We were delighted to be involved with the Learning Revolution in October and were busy bringing carnival arts to people all over London. From knitting at the South Bank to carnival costumes in Brixton, samba reggae in Notting Hill to singing in Old Spitalfields Market we worked with a wide range of artists and arts organisations to bring participative opportunities to hundreds of Londoners. Find out more about by watching the audio slide show……

We’re finally coming down from our Fertilizer festival buzz, but luckily we’ve had lots of love from audiences about this year’s good s**t from Poland to keep us pepped up: “It was bloody brilliant!” “Killer show!” “I love Polish jazz”.
Want to re-live the atmosphere? Check out our podcast with the touring trio of Sing Sing Penelope, Jacaszek and Contemporary Noise Sextet and our short video interview with the amazing Pink Freud.

A big thank you to all of you who came to see us on tour or in London – you made our artists very happy. A massive thanks to all the artists too, it was great to have you at Fertilizer! And thanks too to our funders: Arts Council England, Sound and Music, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM), not just for their money but for their all-round support in helping us deliver the festival.

As far as the future is concerned, we’re already plotting and planning in true Fertilizer style, keeping our ears to the ground for the latest underground sounds. We’ll keep you updated with our plans, but in the meantime if you have any suggestions for future Fertilizer outings, please do get in touch. Let us know if there’s good s**t anywhere in particular you’d like us to check out and bring back to UK. This is not a competition; there are no prizes to be won – but you might end up seeing your dream festival come to life and how cool would that be?!

After working through some 75 proposals from poets around the country, we’re really pleased to announce that we’ve commissioned Joshua Idehen, Sifundo & Jamal Msebele, Hannah Silva & Alexis Kirke and Sound of Rum to create new material for the Phrased & Confused stage at Summer Sundae Weekender (14-16 August 2009).   Find out more about them and their work here

Fertilizer 2009… Good S**t From Poland is nearly upon us!! And here at the Fertilizer HQ we’re busy putting together the final touches, ready to hit you with a plethora of underground sounds and leftfield new music. The venues are booked, the artists have their flight tickets and we’re ready to go with this year’s festival in London’s East End.

The mash up of sounds and influences has to be seen (and heard) to be believed this year as we bring you everything from the finest Polish hip hop, to electronica, post rock psychedelia and even an orchestra of tiny instruments. To find out more about the acts showcased this year check out their biogs on our website. And for the first time we’ll also be spreading good s**t across the UK as the Fertilizer tour bus heads for Norwich, Bristol, Oxford, Liverpool and Gateshead for a series of very special shows featuring Sing Sing Penelope, Jacaszek and Contemporary Noise Sextet.

Plus thanks to Sound and Music this year Fertilizer has been able to commission a unique British Polish Jazz collaboration between Pete Wareham of Acoustic Ladyland and Polar Bear fame and Poland’s prog-jazzers Pink Freud. Pete is at the heart of the new breed of improvisers who effortlessly blends rock, electronica and beats with Jazz which makes him the perfect partner for Pink Freud who epitomise Gdansk’s tradition of improvisatory drawing on a truly eclectic range of influences, including jazz, rock, folk, jungle and drum’n’bass, making them one of the most interesting and spontaneous jazz groups we’ve come across in recent years.

Pete has been out in Poland to practise and perform with Pink Freud and you can follow his time over there through his regular updates on Twitter. The guys will be playing 2 exclusive gigs during the festival the first at London’s Cargo on Wednesday the 13th of May and then at Howard Assembly Rooms in Leeds the next night, Thursday the 14th.

And this year it’s easier than ever to keep up with everything Fertilizer. Why not become our friend and receive exclusive updates on the festival, read interviews with the acts and be in with a chance to win some goodies? You can also join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

I’ll leave you with our first in our new series of the Fertilizer Phrasebook, which aims to equip you with all the phrases you’ll need to have a good time at this year’s Festival:

No. 1 - Zatańczymy? – which means ‘Shall we dance?’

Life as the hub’s Fertilizer Festival Intern has been fantastic so far, nearly 3 weeks in and I feel like I’ve been here 3 months! That is due to not only to being made to feel very welcome and at home by the lovely directors and hub ‘family’ but also from the fact that there’s been plenty of work to get stuck into right from day one! It is just what you would want from an internship, plenty of hands on experience and responsibility, lots of expertise and friendly advice to call upon and a fantastic network of contacts and organisations within the arts and creative world to tap into.

I’m really enjoying working on the Fertilizer Festival, it’s a brilliant project and is allowing me to combine all my interests; promotion, live music, marketing and online and digital promotional techniques. I’m really looking forward to the Festival landing in May, and experiencing some underground and slightly left field music from Poland!

I’ll leave you with a few of my favourite links from my first few weeks at the hub…

• Firstly my favourite band at the moment Strawhouses who I’m sure I am now beginning to annoy my fellow hubites with by talking about them so much.

• The Fertilizer Festival on Twitter… please follow us!

• hub operations manager Andi’s RT @Shunt project which I very much enjoyed at The Shunt Lounge.

Tom Johnson, hub Fertilizer Intern 2009.

the hub is on the hunt for a hungry marketer looking to get a break in music. If you think you’ve got marketing in your genes, are looking for somewhere to prove it, and are passionate about all sorts of new music, then we’d love to hear from you. We’re looking for a marketing intern to join the team working on this year’s Fertilizer festival & tour, scheduled for May. You can check out previous Fertilizer Festivals at our website: fertilizerfestival.com

the hub co-produces Fertilizer with sound uk. The team behind Fertilizer is dynamic, entrepreneurial and passionate about good music. As part of that team you’ll get to work on putting together the marketing strategy for the festival, creating on- and off-line publicity materials, building our distribution networks and online presence and getting involved in our PR. We hope that during your three months with us you’ll pick up skills, experience and contacts that will prove useful to you in your future career, and that you’ll have lots of fun into the bargain.

Alongside all this marketing activity, you’ll also get hands on experience of working in a small, busy and friendly team, and will help us to keep things running smoothly.

We’re looking for someone to join our team from the end of February 2009 and be part of it for until the end of May 2009, working 3-4 days a week. So if you’re keen to hone your marketing skills, are passionate about music, like words and have a way with them and are a good team player, we’d love to hear from you. You’ll also need good computer skills, and to be able to commit to being part of our team for three months. In return, we’ll pay your expenses and make sure your internship is something of real value to you. We’re based in east London, by the way.
Here is what Gemma Scott, one of our recent Interns, said about this internship:
“Finding direction in an arts based career can be difficult in many ways. The hub’s Internship has gifted me with the experience of working closely as part of a team with devoted and respected professionals, and has inspired me to pursue a career in arts development and education. I worked on a range of varied and exciting projects and this helped me understand the many ways in which different people contribute to the arts industry through their various job roles to achieve some spectacular results. The guys at the hub are friendly and supportive and will readily adapt the experience towards individual interests and requirements. I would highly recommend this Internship to anyone wanting to progress with a career in the arts.”

HOW TO APPLY
If you’d like to apply to join our team, please send Andi Studer your CV and a covering letter, telling us about your skills, interests, career ambitions, why you are interested in working with the hub and what you can contribute to the team. Andi’s email address is: andi@thehubuk.com

The deadline for getting your application to us is: Weds 18 February 2009
Interviews will be held on Tues 24 February 2009

We had a blast at the Summer Sundae Weekender in Leicester this summer with our Phrased & Confused stage project 2008. We’re hugely excited that we can now share a short film with you that captures the experience. It contains everything from live music and spoken word performances to some back stage interviews and feedback from real life punters.

Take a look and marvel at the magic a P&C stage can create! Big thanks to the producer and director of this film, Stuart Silver and to everyone who agreed to take part.

Phrased & Confused @ Summer Sundae Weekender 2008 from the hub on Vimeo.

This August the hub was invited to produce Phrased and Confused at the Summer Sundae Weekender 2008 in Leicester. We had a ball with some inspirational performances and some hugely appreciative audiences. Below you find a slideshow of some of our festival highlights. Watch this space; we’ll publish a short movie featuring our commissioned artists within the next couple of weeks.

Visit flickr if you can’t see the slides.

After ploughing through some eighty-odd proposals, we’re really pleased to announce that we’ve commissioned Jean Binta Breeze, Aoife Mannix & Janie Armour, Andy Craven-Griffiths and Mark Grist & MC Mixy to create new material especially for the Phrased & Confused festival stage at Summer Sundae Weekender 8th-10th August 2008.

Visit www.phrasedandconfused.co.uk to find all details.