Back to All Events

Woodbridge Festival presents: Warm-up and pre-Carnival Sound Clash Celebration


  • EartH EartH, 13-17 Stoke Newington Road London, England, N16 8BH United Kingdom (map)

Aswad - Q&A and 3D playback

Black Obsidian Sound System - London

Daddy Turbo, Asanti, RastaYard - Ipswich

Open Src Music presents OGR (Ital Rockers) - Leeds

Host DJ Ben Osborne (Noise of Art) and visuals by Your Mum

EartH, 13-17 Stoke Newington Road, London N16 8BH. 6.30pm-1am Tickets: earthackney.co.uk  from Dice £5

On Saturday 26th August - the day before Notting Hill Carnival - Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music presents a warm-up session to celebrate 40 years since Aswad's seminal UK reggae LP "Live & Direct" was recorded at Notting Hill Carnival in 1983.

The night, part of a summer long celebration of Windrush 75, also kicks off 2023's Woodbridge Festival week of events in Suffolk - running from 30 August, with a flag ship weekend in the town park on 1 and 2 September. It celebrates the UK's far flung and deep-rooted Sound System culture - not least Ipswich’s own Sound Systems, which stretch back to the 1960s.

With systems from London, Leeds and Ipswich taking part, EartH's state of the art 3D sound system will show-case new live Aswad recordings, remixed as cutting-edge 3 Dimensional spatial mixes for the venues in-built L-Isa sound system, with specially commissioned visuals by Your Mum.

Suffolks' underground Sound System culture, which goes back to the 1960s, is represented by members of Ashanti, Daddy Turbo and RastaYard.

Leeds, London and Suffolk based label and hip hop collective Open Src Music, will present new set of bass music with Leeds MC OGR (Ital Rockers) live.  DJ Sham will be representing Brixton’s Turner Prize nominated Trans/ non-binary sound system, B.O.S.S, who build on the culture’s message of liberation and freedom. Plus more to be announced.

Woodbridge Festival chair, Naomi Drown, says: "We're thrilled to be celebrating the recording of Aswad's iconic live reggae album, Live and Direct, almost 40 years to the day. And we will be marking the occasion by using cutting edge technology to make hyper-real mixes of new live recordings. We're also delighted to host a warm-up for Woodbridge Festival at EartH and to have so many sound systems from Ipswich taking part, as well as from London and Leeds."

The festival is grateful for support from DLUCH Windrush Day 75 Grant.