A Brief History of the Camden Crawl

A Brief History of the Camden Crawl

04 April, 2011
by: Uckfield99

Now in its tenth year, the Camden Crawl continues to enrich the legacy of North London...

Ask anyone you find hanging around outside of King’s Cross station what they think of Camden, and you’ll probably get some rambling reply that centres around markets, crap weed, Britpop and the Crawl. Despite the likes of Dalston, New Cross and Shoreditch getting in the Guardian Guide, it would seem that to most people living outside of the M25, Camden remains the best place in London if you want to check out who’s hot on the band scene.

It’s not always been like this. Back in the dark old days of the late ‘80s, Camden was just another post-industrial wasteland north of Euston. Yeah it had the Roundhouse and had enjoyed some notoriety thrown its way in the late punk era thanks to Scritti Politti and Madness, but apart from the odd pub rock band, it really had nothing to commend it. However, this all changed in 1992 when from almost out of nowhere, Britpop exploded. Almost overnight, Camden went from an unassuming collection of streets around the Lock market to the biggest thing to happen in British guitar music since punk. Gone were the market traders and weirdly dressed old men, and in were a bunch of Adidas-loving indie kids who all watched the Southbank Show and went on about bands like Blur, Suede and Kenicke.

It was at the height of the Britpop era that the Camden Crawl first entered the fray. The brainchild of Lisa Paulson and a couple of friends, the Camden Crawl was a lot more of an ad-hoc affair than it is now, with just a few bands playing a couple of pubs. Attracting more and more bands, the festival steadily grew during the late nineties, but as Britpop finally succumbed to bands like Papa Roach and Limp Bizkit, the festival began to decline, until it got to the point that the organisers felt that it was stupid to continue.

But in 2005 it relaunched on the back of Britain’s second indie renaissance, and today the Crawl has become one of Europe’s largest multi-venue festivals, with only the likes of SXSW and Primavera coming close to matching its consistently strong line-up and focus on emerging artists. Thanks to the international exposure it now enjoys, venues like Koko, The Barfly and The Electric Ballroom have become synonymous with British indie cool, and the area’s reputation for being the beating heart of the British alternative scene attracts legions of tourists every year. Don’t believe me, just stand outside Camden tube station on a Friday night and I’ll think you’ll see what I mean.

“I’ve been to the Crawl for the last few years,” Jonathan Simpson, Mayor of Camden, tells me with a visible amount of pride. “It’s something I look forward to every year. The Crawl’s evolved into this absolutely fantastic event which has a great, eclectic mix of new and established bands playing much smaller venues than they usually would – it’s fantastic to have it on the doorstep”. 

The emergence of similar events with the same wristband, bar-to-bar format shows the popularity that this type of event can gain, but somehow Camden seems to have a certain magic that keeps the Crawl a little bit ahead of the game. Mr Simpson has his own theories: “All these other events that are going on just don’t match the heritage that goes on in Camden, and the history.” 

It’s definitely a view that seems to be shared by a lot of people, including up-and-coming pop star CocknBullKid. “A lot began there,” she muses. “It was the epicentre for rock and roll in the ‘60s and if you travel further up the tree it progressed to indie and other more contemporary sounds. I definitely think there's a collective sense of relief when it gets to three in the morning and you realise you don't have a tent to pitch or find.”

Success has a habit of bringing its own problems though. With the expansion a two-day format and inclusion of a comedy festival back in 2007, many felt that the Crawl was becoming North London’s version of the Notting Hill Carnival, with all of the problems of street crime and loutish behaviour that comes with it. “It’s the type of event where they have a long dialogue with people in the area’, Mr Simpson explains. “They have discussions with the council about how it will all work and it does seem to work very well.’ So far they’ve managed to get away with it. Liquor may flow like the Thames, but the underlying climate of community injects that sense of festival love across the board, and people’s behaviour never crosses the line.    

2011 is looking like being the Crawl’s busiest year yet, which means that everyone’s goodwill, hard work and general community spirit will be to the fore once again. After all, it was this sense of pulling together that put Camden on the map in the first place. What the Crawl does is keep it there.

The Camden Crawl 2011 will take place between 30th April and 1st May. Tickets are available from here

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