Urban Folk – Both Kinds

Whenever I hear the phrase “Urban Folk” I’m confused as to whether it’s a reference to a musical style encouraging Morris Dancing over some R’n’B, or a reference to people living within urban environments like our very own Mancunia.
So, what to expect of New Islington Festival and its “Urban Folk Festival for Urban Folk”? Well, it seems far more surreal than that.

Apparently:

“On Saturday the 6th of September, from 2pm – 8pm, New Islington will be turned into a playground for Urban Folk. We’ll be mixing up new urban and traditional folk artforms and getting creative in Manchester’s new community.”

Sounds funky. Events on Cotton Field Park include a Knitting Circle with public kint-a-thon which is presumably run by the same people who are producing “Manchester’s very first yarn bombing installation”
No I don’t know what that is either. We are told to expect “graffiti with knitting! Keep a special eye out for the much anticipated tree cosys”. I’m just a little bit perturbed as to what this could involve, but it’s certainly intriguing.
If that doesn’t grab you, there’s also a “Barge Pimping” contest going on (I swear I am not making a word of this up), and over on Old Mill Street there will be a stage set up with “musical delights” including giant ghetto blasters, a “Radio bus” and a “unique audio-visual experience with an all-day programme of Manchester-generated short film and photography”.
You know, I turned 30 the other week. I have never felt so old as I feel writing this and trying to understand what is going on. Please, Mancunian Way readers, join me, come with me to New Islington this weekend and try and help me make sense of it all! I used to be young once too, you know…