Unashamedly Underground
A big thanks to all those who came along to the launch party for our new strain Big Trip.
Held in a secret rural location in the South Downs National Park the venue was a beautiful wildlife garden which was perfect for our festival themed party.
The guest of honour was legendary British underground cartoonist Pete Loveday. As many of you know Pete is well-known for his character Russell who comically navigates a path through the mayhem of the 80’s & 90’s festival scene.
Now in his seventies Pete is a veteran of the heady days of free festivals like Stonehenge and the anarchic early Glastonbury’s.
We named the new strain Big Trip as a tribute to Pete who published Big Trip comics back in the day. Big Trip is a predominately sativa variety with a shorter finishing time and the yield potential of an indica. The best of both worlds you might say. It seemed to go down well on the night….
A spokesman from Freedom Seeds explained they had not released a new strain for over a year, “It needs to be very reliable and also outstanding in some way and then we have to make sure we do it justice when letting people know all about it”.
“We approached Pete Loveday a year ago and he said yes straight way, he would love to work with us. So he has been part of the whole process since then which is nice”.
All guests were given a glass of fizz as they entered the party and handed a goody bag. The goodies included a rolling tray, skins, stickers, a bong matt made from recycled car tyres and a complimentary pack of Big Trip. Pete was kept busy signing a lot of this stuff for people during the evening.
The garden was laid out into many different zones, an open area with tipi’s and log seats, or down a windy path to a circle of grass with a big Buddha statue under a tree hung with Tibetan prayer flags, very Zen.
The stage and a real ale & wine bar were arranged around a large fire pit in another zone deep among the trees.
As Headliner we were delighted to have celebrated slide guitarist Mike Messer. Mike teamed up with old band mate and long term collaborator Ed Genis and played a couple of hours of top class delta blues.
On the decks in between we had Jon Bewlay playing lots of cool reggae and throwing in a couple of mixes while still being part of the action.
Shrieks, shouts and cheers followed Steve, a close up magician, as he wandered around amazing and thrilling guests.
Hanging out with us were lots of interesting folk and I’d like to give a mention to some of the industry people particularly Amit, Penny, the crew from Weed World, Shiva Paul and the guys from Green in Worthing. The activists and campaigners; Simpa, Sy and Rocky. Not forgetting big fans of the ‘erb Chic and Jeff.
Most of all I’d like to say a massive thank you to Chrissy and the crew who made sure the whole event went off without a hitch and made it such a memorable night.
Onward and upward.