Sneaking Into Festivals in Hi Vis Jackets with Sserpress

It’s absolutely, definitely, and without a doubt summer festival season, and at The Levi’s® Tailor Shop (found in every Levi’s® store nationwide in the UK) you can customise, personalise & repair new or old Levi’s® products in an infinite number of ways in preparation for your extended weekend of misbehaviour and fun. Also, if you have no money to get into festivals, Sserpress have your back.

Sserpress are a three-piece rawk band who practice in an abandoned school in Tottenham, ride BMXs and make music that sounds like a bunch of stuff they like: QOTSA, Planes Mistake For Stars, Sabbath etc. Basically, they’ve got big riffs, they’re loud, and they sound great in a party situation. All the more appealing then that, after a short hiatus and a clothing collab with Goodhood, Sserpress are back and releasing their new single, "My Only Friend" next month.

Being not just a band but also a group of fun weirdos who don’t like paying for things, they’ve picked up some solid tricks that might assist you, the impoverished festival punter, in enjoying a festival when you’re relatively fund-free. For your entertainment and edification, we spoke to Don, Dave and Brendon about their band, festivals, and the value of high-vis jackets and pretending to faint. Word.

Hi Sserpress! You seem like good pals, how did you meet?
Don: We formed through the grapevine of metal and hardcore scenes in our hometowns. The smoke brought us together.

How old are you all?
Don: 86.

What's the best festival you've ever been to?
Brendon: Global Energy, Camber Sands in Sussex. It’s by the beach and you get chalets instead of tents.

Festivals are an eye opening experience when you’re younger, huh?
Brendon: First festival was definitely an eye opener; it’s a place you can go to that’s a different world where you just get smashed with thousands of other people doing the same thing. My first two festivals I didn’t even watch any bands.

Tell us, how do you get into a festival with no money?
Brendon: At Reading 2007 I turned up with £30 and no ticket. My original plan was to try and jump the fence somehow cos I’d done it at a local festival in Kent a few weeks before. It turned out a lot harder than I thought since there was a moat around the festival, so I was in the car park and saw a security jacket hanging on a post. I got Don to pull up next to it in the Astra and swiped it.

We drove round to another car park where I walked straight to the front of the line and I started helping people on and off the boat with their bags across the river. I walked in and no one said a word, so get yourself a high vis and you can get in anywhere.

Who is generous to you at a festival if you have no money?
Don: It’s hard to say who’s generous. I stole a slice of pizza from a food trailer and got held up by my collar from a festivals-worth. I pretended to faint and flopped on the floor; he fully bought the collapse so I got up and ran off. He was generous for letting me go.

How do you meet girls with no money at a festival?
Don: Same as getting a pizza: faint.

Over and out. Cheers Sserpress!

Find Sserpress on Facebook here.

The Levi’s® Tailor Shop can be found in all Levi’s® Stores nationwide in the UK.