Music
Nestled in amongst the Aviva Studios and AO Arenas of this world, Manchester is home to some truly magical independent music venues – venues you can name without providing free advertising for some ethically dubious megacorp. The best of these bear that distinctive flavour of Manc communitarianism, an attitude that sits at the heart of Green Island Festival. This triannual event spills across not one, but two great spots in Hulme: the Niamos Centre, a historic community arts space, and – somewhat bizarrely – Hulme Community Garden Centre, serving as a lesson in how local music can take root and flourish in the most seemingly unlikely places.
Green Island isn’t about booking big names, although they are anchoring this year’s events in Manchester’s 90s heritage with three “pioneers” closing out the Street Stage. More on that later, though: we start by navigating through the twists and turns of the garden centre until we reach the Selector Stage, where Paris-born DJ Donna Gibson has drawn a sizeable crowd with her selection of disco tunes. The rain’s holding off for now, and as George Benson’s “Give Me the Night” cascades out under the greenery we shed our jackets, jump on a bench and make like it’s 30 degrees on the Venice Beach Boardwalk.
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The disorientating topography of Hulme Community Garden Centre offers up some curious surprises as we continue to explore: there’s a tent full of market stalls selling crafted decor and jewellery, a caravan, a sand pit, and a “Taberna” that only seems to stock Licor 43 shooters at weirdly specific price points. The rain hits just as we enter the Marquee Stage, drawn by the charismatic presence of Migraine Mowgli. A local rapper whose flow is as connected as his audience, he comes across as almost impossibly likeable, constantly shouting out everybody apart from himself—his labelmates, random audience members, his producer Diligent Fingers (a name we never grow tired of hearing). By the end of his set, he’s got the whole crowd shouting “I’ve got a migraine!” to help raise awareness of his medical condition.
For a main stage Niamos can sometimes feel like an afterthought, tagged onto the rest of the festival – and it’s unfortunate that Azamiah plays to a relatively dispersed crowd. A four-piece from Glasgow, they take us to a very different place from Migraine Mowgli, playing jazz so laid-back it’s occasionally almost ambient. Lead singer India Blue is the obvious focal point here, but it’s the band’s intricately constructed instrumentation that works to allow her that space, providing a gently shifting groove over which her voice can swell and swoop. Blue Lab Beats put a different spin on things: their brand of nu jazz is often impressively technical, with even the sampling pad getting its own virtuosic solo.
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Speaking of fun instruments, it’s a thrill to see a sitar in the Marquee Stage: Karma Sheen look like they’ve stepped out of a Paul Thomas Anderson period drama, playfully combining moustaches and aviators, Indian ragas and psych rock for an enthralling hour of music. But it’s the Street Stage where everyone eventually gathers, even if only for the final half hour of DJ Paulette’s shamelessly crowd-pleasing set. She’s the first of Green Island’s “pioneers”; the other two, 808 State and A Guy Called Gerald, will close the Street Stage’s block party in July and September respectively. Most of this crowd were barely listening to nursery rhymes during Paulette’s 90s residency at the Haçienda, but for two hours we’re transported back to an era that’s presented here as sheer fun, a hedonistic phantasmagoria of everything from Groove Armada to Goldie. There are few surprises (though System of a Down makes an unexpected appearance), and that’s not the intention: as a DJ set for people who just want to let loose and party in a garden centre, it succeeds in every respect.
Green Island’s sell-out status shouldn’t shock anyone given just how well thought-out every element here is, from the arcadian, Alice-in-Wonderland experience of navigating the site’s twists and turns to the inclusive activities on offer. (We spot a lot of cheery kids in face paint.) But it still feels like a rare pleasure to see a festival do so well despite so firmly sticking to its community values. We need more events like this: locally rooted and run, packed with brilliant artists you’ve never heard of, and sited somewhere totally unique. Three Green Islands a year almost doesn’t feel enough.
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Words: Tom Kingsley
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