Fall down the rabbit hole at local music festival

Saturday 03 September 2016

Adventure awaits thousands of festival-goers attending Jersey Live this year if they know where to look. Follow the eye logos, find the secret entrance, pay the toll and enter another dimension!

The Wonky Factory is a 'topsy-turvy' world where madness and nonsense are commonplace. If you find the hidden wardrobe which acts as the entrance and for a minimum donation to charity of one pound, you can unlock the secrets of this strange world.

Thousands of islanders are expected to flock to the festival site in Trinity for a weekend of live music including headline acts Disclosure and Madness, sponsored by JT.

With the festival organisers dubbing last year's event as the "most successful operationally" in the 12 years it has been running, Wonky Factory co-creator and designer Jocelyn Anquetil hopes her installation can bring something new to the long-running event:

“We wanted to create a completely new space at the festival where people can escape to a completely different world, a psychedelic wonderland where you can just be a bit crazy really.

“We’re really keen to bring new, creative experiences to Jersey and basically celebrate all the local talent we have here as well as raise money for Friends of Jersey Oncology (FOJO) which supports islanders who are battling with cancer."

The project is a collaboration between Jocelyn and her dad J-P Anquetil who runs local nightclub Rojo’s: “My dad and I always wanted to do something like this together; he’s really into the local music, DJ and party scene and I’m more into the creative, design aspect so we make a great team.”

Jocelyn, who is a graduate of the famous Central St Martins College (CSM) in London, has worked on design projects for other festivals such as Bestival in the Isle of Wight and Boom Town Festival. 

Jocelyn also enlisted the help of another local CSM student Lucy Abraham to bring The Wonky Factory to life:

“Jocelyn approached me at college in March and told me all about the project. I’ve been assisting with the costume design and collaborating on the design of the installation. I will also be one of the performers interacting with festival-goers in the Wonky Factory.

“The idea was initially inspired by Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and also draws influences from Alice in Wonderland. The narrative behind the experience is essentially that the world has become grey and lacking imagination until an inventor creates a machine (which is also the DJ booth) that brings colour back into the world.”

Local DJ's will be playing in The Wonky Factory alongside headline act FELON.

For more information about The Wonky Factory experience, click here to view their Facebook event or click here to follow them on Instagram.

On the weather side of things, the Jersey MET department is expecting a mainly dry and warm weekend with highs of 24 degrees on the Saturday and 21 degrees on the Sunday. Festival goers with a ticket for the Saturday are advised to pack their waterproofs as some rain is expected towards the evening. Sunday will be slightly cooler, but expected to stay dry throughout the day and into the evening.

Jersey Police have said they will have a dedicated team on duty headed up by an Inspector at the event who will be working with the festival's security team. According to a police spokesperson, should you require any assistance, the Police and the security team will be very visible and happy to help.

For the full festival lineup, visit the Jersey Live website here.