Sunday 15th June 2025
Free party in the Ouseburn Valley, organised by Open Arms NCL
I have lived at the top of the Ouseburn valley of the past two years. In the winter, it is a dark and frigid place, where roe deer lurk alongside the unhoused. I walk through it most days on my way to work, and have shown you my walks there a few times this year already (1, 2).
It is summer now. The valley is muggy. Walking past my local shop on the way to work on Saturday, I saw a flyer for a free party stuck to the side of a bin. Special guest Sherelle, it said. That’s bait, I thought.
I’ve seen Sherelle twice over the last few years: the first time was in Berghain, at CTM Festival, in January 2020; the second was at Bang Face 2023, at a Pontins near Southport. She’s one of the funnest new artist-DJs to emerge from the UK over the last few years, and the Ouseburn valley would be a fitting addition to that lineup of surreal venues, but it seemed unlikely.
It turned out it wasn’t bait. Michael mentioned that he’d heard she was aiming for a more grassroots promo tour for her latest album, playing more free parties up and down the country. I took the slope down into the valley at around 5.30pm to join a small crowd of Sunday afternoon ravers. Families and joggers passed by looked equally bemused, and things only got stranger when, towards the end of Sherelle’s set, father-and-son duo MC SP80 and Junior brought some Makina flavour to her jungle rollers… A collab I never in a million years expected to see.
Local hero Zinzile played a hour of footwork for the next hour. By 9pm, I was danced out and ready to go home. The whole thing was surreal…