Over the weekend we took a short trip to Huddersfield, to catch Sound System Culture Mini Festival, a live screening programme, and a street party at Northern Quarter. The event was carried out by Sonic Street Technologies in association with Let's Go Yorkshire who have a long-standing partnership since SST's first case study which documented how the town of Huddersfield was the epicentre of the UK reggae scene in the 1980's.
SST and before it, Sound System Outernational (SSO) is a research group at Goldsmiths University and a European Research Council (ERC) funded research project (2021 – 2025), which explores the variety of global sound systems, ponideros, picos and other systems for amplifying audio to audiences. The event showcased six powerful documentaries from across the world, showing the diversity of sound system culture and what it can stand for politically, socially and more.
Rockers Sound Station: Tales of the Kingston Dub Club (Jamaica), tells the story of Gabre Selassie, who has aimed to bring the resurgence of reggae back to Jamaica.
Bass Foundation Roots (India) and Word, Sound, Power (Colombia), showed how sound systems can be used as a force to send political messages and an act of resistance. Bass Foundation Roots and El Gran Latido produced two very powerful documentaries with shocking scenes in both.
Street, Gender and Sound (Brazil) was the amazing story of an all-female sound system that travels around Sao Paulo, and the community that their project had built was clear to see. It was a very inspiring film.
Heavy! A Congress of Sound Systems in Melbourne (Australia), was a story told by 10 sound systems across Melbourne, and the amazing achievement of getting all sound systems together under one roof to have a proper gathering. This film has shown how far sound system culture has travelled across the world and what diverse shapes sound systems can be in.
Lastly, there was Survival: A Rasta Sound System Gathering (South Africa). This was about Kebra Ethiopia Sound System and their reggae street session which came about as a result of the repression of reggae music during apartheid in South Africa.
After the film screenings, the audience flowed into the streets where Zion Inna-Vision was powering their sound system with many of the Huddersfield's original selectors coming through to spin some music.
The event was supported by Arts Council England and forms part of Kirklees Heritage Open Days and was put on by SST - I would strongly recommend checking out the work that SST do on their website https://sonic-street-technologies.com/
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