Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business

Bloc to return with programme of parties

By | Published on Monday 4 February 2013

Bloc

The team behind the Bloc Festival have confirmed they have a new venture, though it will take the form of ten parties at a new venue in East London rather than a new festival.

As much previously reported, the company behind the popular holiday-park-based Bloc events went under last summer after an attempt to move their annual bash to London. The festival at the then brand new London Pleasure Gardens shut down just a few hours into its first night after over-crowding issues. The debacle forced both Bloc promoters Baselogic Productions and the London Pleasure Gardens itself into administration.

However, founders Alex Benson and George Hull are now planning to move beyond the shambles of 2012, and are hoping that the Bloc brand – after years of love from its core audience – can survive the fall out of last summer’s event, which left festival-goers relying on their band’s or credit card providers for refunds.

Last month a revamped Bloc website appeared promising new events incoming, with the existing Bloc Facebook page making a similar promise. And now that site is listing the planned parties. Of the new venture Benson and Hull told Resident Advisor in an interview last week: “It’s a really simple proposition – just a series of ten shows in a new studio venue featuring a selection of artists that we love. Some have played for us many times before, others are completely fresh, but they all represent something which has inspired Bloc in some way”.

Benson and Hull can seemingly continue to use the Bloc name, despite the demise of Baselogic, because they only ever licensed the use of the brand to their production outfit. Asked if they’d considered returning to the live scene under a new name, the founders said: “No, we’ve been doing this for ten years now. Putting on parties in strange places, then clubs, then a festival. Thanks to the support of our crew and the loyalty of our crowd, it evolved an identity of its own which went way beyond the people who started it – that’s the spirit we want to keep going. If it isn’t called Bloc, it won’t be Bloc. So many people have put so much energy into it for so long, that to just abandon it doesn’t seem right”.

You can read the full interview here.



READ MORE ABOUT: | |