9am. Alarm Clock. What day is it? Can I go back to sleep for an hour? Yeah probably, can’t think of anything I have to do today. Apart from find my phone so I can turn that alarm off. Hang on a minute. Where is my phone? It’s on the other side of my bedroom. What’s it doing there? Ah. A cunning 6am plan to get me out of bed when my alarm jingle-jangles at me in that too-happy-for-this-time-of-the-morning patronising way. Lucky I’m up, up and awake now. It’s only bloomin’ Oxjam day!
So, only having 3 hours sleep probably isn’t the best way to start the day. Any day. Let alone a day that you’ve been planning for nearly 5 months now. For today is the day that Oxjam Cardiff takeover Womanby Street, as part of Oxfam’s nationwide music festival. With 5 venues, 7 stages, over 40 bands, DJs, poets, comedians and rappers performing over 12 hours, plus a very special world record attempt, its set to be a pretty amazing day. It’s raining, but who cares, we’ll get everyone to do a sun dance.
With the car loaded up and on yet another empty stomach (since May I’ve had approximately 3 meals per week, an average of 4.2 hours sleep per night, and several small heart attacks), I head off to Womanby Street. Not running late, for a change!
However, it seems that all my years of tardiness have bitten me on the bum. I arrive at our core venue at 11am, as arranged, only to find that no-one is there, and all 3 managers aren’t answering their phones. Ah, the dangers of holding events on Sunday mornings. The event is scheduled to start at 2pm. Not a problem, I’ll keep on calling. And calling. And calling… We finally get in, two hours behind schedule and I’ve added a couple more small heart attacks to my collection. But the Oxjam Cardiff team are on top form and it’s all stations GO! Balloons are being blown up, banners hung, merchandise displayed, campaign stalls arranged, mics, PAs, decks, projectors, Toucan, wristband exchange, raffle prizes, Dempseys, cash tins, blu-tac, floats, guestlists, Clwb Ifor Bach, artists arriving, road signs, traffic cones, tea and coffee, where’s the milk?, Revolution, soggy socks, Y Fuwch Goch, volunteers, interviews, vintage clothes, cupcakes and belly aches. And breathe.
2pm. Ruffstylz begins his world record attempt for the longest ever freestyle rap, and special Oxfam Guest Speaker, Elvis Sukali arrives to open the show at Y Fuwch Goch. This is it. People are arriving, the sun is shining, we did it.
Now, to be honest with you, the next 12 hours are a bit of a blur. But a very happy blur. Rufftsylz smahed the world record for the longest ever freestyle rap at 17 hours! (It stood at 10 hours and 34 minutes). All of the bands turned up on time and played incredible sets, Samba Galez and Whistling Biscuits performed on the street which created a magical festival-feel, and the Oxjam Cardiff team raised nearly £2000 for Oxfam’s ‘Here & Now‘ climate change campaign. Not bad for 3 hours sleep.
Our Takeover poster - designed by Dan Scotcher Jones (line-up correct at time of printing)
A massive thank you to all of the volunteers who helped out in the lead-up to the festival and on the day, you were an integral part of my happy blur! Thanks to Clwb Ifor Bach, Y Fuwch Goch, Toucan, Dempseys and Revolution for being wonderful hosts. Thanks to the incredible Oxjam Cardiff volunteer team for all of your hard work over the past few months, I love you, probably a little bit too much. Thanks to all of the performers who played for free, without you, well, it would have been a bit rubbish really. And thanks to everyone who came along and were part of an incredible day, you’ve all helped to make a real difference to people’s lives. See you next year!
