On Thursdays Del Osei-Owusu sits down with artists on the FOTN radar and gets them to tell their origin story over a cup of tea and biscuits. In a special feature, Mark “Mak” Page, founder of the Humber Street Sesh Festival and he brought Le Petite Buerre Biscuits
Hello Mark, how are you?
I’m fine thanks!
You’re just days away from Humber Street Sesh. How are you feeling about it?
Excited yet a little anxious, but my overall feeling is pride. Pride in what we’ve achieved in Hull over the last 25 years promoting grassroots music in the city.
How are preparations going?
Going well thanks. It’s always a challenge putting on a festival around Hull Marina, what with the amount of residents and businesses that live in the area, but we have developed a good relationship with most, and the team is well-versed in the setup after 13 years. We’ve got every confidence in delivering another great event for the city, whilst providing those all important platforms for some of the most exciting emerging artists in the region and beyond.
How did Humber Street Festival come to be?
Humber Street Sesh came about in 2012 as a celebration of a FREE weekly grassroots original live music night called The Sesh at The Polar Bear Music Club that I run. We wanted to organise a FREE street party to celebrate its 10th year and I noticed the Marina had a street of derelict warehouses that could host multiple stages and various artistic elements. I reached out to the community online and raised £18k, then approached Dave Mays, who was running a venue called Fruit down there. He came onboard to help us stage a one day event. We estimated 1,000 people might attend but were met with 10,000 on the day. We repeated it the following year as a Free festival and expanded it across the marina.
In it’s second year an estimated 40000 attended. Following that we capped it at 32000 and introduced a small charge. The rest, as they say, is history. However, post-Covid and due to extensive development in the area, we had to reduce the festival’s capacity to 18000 in 2022.
You are a DJ, festival organiser, and live music promoter. How did it all start for you?
I grew up in Devon, within the English Riviera, in a town called Paignton. I grew up listening to my brother’s Motown, Northern Soul and The Jam records, and then discovered Two Tone, which led me into the world of reggae, punk, electro and hip hop. I started DJing around the bay at 16, and at 18, I went abroad, working summer seasons in the bars and clubs in Majorca and Corfu mainly playing House & Garage.
Somehow I ended up in Hull in 1992. where I met my wife Deb in Sydney Scarborough’s, a much missed record shop in Hull, and continued DJing around the city’s bars and clubs.
By the mid nineties, I was listening to a lot of indie bands again, so I started putting on a few live music nights, which led to me starting the Sesh.
I still Dj a few times each year but I’m on my decks every night at home, and since 2020 myself and my fellow festival directors have taken on a 300 cap venue called Social.
What have you learned on your journey so far?
Fear is in the thinking, not the doing.
I’ve learnt not to overthink everything and roll with the punches.
I’d also say surrounding yourself with good creative positive people is an absolute must in this industry.
What’s one thing you wish people knew about your role?
How time consuming running a festival is. You basically have to live and breathe it from conception to delivery and beyond …. And sadly there’s no guaranteed payday at the end of it, so it’s important to retain the passion and remember why you’re doing it.
If you could organise a festival with five artists, past and present, who would be in your line-up?
Bob Marley, Massive Attack, Marvin Gaye, Portishead, & Cypress Hill … with Damien Rice and Bon Iver doing an exclusive acoustic gig in the green room.
What are three pieces of advice you’d give to artists wanting to get onto the festival circuit?
1. Get out of your comfort zone and play out of town to new audiences more. Spread your wings and always network with other acts and promoters.
2. Always add good live gig videos in your EPK’s to potential festival promoters. Strong social media and streaming metrics etc are all good, but festival bookers who book grassroots acts want to know what you look and sound like live.
3. Build a good team around your band to help with things like design & marketing, filming and photography. Create the buzz.
Hypothetical question: You’re playing to the biggest crowd ever, streamed online around the world, and it’s broadcast on a major international TV channel. You have one song to get the party started and one to send them home. What are your choices?
Sister Nancy – Bam Bam to get em going, and Esther Phillips – Just Say Goodbye to send them home.
What are you listening to at the moment?
Adrian Sherwood & Nightmares On Wax – Inner Space Outta Dub,
… and grassroots wise, The New Cut from Bristol, Life Aquatic Band from Sheffield and Any Young Mechanic from Adelaide.
What will you do once the festival’s over?
Go for a long swim to clear my head, spend some quality time with the family, and buy more records.
What are you looking forward to doing in the next 12 months?
Celebrating 25 years of the weekly Sesh night at the Polar Bear Music Club in October, and then revisiting and old event we used to do with P&O Ferries in November this year, called Made In Hull, where we take 30 Grassroots acts from the city to perform on two stages on the ferry over and to/from Rotterdam/Amsterdam.
Always a fun trip.
