Doncopolitan issue 2 - RoSY2.0 by Warren Draper

Issue 02

July 2014

MakE Your own future

PLUS: Old School Tattoos, Art Takeover, 1984, Lines of Desire & MapFest

Contents

Contributors

Editorial Rachel Horne

Art Takover Jesse Pagan

RoSY2.o Warren Draper

1984 Sam Batley

Pull-Out Lee Denham - Sacred Skin Tattoo Poster Lee Denham

Emily Rowley Makes Things an interview with Emily Rowley

Lines of Desire Steve Bates

Head Space, Heart Space, Art Space Guy Russell

Map Fest Simon Saynor

Writers Rachel Horne Jess Pagan Warren Draper Sam Batley Emily Rowley Steve Bates Guy Russell Simon Saynor Artwork Lee Denham Emily Rowley PermaFuture RS Ltd Photography Martin Pick Warren Draper Steve Bates John Fuller Mark Loraine Design Warren Draper Rachel Horne Editorial Team Rachel Horne Warren Draper Eva Wuestum Allanah Leak Martin Herron Glennie Bee With Special Thanks to: Right Up Our Street Andrew Loretto Doncaster Central Trust Arts Council England

Disclaimer The opinions expressed in each feature and article in the Doncopolitan are the opinions of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Doncopolitan. The editors and production team of the Doncopolitan accept no responsibility for the opinions expressed. Printed by Kingsbury Press, Unit 13/Durham Lane, Doncaster, DN3 3FE. Conceived and created by

Cover Art ÂŠLee Denham - Sacred Skin Doncaster, 2014 Photography left ÂŠMartin Pick, 2014

Horne & Draper art - design - publishing

EDITORIAL Rachel Horne

To be perfectly honest I’m still in disbelief that this magazine has been received so well by YOU, the good people of the Doncopolitan. This issue, the Republic of South Yorkshire Two Point Zero, or RoSY2.0 for short, asks the question - what would a town or city look like if it was designed by us, its visionaries? It doesn’t matter what your skill is - artist, writer, maker, designer, permaculturist, gardener, thinker, tinker or daydreamer - RoSY2.0 is about taking the metaphorical beast by its horns and thinking big. We’ll be hearing Warren Draper ask how RoSY2.0 could change the face of our little city, whilst Jess Pagan goes behind the scenes at the DNweekeND and reports on what happens when the artists take over. Young writer Sam Batley reflects on the lasting impact of the ‘84 Miners’ Strike, and the Doncopolitan asks crafter and maker Emily Rowley what she thinks would happen if she were ever to be let loose on the streets of Doncaster with a bag of tools. Photographer Steve Bates explores ‘desire lines’ and how we humans like to carve out poetic paths without noticing, and local music promoter Simon Saynor bigs up MapFest, which will see music venues across Doncaster hosting a plethora of live music and art in August. We also pick our favourite creative places that will hopefully help you on the road to realising your creative dream. With tattoo art being arguably Doncaster’s number one art form we couldn’t resist working with Lee Denhem of Sacred Skin. Although we may not have an art gallery on every

corner like Leeds and York, our fair town is packed with tattoo studios. People round here love getting inked. Lee is a specialist in Old School tattoo art and has created illustrations for this issues’ front cover, inner pages and centrefold. Historically similar to the anchor tattoo adopted by sailors, the miners’ lamp appeared on the forearms of hard-working miners battling against the elements in dangerous working condition. Even though most of the pits across Doncaster have closed, young Doncastrian lads have adopted this tradition in tribute to their fathers and grandfathers. With tattoo art dating back to the Ice Age, the symbolism behind this design will certainly get the juices of a few social anthropologists going. We, for one, are proud to see this counter- culture trend take its place in the tattoo art history books. Ultimately this issue brings together old and new worlds, from tattoo art to the miners’ strike, analysing the way we walk and reinventing the way we live. In the spirit of RoSY.20 let’s ink-up the streets - along with our forearms - and show all the haters there’s more to this little city than meets the eye.

ABOUT This magazine will big up anything which has the potential to add to Doncaster’s metropolitan appeal. We’ll celebrate Doncaster’s culture, arts, style, music, people, fashion, lifestyle, architecture and even, in the words of Warren Draper, "its coal black underbelly”. If you’re a local artist, musician, writer, photographer, fashionista, socialite or social commentator, and have something to contribute to this magazine, please get in touch. Online: doncopolitan.wordpress.com @TheLudicLife @rachelhorne Write to us: Doncopolitan Magazine Church View Centre Church View Doncaster DN1 1AF

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Art takEover. Jess Pagan

I was in luck. I was given a backstage pass to volunteer at DNweekeND, guiding passers-by to the various artists’ shows. Getting to work behind the scenes on a huge event meant I was able to meet the characters behind such a brilliant idea. They included the ever-smiling Andrew Loretto, creative producer, and Eva Wuestum, the colourful marketing manager, who spent the weekend running from stall to stall with boxes of programmes. I was supposed to be a runner, but I also became a balloon maker, stall putter-upper, shop decorator, table carrier and information goddess. I heard plenty of positive comments, particularly from parents and their young kids, about how great and vibrant it all was, how happy they were that there was something to do with the family and how fantastic it was that Doncaster was picking itself up and injecting some colour into the repetitive day to day. But it was the negative comments that threw me. People enjoyed letting off steam about the downfall of

Doncaster. I heard lectures on the state of Doncaster’s old buildings and the economy and how benefits are to blame for the town’s lack of life. As they stood there, we were showing them how the town is bringing itself together, and showing them the unknown groups of brilliant artists that haven’t been stifled by the supposed doom and gloom of our great little city. Artists incuded Making Sense, a familyoriented puppet-making, treasurehunting, foam-forte-making space that brought the kids back more than once over the weekend, the glorious spacepunk artists Pif-Paf who rode people past my outdoor stall in the most fantastical vehicles, the Doncaster College photography space, the Endless Doodle which encouraged passers-by to draw anything of their choice and managed to spread their doodles over the front of a whole shop space. I also saw the awesome Ukulele Orchestra and visited the SineFm broadcast vehicle where I could hear my friends singing over the rush of people walking past me and of course the launch of the very first Doncopolitan magazine at Sir Nigel Gresley Square!

Best of all I got to see the reaction of stunned passers-by, who had no idea about the project and were excited to find-out more. The DNweekND took place during the second weekend of May and brought together over 8000 people over the course of the arts festival. The event is part of Right Up Our Street which is led by a consortium of Doncaster Arts organisations, supported using public funding from the National Lottery through through the Arts Council England until 2016. Jess Pagan was a volunteer on the day.

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'Triangulate: An Exploration In Form' Sculpture by Mike Hesp created for the DNweekeND displayed at Waterdale. Photography ÂŠSteve Bates 2014

RoSY2.0 Warren Draper

“Regeneration involves seeing things as they could be, while resilience requires dealing with things as they are.” Ben Falk “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

Alice Walker

Doncaster was once, and should still be, one of the wealthiest regions in the UK. Essentially a collection of semi-rural towns surrounded by arable farmland nestled in a valley which provides one of the best microclimates in the north of England, the shops should be brimming with fresh, healthy local produce. With engineering and industrial traditions second to none, and with a large percentage of the population being from hardy mining stock, we should be able to build all the vital local infrastructure and industry we need for ourselves - and what we cannot create with our own hands can easily be shipped in via our fantastic transport links. In short, we should want for nothing. And yet Doncaster is still officially one of the most underprivileged regions in the UK. It is not the intention of this article to simply moan about our lot. In fact moaning is part of the problem, not the solution. We have a fatalistic tendency in Donny to think that if we moan hard enough and long enough then somehow things will change. But change will only come when we quit whining and start dreaming – and designing, and building, and planting, and growing, and bonding, and mending, and crafting, and all-round

making – our own future. The real premise of this article is to ask what are the changes we would like to see in Doncaster and throughout South Yorkshire? And, more importantly, how are we, the people of Doncaster in all our glorious diversity, going to make those changes happen? What if South Yorkshire were planned from the bottom-up instead of from the top-down? What if it were shaped by a diverse selection of permaculturalists, makers, artists, artisans, dreamers, bodgers, builders and doers from all walks of life? What if - together - we built a new South Yorkshire? The Republic of South Yorkshire version 2.0 - RoSY2.0. I’m not talking a ‘People’s Republic’ here, we don’t need any more ‘ideology’ (left or right), we just need a healthy boost of ‘I-do-ology’. Nor am I going to try to present a blueprint of what I think the future should look like, I’m just going to introduce some tools which we can use to help plan and build our own future on our own terms. The techniques, technologies and practices I’m going to outline are wide-reaching and diverse, but they are united by a single ethic – the DIY Culture. We’re all familiar with the concept of DIY with regard to home

improvements. Literally meaning “do it yourself,” the DIY ethic promotes the idea that absolutely anyone is capable of performing a wide variety of tasks if they put their mind to it and household DIY enthusiasts are well aware that doing things for yourself can save you a whole heap of money while rewarding you with new skills and the priceless satisfaction of being able to say: “I did that.” What’s true for home improvements is also true of the wider DIY community. A strong DIY ethos offers greater self-reliance, resilience and sustainability at both an individual and a community level – it also saves you a shed load of money. One of the DIY culture’s most interesting spin-offs is the Maker Culture which has taken on a life of its own in recent years. Maker Culture focuses largely on new and emerging technologies such as 3D printing, laser cutting and CNC milling, as well as computer based projects including coding, Free Open Source Software, digital art & design and the use of ARM-based computers such as the Arduino or Raspberry Pi. What we’re seeing emerging from Maker Culture is the ability to design, prototype and manufacture an incredible array of items on a hyper-

Plan for a Market Garden Housing Estate ÂŠPermaFuture RS Ltd, 2012

local scale, bypassing the need for large factories and highly centralised business practices. In other words it puts manufacturing power back in the hands of everyday people. The most interesting aspect of Maker Culture as far as RoSY2.0 is concerned is the emergence of the Maker Space. Maker Spaces (sometimes known as Hackerspaces) are community operated workshops where people with common interests can meet in order to socialise and collaborate on a wide range of projects. The Doncaster Maker Group (donnymakers.org) have been busy building a Doncaster Maker Space. Having no money themselves the DMG decided to build their Maker Space almost completely from scratch (and scrap) to show just what could be done with the skills and resources that already exist in Doncaster. There’s a whole range of hidden and untapped creative talent in our communities and local waste-streams offer treasure and opportunity to the inventive mind. The DMG also want to emphasise the fact that the principles, practices and techniques of the Maker Culture can also be applied to just about every other aspect of everyday life; from food to fuel, shelter to sanitation, the Maker ethos allows us to take care of vital needs at both an individual and at a community level. To help broaden their skill-base the Doncaster Maker Group have combined Maker Culture with permaculture (permaculture.org.uk). The word ‘permaculture’ was first coined by Australian designers Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and comes from ‘permanent agriculture’ and ‘permanent culture’. In the words of Bill Mollison: “Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labour; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system.” In practice this involves looking at natural ecological systems and using them to design sustainable human systems. The most obvious area of ecological inspired design is,

of course, food production and the most famous example of permaculture is the forest garden where plants are grown in a natural multi-level environment. This is not as intensive as traditional agriculture, but the yields are more diverse and once the initial work is done it is much lower maintenance. The Doncaster Maker Group work closely with Doncaster Urban Growers (as mentioned in the Greenjacker article in issue one of the Doncopolitan) to create a range of local permaculture based growing initiatives. Permaculture principles and practices can also be be applied to virtually any area of human activity and on any scale. PermaFuture, a local social enterprise who specialise in identifying underused resources such as waste-streams or neglected land and developing ways to turn them into valuable community assets, have come up with a plan for a Market Garden Housing Estate based on the permaculture zoning system where the straw-bale houses (built using locally grown straw) even include Maker Space style workshops so people can develop their own self-sustaining micro enterprises. Moving up a level the Transition Town movement (transitionnetwork.org) uses permaculture principles to enable whole towns to rebuild resilience and reduce CO2 emissions in the face of global fossil fuel depletion and climate change. The ability to produce more locally also allows us to trade more locally, which places many aspects of the economy back in the control of local people. Money spent with locally owned companies stays in local circulation for much longer than money traded with national (or international) companies. The addition of a local currency such as the Bristol Pound or the newly emerging HullCoin (which, being a cryptocurrency, is different from traditional local currency because it actually adds value to the local economy by mining Bitcoins – see bitcoin.org) gives the local economy even greater levels of autonomy and resilience at a time when the focus of

the national economy is getting ever narrower and more London-centric. What is true of the local economy is also true for local democracy. The strength of Doncaster’s former mining communities came from their ability to organised autonomously to ensure that the community’s needs were met. The collapse of mining in Doncaster, combined with the ongoing (again Londoncentric) centralisation of political power, has left our communities vulnerable and without adequate political representation. As ex-CIA officer Robert David Steele says: “Our entire commercial, diplomatic, and informational systems are now cancerous.” But Steele is not without optimism, his ground-breaking book ‘The Open-Source Everything Manifesto’ offers real alternatives which can be built by all of us from the ground up. In the same way the Doncaster Maker Group believe that Maker Culture can be extended to all aspects of modern life, Steele shows that the widespread application of Open-Source thinking can bring about revolutionary change. Open-Source is the opposite to enclosed proprietary systems where corporations and governments jealously guard ideas, technologies and information just to ensure greater profits or power. OpenSource makes ideas and techniques available to everyone so that they can be developed by humanity as a whole. In Steele’s words: “The open source ecology is made up of a wide range of opens – open farm technology, open source software, open hardware, open networks, open money, open small business technology, open patents – to name just a few.” So RoSY2.0 would be an Open-Source Maker Republic shaped and controlled by the needs, dreams and desires of the people of South Yorkshire for the direct benefit of the people of South Yorkshire. If this sounds like your kinda town then why not join us? The sooner we get cracking the sooner we get there.

End

Planting during an 'Introduction to Permaculture' weekend in Woodlands. Photography ÂŠWarren Draper, 2014

1984 Sam Batley

The importance of the 1984 Miner’s Strike remains, though young people in the Doncaster area may not know or care what happened thirty years ago. If the young knew this area was once a prosperous industrial town, as opposed to a Chav kingdom of the “’Ere mate - ya got 10p for bus t’Stainy?” variety, it might instill some respect for the place. I’m not expecting to completely turn heads here but, if the working ethos of the miners was remembered, then maybe pride rather than disrespect would be handed down. If our region bands together, with the pride of a town's previous life, then perhaps we will be able to start rebuilding the communities that suffered under the pit-closure program. What were the miners fighting for? Why didn’t they go back to work and earn money instead of going without it? What the miners were fighting for 30 years ago wasn’t about the security of their own jobs but the security of their sons' and grandsons' jobs.

The preservation of a society and community that worked in harmony was worth the fight and worth going without pay - even if that became a year long battle with a bitter end. What has been lost in the succeeding years is the idea of unity. For many people, the closure of the pits ripped out the heart of this area and took with it the solidarity and community spirit.

National Union of Mineworkers. When I learnt about what happened I felt a huge injustice - what if things had gone the other way? This year marks the strike’s 30th anniversary and many South Yorkshire pit villages have been organising marches and community events, to allow us young ones to see what pit village life was all about.

You may find it odd that I have this interest; as a 23 year old, born six years after the strike had finished.

Attending an event in Goldthorpe, a place now seen as a poverty stricken Chav Town, I witnessed people march through the streets commemorating the brave men and women of the strike. I felt a huge amount of pride walking alongside them, a sense of pride I think anyone with a soul would get. Seeing the banners and hearing the brass bands and stories of solidarity, you can’ t help see the unity they had.

I was brought up in a pit village and live in one now. There are still glimpses of that bygone world, whether it is a wink from an old boy in the pub or the blackened soil of the pit-tip wasteland. My dad was also a miner and heavily involved with the

Although the pit has gone, the spirit of 1984 still endures. If this feeling is shared it will remain and the younger generation will know they stand on the shoulders of proud Yorkshire people and that they are worthy of much more.

We may never get these times back, but we can try our best to understand those that were there and why they endured the longest fight of their life. And I bet when you hear them reminisce, they will say: ‘We did it for you, lad.’

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Photography ÂŠKatailin Arkell, reportdigital.co.uk 2014

ÂŠLee Denham - Sacred Ink 2014

EMILY ROWLEY MAKES THINGS. Emily Rowley is a lecturer and avid maker whose work is sold at galleries across the UK and includes drawing, print-making, textiles and ceramics. She’s inspired by people and animals, creating imaginary characters who sometimes, but not always, are a bit naked. Rowley, can I pick your brains? What’s inspired you too become a maker? That’s ok. Nothing but the need to make made me a maker. I can’t not do it - I’ve tried, I got fed up of having a house full of tools and supplies. So I decided to quit, but it lasted about an hour! So you’re obsessed with making stuff? What would happen if we let you and your tools loose on the streets for Doncaster? I suppose I am a bit obsessed. Being a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, I get a bit stressed out by things I can’t try and do myself, then I become obsessed by learning how it’s done. If I had anything to do with the planning of this town, it’d all be a bit higgledy-piggledy and ramshackle. Swinging handmade shop signs and stuff spilling out onto the street. I’m not a fan of a clean-cut designer shop. Too intimidating! It would be bright and cluttered I should think. Curiosity in every nook and cranny!

Local music scenester Ash Carr suggested Doncaster should have a gold statue of Devvo. You know one of the creators of Devvo, David Firth, what are your thoughts on that? And what would David think? Well, I know Christian, who played Devvo, and I don’t think he’d mind me saying he’s a fan of my figures, so perhaps he’d like one made in my style, all hanging out! David is tricky to read, he’s very modest and raised his eyebrows when I once asked him to sign one of his Salad Fingers figures he had given me. ‘You mean like on my credit card?’ was his response. I think he’d find it amusing and baffling. I’m sure he’d be quite proud too!         Going back to your original point about things spilling out onto the streets, Doncaster is very reserved when it comes to its walls (not much street art) but when it comes to tattoos many Doncasterians are covered, why do you think Doncaster digs tattoos so much and do you have any?           I was just saying the other day how boring that massive, curved blank wall at the Interchange is. Can you imagine how ace one of Phlegm’s paintings would be up there! What a waste! I don’t have any tattoos myself, simply because I am a wimp. I love other peoples though. Especial ones with a ‘foolish when I was younger’ story attached. I used to live with a tattooist

and if I didn’t get one then, I suppose I never will. And my mum would kill me! I suppose Doncaster loves them because we’ve always had a busy alternative scene and in this drab town creative people will do their best to make it more interesting.       Agreed. Donny’s full of creative people and creative exports. You’ve got a massive following on Facebook, how did you get so many fans? And also, what’s your advice to any inspiring makers wanting to get noticed?           It’s crazy isn’t it? The weird thing is the number of Iranians that like it. My biggest following! It’s an accumulation thing, if one person likes your page, and they have 20,000 likers, the number can shoot up overnight. Plus I try to add something new, even if it’s just a doodle, quite regularly to remind people I’m there. Selling on Etsy and being featured in one of their Etsy finds was the first big boost I think. I’d encourage anyone to do craft fairs and get their stuff in as many galleries in as many towns and countries as possible. There is no bigger motivation and confidence boost than selling something. Then the support base just builds up!       You can catch Emily’s work at the New Fringe art show at Church View until Saturday the 12thof July. www.emilyrowley.co.uk

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'Fishmonger' ÂŠEmily Rowley, 2014

LINES of DESIRE. Steve Bates Lines of desire. They’re everywhere. You’ve probably used one today. They’ve always been there, although sometimes they come and go with the seasons. They don’t really have a name. And nobody knows who made them... The truth is that WE made them. And we should be proud of that. You’re probably wondering what the hell I’m going on about, aren’t you? That shortcut to the shops. The cut through across the playing fields. Missing off the corner of the grass verge by the bus stop. Squeezing through the hedgerow instead of going the long way round. This is where our built environment lets us down. Where human needs and nature are ignored. Where the planners get it wrong, where they ignore their human nature. We all naturally look for the easiest route, the simplest way. So why do planners introduce blockages to our everyday lives and routines? Sitting

in their ivory towers, maybe hundreds of miles away...a fence here, a hedge there, a patch of grass designed to interrupt our natural progress. But there are planners who are a bit more in tune with human nature... I was once told about a Swedish architect who had designed a brand new university campus for a city in Sweden with many different buildings housing the faculties, student accommodation, admin functions etc. On the day of the grand opening, the mayor of the city was surprised to find no paths between any of the buildings. Instead the whole area had been grassed over. He questioned the architect why there were no paths marked out and was told that the students were going to

design the paths and that he should come back in a few months to see the results. Intrigued to see what the architect meant, the mayor returned a few months later and found that the students had literally voted with their feet and worn away the grass as they moved between the buildings, creating natural paths exactly where they were required - the architect then intended to replace the worn earth paths with paving. A great example of people creating an environment that exactly matches their needs. It would be fantastic if more planners took this approach or applied it retrospectively. You can see these desire lines everywhere but one of my favourites appears each year on Town Fields. Obviously many residents of Intake and Town Moor paid attention during trigonometry classes and have worked Photography ©Steve Bates, 2014

out that the length of the hypotenuse is less that the sum of the other two sides of the triangle. So they ignore the paths kindly provided by DMBC and cut straight across the Fields.

Search for “desire line” or “desire path” on Instagram, Flickr, Google for more images...hell, there’s even Facebook groups devoted to them!

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The desire line runs for a couple of hundred yards and crosses rugby and football pitches. The thing that caught my eye was that, although the line is relatively straight, as it heads past the goalposts it takes a small but unnecessary diversion and suddenly kinks to take the path between the posts in what I can only think is some subconscious urge shared by hundreds of people to score that winning goal in the cup final!

FIND SOME HEAD SPACE . Guy Russell

There are spaces all over Doncaster where exciting things are happening... and, more importantly, where YOU can make exciting things happen... here are just a few of those places... Church View Centre Doncaster Central Development Trust, Church View, DN1 1AF One of Doncaster’s most established creative venues. This month you can catch the New Fringe art show featuring over 100 pieces of work, the show closes on July 12. The Church View writers meet here once a month and the Doncaster Makers are around most Thursday evenings. If you have an interest in art, writing, exhibiting or generally want to change the world Church View Centre has an open door policy and it’s a good place to start. www.church-view.org General Enquiries: 01302 376837 Facebook: ChurchViewCentre

Sine FM 53 Netherhall Road, Doncaster, DN1 2PG Do you love music? Would you like to learn more about the music industry? SineFm is a multi-award winning not-for profit organization aimed at helping and supporting musicians across Doncaster. You can become one of the many Sinefm radio presenters promoting the music you love and make your first step on the ladder to a career in the music industry. Tune in on 102.6 Sinefm. It features a cross section of genres and programmes from Hip Hop, R’n’B, Jazz, Indie, Dance, Reggae as well as chat and comedy shows. If you want to get your music heard by music industry professionals then Music Bomb maybe the project to you. To take part submit one original track about music, and why you love music. You will get the opportunity to have your track recorded, released, get airplay and you’ll have to chance to perform at Cast too. www.sinefm.co.uk Facebook Sinefm Twitter @sinefm

Doncaster Little Theatre 1E Laith Gate, Doncaster, DN1 1JD This little blue building tucked away opposite Relish offers high quality entertainment for people on a tight budget. DLT puts on a variety of entertainment such as comedy gigs, bands, films, musicals, and theatre performances. Tickets start at £6 with most opening nights being buy one get one free. The Little Theatre offers anyone of any age and experience the chance to get involved - on stage, backstage, front of house, even in the admin of the theatre. Want a career on the stage? Become a volunteer and make your first step on the ladder to showbiz. www.doncasterlittletheatre.co.uk Box office (open 4-8pm daily) 01302 340422 Facebook doncasterlittletheatre Twitter @little_theatre Woolpack Live 32 Market Place, Doncaster, DN1 1NE This is the go to place if you love sport and live music, with live gigs and DJs all weekend. Venue manager Russ Graham is particular keen to promote Doncaster’s growing music scene and

has installed at phenomenal sound and recording system, meaning acts can rock-up on the night with a USB stick and bag themselves a FREE live recording. All sound is recorded on different channels, allowing for postproduction editing without the cost of studio hire. In a nutshell, play the Woolpack and walk away with your very own live EP! Facebook: woolpacklive The Point The Point, 16 South Parade, Doncaster, DN1 2DR The Point is home to Doncaster Community Arts on South Parade near the town centre. There is an exhibition space, café, workshop space and recently refurbished garden. Well worth a potter round to see a new exhibition, grab a cup of tea and find out how to get involved. 01302 341662 www.thepoint.org.uk Facebook: dartatthepoint Twitter @darts_ThePoint Lord Hurst’s 2 Bennetthorpe, Doncaster, DN2 6AD When creative minds need somewhere to hang out and unwind this is the place to go. Lord Hurst’s offers beautiful homemade cakes and sandwiches, perfect for afternoon tea. The entire venue is beautifully adorned with antiques and vintage furniture, the building is so creative you can’t help but be inspired by visiting. What’s more this little venue puts Doncaster on the café culture map and is certainly as good if not better than the tearooms of Hampstead and Primrose Hill. If you are looking to hire a venue for a special occasion look no further, the staff here can’t do enough to make your event unique whether a wedding, dinner party, exhibition, seminar or social event, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. 01302 322004

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Th e Venue f or people who care a bout quality live music a nd sport 3 2 M a r k e t p l ac e s i lv e r s t e n t r a n c e

* L ive b a n d s eve r y we e k e n d * M ulti ple H D sc re e n s in sid e & o ut * R oo f t e r r a c e & o ut d oor sm o k in g & vie win g a re a s * F ive b o t tle s for a t e nn e r & p int o f C a rlsb e rg ÂŁ 2 . 0 0 * E xcl usive ho me o f V ulc a n B o mb e r b e e r * L ate bar

MAP FEST. Simon Saynor

Festivals. I love them. (Glastonbury ’89 is still talked about in hushed voices as ‘THE’ festival. I came away with a waistcoat suntan and a bodhran). I’ve dipped in and out since then, few more Glastonbury’s, Cropredy, Isle Of Wight a V or two and my most recent one Leeds 2012. I loved it but there’s no denying after a weekend attempting to sleep on what felt like a cobbled street, surrounded by the Crimean War and having to…. actually, let’s not talk about the toilets, I was ready for a bath, followed by a shower, a proper bed and something else to eat other than tempura. Don’t get me wrong, as I said I love festivals. I love camping. I love the camaraderie feel of a festival. I love the music. But maybe it’s the negatives (lack of sleep and general griminess) that have led to the huge increase in city festivals. Tramlines in Sheffield is now one of the biggest festivals in Europe with over 80 venues involved and well over a 1000 acts playing over the weekend. And

you get to use proper toilets and sleep in a bed. The City festival is not a new concept but more and more are springing up every year and no selfrespecting city/town/village gets by without throwing a festival. Doncaster is no exception with MapFest about to celebrate it’s third year (August 29th and 30th). MapFest came about in 2012 when a group of venue managers, promoters and musicians put in a tender to run Doncaster Live only to be knocked back by the incumbent Mayor without their proposal being given serious consideration. With a let’s-do-theshow-right-here attitude MapFest was born – a festival for Music And People – MAP. Get it? Oh and they printed maps of Donny listing all participating venues and acts. 17 venues with over 80 acts playing all on one sunny day in August with no less than Charlotte Church headlining at The Leopard.

Each venue was a designated stage for the day. Vintage RockBar – Rock Stage, The Hallcross – Acoustic Stage, Cask Corner – Blues Stage, White Swan – Folk Stage, Leopard and Social – Indie Stages, Masons – R ‘n’ B Stage etc. The day was a massive success with people from all over the region flocking to Doncaster town centre. Not only was the best in local talent on display, and every musician in Doncaster worth mentioning played somewhere, some more than once – I’m looking at you Rita Payne and James Taplin – but bands travelled from all over to play Donny. It put Doncaster on the map, pun intended. As already mentioned Charlotte Church braved the unique decorative style of the Leopard dressing room as well as Tom Hingley (Inspiral Carpets), Miles Hunt (The Wonderstuff), Chris Helme (The Seahorses), Paper Aeroplanes, Sunshine Underground all taking to stages across Doncaster.

The first MapFest was even nominated in 6 categories at the annual festival awards. 2013 seemed on reflection a much quieter year for MapFest due to issues with a PR firm reneging on their deal only two weeks before the festival but all venues still reported record turnouts. It seemed the people of Doncaster were keen on the idea. Plenty of venues still have quality music to offer every week but MapFest is when it all comes together. The pubs and venues of Donny all pulling in the same direction to put on something that Doncaster can be justifiably proud of. There’s something for everyone, punk, blues, folk, rock, r ‘n’ b, indie, acoustic sessions, DJ sessions, a family stage, covers bands. Meetings have already started to make this year’s MapFest the biggest yet. Doncaster has a thriving music scene. MapFest is the icing on the cake. Support it.

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