History of The Pyramid Party
It all started back in 1991 when we decided to have a party in a North Malvern garden. There was only one condition - we wanted it to be the best party ever. We ended up with a couple of hundred people and an all night bash which looked simply stunning. We had UV, dry ice, DJs and decks, people dancing until the early hours, pyrotechnics, videos, art installations. . . all this when acid house parties were all the rage. Malvern had never seen anything like it.
You can see video of this first party here, here and here.
Over the next fifteen years we held seven more parties. Each one bigger and better than the one before. We started naming them - The Sun Machine, Eon, Effervescing Elephants, Omega etc. We added a stage and had local bands perform - the Bards, Flatworld, Nigel Kennedy, Funky Junky Monkeys, Jason Weobly. At the 2003 event we stood looking at our handiwork with pride. Someone said 'Next year, let's build a pyramid'. So we did. And in 2005 we built a bigger one but it was not until the next year, 2006, that the party was simply called 'Pyramid'
The problem we faced now was that we had a team of people who worked really hard for weeks to put on a party that lasted a few hours. It was time to get bigger. But Mike moved away and we lost the use of the garden and for two years there was no party until 2009 when we held our first three day Pyramid Party, in the garden and grounds of a farm in Herefordshire.
It went better than we could have hoped. More than 45 bands and 20 DJs played on the two stages and in the Kiln Room. With 1,250 people over the weekend which was blessed with the most amazing weather.
We expected to put on a bigger, better Pyramid Party for 2010 but late on into the planning we lost the use of the farm so we decided to scale down the event and hold it at the Lamb in West Malvern. The weather gods must like to party because the sun shone down once again as we hosted 35 bands and 10 DJs both inside and outside the pub. With over 350 guests each day the weekend could hardly have gone better. BBC Hereford and Worcester did a live feature throughout the Friday night when the Zebedy Rays headlined after November and the Criminal. A spectacular sell-out night that saw the pub at it's busiest ever.
Saturday daytime saw acoustic acts play on the garden stage including Marina Del Ray, Sam Eden, Russell Marshall and the fabulous Laura Broad with Stompin' on Spiders finishing the al-fresco sessions. A perfect afternoon in the now legendary Pyramid sunshine. Inside we were treated to Threshing Ground, Bash Roland, Naked Remedy and Skewhiff and all was well with the world ! Saturday night was another complete sell-out with the high-adrenaline folk of the Fylthe, the high-concept pop of Rhondda, the high-on-life jazz-rock of the Cohen Bothers and the highly contagious Blues of the Gary Harper Band.
Sunday afternoon is usually the time to chill and listen to relaxed vibes . . . and we didn't disappoint. On the Garden Stage the Treefrogs started the proceedings followed by Vo & Tyler, Stealth, the infectious Babajack, the Elastic Band, the Players and the mighty Mike Mann. Inside Careful Jepson, the Warm Spoons, Jenny Hallam, Loungetree and the Allstars Dub Band kept the afternoon moving while the evening began with Fruit Machine followed by the irrepressible Slack Granny, the funky-delicious Funky Junky Monkeys and the psychedelic Ghandi's Walrus.
To say the weekend was a success is a bit of an understatement which is why we decided to do it again the following September! The second Pyramid Weekend at the Lamb was as busy as the first. More bands, more DJs, more fun. And the magical Pyramid weather was there again as we managed to get the best weekend that end of the Summer.
But all good things . . . the Lamb closed down in early 2011 and the Pyramid Party was left without a home again. Enter GodZilaZ. This party crew take their solar powered rig aboard a huge Russian truck round lots of the festivals throughout the year. They also held a small 'Gathering' the previous year. So the Pyramid People teamed up with the GodZilaZ crew and held a Pyramid Party at GodZilaZ at their site near Tewksbury in May 2011. The Deckerdence Cocktail Bus was back and the festival boasted three stages with more than seventy bands, acts and performers as we expanded the festival to include spoken word and poetry performances on the Sirius stage.
The Pyramid People built two permanent stages on the GodZilaZ site; the Pyramid Stage and the new Orion Stage and with the addition of the GodZilaZ Garden of Shpongle and the Floating Lotus Psybarn there was plenty going on with the new spoken word Sirius stage proving very popular.
Now everything is set for the second Pyramid Party @ GodZilaZ to be held in September 2011.
See you in the sunshine.
The Pyramid People
