friday morning after overnight rain the emulsion had (obviously) all washed off.

First thing Friday morning…

The sheet over the top of the boards was our pathetic attempt to hold off any more rain getting to the boards whilst we went in search of real paint. We then got a coat of the good stuff on and waited for it to dry. Not wanting to waste any time we then got on with stencilling various bits and pieces in the tent with a ‘Sin Cabeza’ stencil which we had been tasked with designing.

Sin Cabeza stencil on decks – with the beady eyes of the RedEyeJedi glaring over the top!

The windbreaks used to mark our territory

After the paint on the boards had dried it was on with our first piece – Pandaman!

Stage 2

Stage 3 – which is as far as we got on the Friday due to rain stopping play

After a late night on Friday where we definitely had the most pumping (although smallest) tent we were served with the following notice (i’m pretty sure we weren’t the only ones although the following day a security guard said clearing our tent was, and i quote, ‘like World War III’)

Warning! Fun will not be tolerated!

We were predictably a bit late starting on Saturday but at least the weather was improving and we managed to get it nailed pretty quickly

After we got Pandaman finished we let our adoring public enjoy it for all of about 45 minutes before it was time to whitewash the wall and start again. Once we had managed to get it white (we even had to use a little of the emulsion as we ran out of outdoor paint – but thankfully it didn’t rain again) we then moved onto ‘The dog days of summer’

Dog days of summer – stage 1

Dog days of summer – stage 2

Fairly late on Saturday we managed to get Dog days of summer finished – then it was on with a bit of djing!

After another night of partying we were pretty knackered when it came to Sunday and as we had finished the Dog days of summer so late we thought it best just to leave it for people to enjoy and get on with a little laid back Sunday drinking. I’m not entirely sure which day the shots below were taken but show some folks enjoying the hospitality of the Sin Cabeza tent and the huge wooden statue of Mannanan (a Celtic deity from the Isle of Man). All in all a good year although perhaps they should have made the Sunday a family day as the bar stopped serving at 6 and the venue closed at 9pm. Bring on 2011!

Partygoers at the Sin Cabeza tent

Mannanan with the Sin Cabeza tent and our boards in the corner

Cheers

id-iom

Glasto here we come…

We’ve been hard at work in the lab coming up with some bits and pieces for Glastonbury (and i’m beginning to get a little excited now!) We are off tomorrow morning and have just about got everything sorted (for once). As i didn’t want to spoil the surprise i thought a couple of teaser shots would be in order.

Hopefully the next you will see of them will be at Glastonbury! Bring on Stevie Wonder!

Cheers

id-iom

Upfest 2010

We will be heading to Upfest a spray painting festival in Bristol to do some painting on the 5th and 6th of June. If you can make it down, do, as it is a good day out. There will artists, a secret wars battle, break dancers, beatboxers, dj’s and a load more stuff besides. Check the flyer below: