Bang Face
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Bang Face is a monthly event held at the Electrowerkz in Islington, North London. Founded by Saint Acid, it has been running since October 2003.
These events have grown in popularity during the course of its life. The event currently occupies three rooms of the Electrowerkz nightclub, which is located close to the Angel tube station.
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[edit] Music policy
Bang Face promoter Saint Acid states that the music policy is "an eclectic mix of styles... acid, rave, jungle, techno, electro, breakcore".[1]
Sometimes a few DJs have been known to play sets which are different to the styles they are known for. However, Saint Acid has clarified that the artists on these occasions were simply "getting into the party spirit" and playing to their audience's tastes:
A lot of the DJs and artists in the early days would get right into the spirit of the party and basically play raved up music when they’re known for different styles. That used to surprise people. People would ask “Where’s so and so?” and be told they’re on now. I guess now people want them to play in their signature style but ramp it up. So they see it as an excuse to crank up the BPM and that’s good as we end up with live sets that you probably wouldn’t see somewhere else."[2]
[edit] Events
To date, there have been 54 Bang Face parties, the most recent taking place during April 2008 over 3 days. The majority of Bang Face parties have been held at the Electrowerkz, but earlier venues have included Public Life, Medicine and Trafik. In addition, Bang Face Night was a highlight at the 2006 Glade Festival on 15/07/2006 with its "League of Spiritual Discovery" event. Approximately 2,000 ravers filling the circus Big top to capacity.
Bang Face's first three-day event, the Bang Face Weekender, also billed as "Neo-Rave Armageddon", was held at a 3500 capacity holiday camp in Camber Sands, East Sussex on 25-28 April 2008.[1]
Each event is themed to a particular occurrence or notable date in history and given its own subtitle to reflect this. For example, the Bang Face Weekender had a nuclear theme to mark the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Often these milestones are quite obscure, a good example being Bang Face's 41st party, subtitled "Bang Gang"
A cross-dressing Neo-Rave marking the World's first legal sex change operation in 1952...
However, some events are themed around milestones in the actual event, such as the "We are three" party which celebrated the parties' third birthday on 13/10/2006.
[edit] Ravers
The Ravers, often referred to as "Neo-Rave Generals" and "Hard Crew" are an integral part of the Bang Face parties. The Bang Face Hard Crew are listed on each flyer as one of the attractions of the night and are encouraged by the organisers to
Come masked up and Bring the toys!
in their promotional emails and to do so in the manner consistent with each themed event.
At the actual parties, the atmosphere generated is formidable to say the least. Mosh pits (which have been renamed by the regulars as "Mash Pits") are a frequent occurrence during the more popular sets which wouldn't normally warrant them if they were at other events.
To increase the atmosphere, bags of toys are distributed at regular intervals throughout the night. Often these include large paper signs with humorous slogans written on them, inflatable animals, whistles, masks and ravehorns and glowsticks. The paper signs are referred to as "Rave Banners" and the slogans are submitted each month via email by the Bang Face Hard Crew.
The walls of the venue are also adorned with illustrations that tend to reflect the theme of each event. Some areas of the venue are also consistently sub-themed to humorously reflect the type of activity that might take place there. The areas include "Chin Strokers Corner", "Casualties Corner" also know as "Mullered Corner" and "Voyeurs Corner", which is written in Franglais as "Corner de Voyeur".
As well as that, the Bang Face website also contains links to masks which are available for download, as well as instructions for construction to enable the ravers to bring them to the events themselves.
[edit] DJs
At every event, there are around 10 DJs listed to play out. These DJs are normally from a variety of different genres, consistent with Bang Face's music policy These sets compose of Live performances, complete with stage shows and performance art, as well as sets played entirely from a laptop computer, as well as regular DJ sets using vinyl or CD.
