.png)
7 hours ago
4
The smell of fried onions wafts across the pink glare of candy floss, as lights pop, smoke billows and songs play simultaneously at deafening volume: walking through Hull Fair is a sensory overload.
Stretching across 16 acres and more than 300 attractions, it is one of the largest travelling fairs in Europe and will pull in around 600,000 people during a week-long run that ends on Sunday. However, despite the myriad thrills, including the UK’s tallest fairground ride, there’s one attraction that remains king: the waltzers. When this year’s event was officially opened by the lord mayor, it was via a ceremonial bell ringing on one of these rides.
Not only do the waltzers spin people into a state of dizzied nausea but they are also home to a genuine musical subculture, where DJs spinning high-speed dance music – hardcore, donk, bounce and more – join forces with MCs to throw whopping parties on the rides, with hugely impressive sound and lighting systems. “It feels like you’re in a mini-rave or a mobile nightclub,” says Hannah Taylor, who DJd on the Hell-Blazer waltzers last year, calling it a “bucket list” moment. “I grew up in Warrington from a working-class background. When the fair was on, the waltzers had the best music. That’s the music that I grew up listening to, and that I now play.”
There are eight different waltzers at Hull Fair this year and stepping up to Hell-Blazer, you can hear it before you see it. Thundering beats pump out as an MC freestyles over the top, with a liquid flow, interspersing his bars with classic “oggy oggy oggy, oi oi oi” call and response shouts. “It’s unique what we do,” says the man behind the mic, MC Willy G, with a voice that sounds coarse and gravelly from a schedule of performing for up to 11 hours a day. “There’s real showmanship involved.”
With the fair being free entry, this is an accessible place where young people, or those without means, can hear live DJs and MCs put through a chest-pounding system – Willy G claims theirs is 70,000 watts – and encounter something akin to a club atmosphere. People flock to the rides and crowd around them, as even non-riders bounce along to the pummelling tunes. “All of us working here were brought together by music,” says Willy G. “When the lads are spinning those cars, and we create the atmosphere that we do, people get goose bumps, chills, and hairs stand up on the back of their neck. This ride is the fastest and the finest.”
So, it’s fair to say there’s fierce competition to be the best ride and party on site? “Oh, there’s competition …” says Willy G, before Joe, who also works on the ride, chips in: “ … but there’s only one winner.”
Over at Albert Evans’ Atmosphere Creator, I swing by to check out some competition in the waltzer sound system wars. “We’re all friends,” Evans says. “But as soon as we put that generator on, that’s it, we are no longer friends for the next 12 hours.” And the claim that Hell-Blazer is the fastest? “A load of nonsense,” says Evans. “Have a go on each one and make your own mind up – and I say that with confidence. Listen, nobody wants to be second best. We’re all striving to be the best, and we all think we’re the best, but some know that we are and some think they are.”
The vomit outside Atmosphere Creator certainly suggests it is fast, but people are increasingly coming for the DJ lineups as well as the thrills now. As part of Hull arts festival Unthinkable, I Jordan – a critically acclaimed house and techno artist who tours the world – was booked to play the ride. Far from being a novelty gig, it was of great meaning and significance. “I grew up in Doncaster and funfairs were absolutely my introduction to hardcore and donk music,” they say. “You would go on the waltzers just to hear these tracks.”
For Jordan, this is a vital corner of dance music culture that resonates with a lot of communities who are rarely focused on. “It’s probably often overlooked because of classism,” they say. “But it’s really important to raise the profile of these sorts of things.” They selected “in-your-face, loud sounds” for their waltzer DJ set, “but there are only certain parties I would do that kind of set for. I think it’s basically a northern thing.”
It ended up being a really moving set for Jordan. “I saw so many kids when I was DJing who were looking at my decks and were mesmerised and taking videos and photos,” they say. “I was thinking: ‘This was literally me 20 years ago.’ It felt really special and I was quite emotional at times. It feels really full circle to reconnect with it as this is basically where it all began. So I’m hoping I planted some seeds for those kids.”
Everyone I speak to has a deep, sincere love for this potent yet niche corner of electronic music and the role it can play in people’s lives. “What we do takes people away from the pain and sorrows of life,” says Willy G, passionately. “It’s like a big wonderland. And if we can create that for people … what more can you do?”
