Tribal Gathering

Tribal Gathering was a dance music festival that catered for different types of dance music cultures such as drum and bass, techno, rave and house.

History

The original promoters Universe (Paul Shurey, Rob Vega, Paul (Mr.Oz) Marlow and Ian Jenkinson) had been organising events since the heady days of 1989 when raves such as "Sunrise", "Raindance" and "Perception" were in their pomp. They wanted to organise an event to bring together the different sub-cultures of the dance world and also to have a festival feel to it.

The first Tribal Gathering took place Friday 30th April 1993 at Lower Pertwood Farm, Warminster, Wiltshire, England. 25,000 people attended to see acts such as diverse as Laurent Garnier, Carl Cox, Paul Oakenfold, Slipmatt and Pete Tong.

There were other events smaller scale events that took place in Europe in 1994. The Criminal Justice Bill of 1994 discouraged massive outdoor raves. Tribal Gathering teamed up with the Mean Fiddler organisation to organise a legal festival. This took place in May 1995, UK Tribal Gathering at Otmoor Park, Beckley, Oxfordshire. Headline acts included The Prodigy, Orbital and Moby

The 1996 version of the UK Tribal Gathering, took place in June at Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire with 30,000 turning up for to see sets by Leftfield, The Chemical Brothers, Black Grape, Goldie amongst others.

In 1997, at Luton Hoo, Kraftwerk were the headliners of the fesitval, playing for the first time in the UK since 1992. [ [http://www.physicsroom.org.nz/2cents/kraftwerk.htm 2 Cents: Kraftwerk, Tribal Gathering] (May 25, 1997). Retrieved on February 7 2007.] The show was a monumental success, despite the absence of any brand new studio material, since release of the album, "Electric Café" in 1986.

By 1998, the Tribal Gathering name had grown into a brand. There were albums, a TV Show and plans to establish events worldwide in the pipeline. However their things did not go to schedule and the 1998 event did not take place due to Universe and Mean Fiddler's legal battle of the Tribal Gathering name.

The Tribal Gathering name was revived in 2000 but on a smaller scale, at the Sankey's Soap club, Manchester. The "Tribal Sessions" event took place at the club with DJ's generally playing Acid House. In 2003 Tribal Gathering held the first legal warehouse party for over 10 years in a "secret" Manchester location, which turned out to be a warhouse previously used as a set for the movie 24 Hour Party People, in which it was decorated to replicate The Haçienda nightclub.

In 2004 the "Universe - World Techno Tribe" compilation CD was released on Rising High Records, compiled and mixed by Mr Oz it reached number 4 in the Gallup album charts. Subsequent CDs were later released on MMS records and FFRR.

In July 2005, a Tribal Gathering festival was organised, in aid of the war victims in Darfur, Sudan, to take place again at Luton Hoo but it was cancelled due to the terrorist attacks that took place on July 7th in London and poor ticket sales and promotion. Though in 2006 there was the "Love Leeds:Tribal Gathering" event at Lotherton Hall, Leeds May 2006.

References

External links

* [http://www.tribalgathering.co.uk/history.html Tribal Gathering's History]
* [http://www.wwb.be/Images/Picture_gallery/Tribal_Gathering1996/pages/flyer_jpg.htm Flyer for the 1996 Tribal Gathering event]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t54B5nyA-Oo&mode=related&search=kraftwerk%20%20 Kraftwerk live at Luton 1997]
* [http://www.funktion-one.com/tribal_2003.htm Tenth Anniversary Warehouse Party]