Cans Festival Leake Street 2008
This is an archive post for the Cans Festival, 2008. I went along with my beloved Olympus C3030Z, bought second hand off eBay in summer 2006, to replace one Id been using for a few years that belonged to someone else. It was old, a bit faulty, but it worked and I enjoyed having it as didn't have much money then so it was a bargain at £72.00. So, the photos aren't great quality, but they are interesting and I believe worthy of an addition to my archive. At that time London I think had begun to enter it's first stages of mass corporate regeneration but was also in a kind of slow death dance of alt culture celebration in central London, maybe sensing its prelude to complete destruction. The Astoria was still standing and Centrepoint was still unoccupied, Denmark Street was intact and lesser known comic shops like Orbital still did brisk trade. It felt like it was a liminal time for London, a sort of last deep breath of freedom.
Looking back I think the festival was a major experience though I don't think anyone who was there knew how important any of it was at the time. A lot of people turned up, and there was a general vibe of proper festival-ness about everything. According to this link - Cans Festival May 2008 - "Banksy got to work creating several new pieces before hosting (in collaboration with Pictures On Walls) a bunch of curated stencil artists from all over the UK and around the world". That webpage lists many of the artists taking part. It was a memorable day and again, looking back, Im super pleased with myself that I went along.
