Strange Days Indeed, at The Barge on HoneyStreet

Earthlings and all other organic lifeforms with a taste for the occult, fortean and general  weirdness are heading to The Barge at HoneyStreet the first weekend of September for the return of Strange Days Festival. You risk spontaneous combustion if you don’t too….

If you felt an alien autopsy, some alpine shape-shifters or the neohermetic order of Kyballic philosophy were unfortunately missing from your usual festival haunts, this might just be for you and your spirit guide.   

A wildly Wyrd weekend specially crafted for fans of forteana and unexplained phenomena, Strange Days covers the entire weekend with weirdness, esteemed speakers, cosmic cabaret, and some mindblowing music. As of last year, the most powerful tractorbeam musically arrives from intergalactic visitors Henge, with their jazzy psychedelic space-rock rave everyone wants to be abducted by.

Star of the hidden camera prank show Trigger Happy TV, the man with the giant phone Dom Jolly also headlines, and there’s an array of speakers, and other bands, including Calne’s own masters of comedic metal, the chelonaphobic Real Cheesemakers, who might/might not play from inside the belly of a sperm whale.

Indie experimentalists Quatermass III are also playing, known for blending glam-tinged experimentalism, “folk-horror” themes, and electronic textures. And Novum Wo, an experimental electronic artist blending distorted glitch, IDM, and sample-based sounds with Medieval, Arthurian, and contemporary industrial aesthetics.

There’s the unmistakable band Dogshow, on a voyage to explore how music can be experienced differently, by traversing genre-fluid astral planes whilst dressed as poodles. The Quantum Mechanics’ paranormal podcasters go live, Bob Fischer and Stephen Brotherstone resurrect all your disturbed childhood TV memories simultaneously, while Jonathan Downes goes on the trail of Mexican Vampires, and past president of the British UFO Research Association Lionel Fanthorpe talks about close encounters.

I’d like to say I’m only dipping my little toe into the dark waters of Strange Days, as there’s so much more to discover, but the minds of the followers of the event might meander onto the argument it’s a vestigial structure, leftover from our tree-dwelling ancestors, while podiatrists interject, maintaining the little toe is still functional and significantly aids in balance and weight-bearing, and we’ll have a battle of medical curiosities on our multi-fingered, prehensile organs.

Strange Days is on the weekend of the 4th-6th September, when the nights draw in, and we get closer to the spirit world. It’s at the Barge at HoneyStreet so it’d be rude not to camp, which is included in the ticket. Tickets are a 130 of your Earth coins, with discounted rates for kids. From HERE and beyond……

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