Words: Sean Johnson
On 19th October, Sheffield promoters Jarred Up are set to embark on their biggest line up yet, and on an autumnal afternoon at The Rutland Arms, Jarred Up founder James Watkins discussed plans for their very first festival,
Right then, so for those who still haven’t heard – who are Jarred Up?
Jarred Up is essentially a creative organisation comprised of Jarred Up Presents, which hosts and promotes shows, mainly in Sheffield.
Then we’ve got the record label where we have a few bands from Sheffield, and we focus on promoting their music.
We also run a magazine, which is something very much still in the works, as well as the Arts Lab, which is the more community based aspect of Jarred Up. All of the money from the Arts Lab goes back into the community events.
And that’s where the open mic night stuff comes in. These are the main events that run through the community events side of things.
But in terms of the festival, this is all Jarred Up Presents, the first of its kind! It’s the first festival we’ve ever organised.
What’s going down with Jarred Up Festival?
It feels crazy ambitious. I mean, we’ve been putting on shows in Sheffield for years now, but we’ve never run our own festival. Obviously, we’ve done all day events, like the Tramlines Fringe shows at Sidney and Matilda and Shakespeares, but never our own standalone festival.
The festival will take place at Sidney and Matilda on 19th October and will feature the venue’s new 250 cap room. Early-bird tickets are sold out and we’re currently on Tier 1 tickets, which are set at £25.
We’ve got roughly 30 acts coming to perform, from all over the UK, elsewhere in Europe, Australia and some local Sheffield bands you might’ve seen before.
I should also mention that we’ve got Pom Poko playing a warm up show the day before in the main stage room. It’s separate to the actual festival, but we really want to get people ready for the next day.
You’ve got artists on in the main room, the basement room and the factory room upstairs, with all three rooms running simultaneously.
The event will run from 4pm-4am, with music being performed constantly throughout.
We’ve got DZ Deathrays coming from Australia to headline the main room, who are one of the biggest bookings we’ve ever made. To be fair, I’m really excited!.
We’ve also got Hotel Lux headlining in the basement room, as well as Cooper T and Home Counties coming through.
Duvet from Manchester are also on the lineup, as well as Cucamaras from Nottingham.
There will also be a range of local bands, such as Femur, Nervous Pills, Shelley Byron and Flat Stanley.
We’ve also got Tuned In coming through, who are another Sheffield promotions group. They’ll be running the Factory room upstairs. Von Vella will be headlining that stage. We’ve partnered with Tuned In in the past, so we wanted to get them in for our biggest event yet.
What can audiences expect from the event?
It’s an interesting one. I think, with everything we do at Jarred Up, there’s always a big element of punk. There’s always people that want to be loud. We want people who are gonna get the crowds moshing and having fun.
We always build up our events progressively throughout the day. We never normally start the day off with like, huge energy, it’s not constant chaos throughout. We ease people into it.
The early acts we’ve got on are the more psychedelic bands, like Shelley Byron, and then Sister Wives, another local Sheffield band.
It’s going to start off a bit chilled out. No crazy punk bands or anything early in the day, and then it gets progressively more and more intense.
I mean, that’s not to stay we’re not starting things off without a bang, there’s gonna be some proper in your face stuff at early doors.
Flat Stanley, who hit loud, are starting off early and, oh! How can I forget? Nervous Pills are kicking off at the Gallery Stage.
And then, as the day goes on, it kind of wraps up with more and more energy. Yeah man, there’s definitely something for everyone on the festival.
I wouldn’t say there’s one particular style that is more pronounced than the other. The thing we always say at Jarred Up, is that we never put anything on that is too poppy or indie. Everything we do is slightly off centre, a bit alternative.
We’re also delving into Hip Hop and Rap, like Cooper T, who has elements of the genre. It’s a style we’ve been working on from past events when showcasing artists like Muccarelli and Yusuf Yellow, as well as Mickey Nomimono, who fits that style on a line up really well.
We’re always genre varied with our line ups. Everything is pretty much run around an alternative community. I like to think, when you come to a Jarred Up show, sometimes you never know what to expect, but you just know it’s going to be good.
To summarise the vibe, I’ll put it this way – whatever you’re into, I think you could come to the festival, or any Jarred Up show and walk away with something.
Even if you thought, ‘oh, that wasn’t my kinda thing, but I can still appreciate the band and the atmosphere’, if you get me.
“With the festival, in particular, we’ve ensured that there’s something for everyone”.
Lately, it seems like there’s been a lot of work going on at Sindey and Matilda – how are the vibes?
The kind of music that we host at Sidney and Matilda is very diverse. There’s every single genre you could possibly think, it’s not a set thing.
However, in terms of the layout, a lot has changed over the past year or so. The venue’s now a lot bigger and we’ve moved the bar, so we can accommodate the new main room. We’ve got a sick outdoor space with the courtyard.
It’s great because, at times, you’ll have a lot of different things going on, like different gigs running under different promoters simultaneously, but everyone kinda comes together in the courtyard or bar area.
It’s something we’re really proud of, there’s this real coming together, mesh of scenes vibe.
We’re also programming more late night events. These involve collaboration nights, with people like Mondo Radio, Footprints Jazz Club, Steel Dancing, Funky Drummer – the list goes on, man!
Really, everyone and anyone that’s up for working with us, coming up with original, creative ideas, we’re very much up for it.
Tickets for the Jarred Up Festival are available to purchase on Sidney and Matilda’s website. https://www.sidneyandmatilda.com/events/jarred-up-festival
