Folkestone will be hosting a festival of Ska music which will see the coming together of many Ska bands and DJ’s over the weekend of 3rd, 4th and 5th September 2010. A resurgence in Ska as a music and fashion genre will attract fans old and new to the “Folkestone Skabour Festival” which includes many free gigs at the harbour-front in addition to headline acts at venues across the town.

John Sims, a leading light in Ska culture and graphic designer behind the black and white imagery that represented 2-Tone and bands such as The Specials, The Beat and Madness, is the key organiser of this event.

John (aka Teflon), has recently taken his “This ART 2-Tone” exhibition of his iconic designs to Margate, Brighton and the “‘Holy Grail of 2-Tone’, Coventry. This has culminated in two very successful mini exhibitions in London and New York.

In contemplating repeating the venture in his home town of Folkestone, Teflon inspired three local friends with event organisation and business backgrounds, all music lovers (and two of the three musicians themselves) to help bring some live Ska music to the town to support the This ART 2-Tone event.

Skabour will be the first major music event since Folkestone became connected by high speed rail making the journey time by train in less than an hour from central London. Many talented musicians of international standard in addition to artists and creative designers have now made Folkestone their home.

Folkestone has been receiving press attention in relation to its art led regeneration efforts including the Folkestone Triennial exhibition of contemporary and conceptual art. The next Triennial will take place over the summer of 2011. What is less well known outside of the town is that it has developed a thriving home talent of live music and has a new performing arts centre, Quarterhouse, situated in the regenerated Creative Quarter which will host the festival’s major headline acts.

John/Teflon says “once the word was out, we were overwhelmed with the response from Ska bands, DJ’s, fans, scooter clubs and the general public. Folkestone Skabour will be THE Ska music event on this year’s calendar. Many of the gigs will be free to attend and the concept is to do this for the love of the music rather than money”

To find out more about the line-up and the rest of the weekend activities planned, the Folkestone Skabour Festival website can be found at www.folkestoneskabourfestival.co.uk.

Further information: A press launch will take place at “The Bar Below” on Tuesday 2^nd June, 2010 over two sessions. From 2.00pm to 3.00pm and an early evening event from 5.00 to 6.00pm followed by a Ska DJ set. The line up of the festival will be announced at the press launch.

Press launch venue details:

The Bar Below at Le View

6-8 Aspen House, West Terrace, Folkestone, Kent CT20 1TH
01303 241 688

www.theviewfolkestone.co.uk

Press Contact details:

Trevor Moss:

Tel: 01303 254323

Mbl: 07847 306065

Email: trevorbmoss@btinternet.com

John Sims:

Tel: 01303 894892

Mbl: 07976934882

Email: john@picturethisdesign.co.uk

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Tags: art, bands, culture, festival, folkestone, Gigs, musicians, performance, Quarterhouse

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 28th, 2010 at 5:13 am and is filed under Exhibitions & Events, Gigs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.