Stop The Earth!

That’s right, it’s that time of year again when all the creatures of the night come to the university of bradford for infest, a cyber-electro goth 3-day festival which is run by mainly german DJ’s. I was given a press pass and was super excited to see the new university of bradford students union in action.

Just before the event began I ran into a few attendee’s and we discussed people’s prejudice to the goth sub-culture. One guy with a WW2 hat said that most of the time the mainstream community just assumes everyone is gay, but he laughed pretty hard when he mentioned the “what is it” game. The rules are simple, stand outside the toilet and when people leave the bathroom, try to guess the gender.

I met a few really sexy cyber-goths who said if they could summarise the event in 3 words it would be “oh my goth” and the same group had notified me that the transvestite count as currently at 11 and rising.

A steampunk dude I spoke to about cyber-electro music let me know about an interesting story. In 2004, lights of euphoria were playing and for some reason the fire alarm had started going off in the venue, but because the sound of the fire alarm was so similar to the sound of lights of euphoria the crowd just kept dancing.

Just before the first act went on stage I managed to push through the crowd and see probably the greatest and rarest sight on the planet…The goth macarena, it’s basically the standard macarena but with glow sticks, 10 inch heels and a kick arse attitude.

Mandro1d were the first act, they hit the stage and begun singing about the EDL and all about what they want for christmas, I come from a completely non-gothic musical background but it was absolutely grand! I found myself singing along before half the song was over.

Day 1 had skirts, bikinis, tank tops and then there were the girls (haha), no but really, everyone that attended had put so much effort into what they were wearing, there was a guy with hair at least 2 feet into the air…I pray nobody lights a match near him. So far the music has been sexy as hell, heavy and hard electro-beats with the strongest electro-static baselines I’ve ever heard.

The consensus so far seems to be that this annual festival is more about being with friends and people who share similar interests rather than the music.