The end of April saw the very first Test Pressing festival come to Tottenham. This is the first time in recent years that a number of venues across Tottenham have hosted a music festival. Test Pressing was organised by LNZRT, Bad Vibrations, SC&P. We popped down to the event which was was hosted at Five Miles, The Cove and Bones & Pearl on Markfield Road, Clouds & Horse on Fountayne Road, and Styx, The Cause and Grow on Ashley Road. There were also some local food vendors and we enjoyed a batch of Soffles’ Pitta Chip nachos – the spicey beans were the bomb! We even snuck off for a sneaky mid event esspresso martini at Craving Coffee.

Ahead of Test Pressing we caught up with one of the promoters, Jamal Guthrie of LNZRT, to chat about the programme. We can confirm that we weren’t disappointed. Metz played at Styx and the ex ambulance repair depot was full with people spilling out onto the decking at the front. We caught glimpses of feet in the air with people crowd-surfing across the venue. It was clear that people had come from across London to check out the festival and we saw a few familiar faces as well. Our night was completed by heading to The Cause until the early hours.

What gave you the idea for Test Pressing Festival in Tottenham?

A couple of us had previously lived in or were about to move into the area and our day jobs revolve largely around programming live music, club nights, film, comedy and other events in interesting small to mid sized venues across London. The steady rise of new spaces cropping up in Tottenham over the last couple of years such as Five Miles and Styx alerted us to the the fact that there was a little cluster about to form – a bit of a circuit geographically. We’re always excited about putting events on in new places and an all dayer like this allows us to put on as many different type of acts as possible in what is hopefully somewhat of a coherent way.

Why did you decide to get involved?

We all work together on other projects so it made sense.

What are you hoping attendees will experience at the event?

We’re hoping it’ll be a good mix of people both from Tottenham and also further afield so they can see what the area is like if they haven’t been already. We’ve seen that someone is travelling from France to the festival! It’s an exciting time to also show that even though venues are still closing across the capital two brand new spaces, The Cause and Grow, have just popped up. Most of all, we just want people to have a good time and enjoy themselves.

What are you most looking forward to?

Once everything is all in place, there’s so many good bands, artists and DJs to see. Metz, Happy Meals, Not Waving, Jacuzzi Boys, The Golden Filter, Helm, Duds. We could list them all to be honest. The art side of the festival should be really interesting as well. We’ve got feminist culture zine Polyester curating two large spaces for us at Cloud & Horse and an audio visual treat from The Kill Shop and Loose Bones at The Cove. In between seeing all of them, trying the food is going to be a treat.

Do you plan to work on further events in the area in the future?

We’re definitely interested in doing more more events in the area. There’s plenty of scope to do things.

We’ll be keeping an eye out for future events.

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