We are here. This is now. And in the immortal words of the great, lion crowning baboon…

It is time.

You are a Super Ape. Be evolution.

Ladies and gentle folk, here come the vibrations…

This Friday 11th May, only at Passing Clouds, Dalston, welcome to our swing special.

Another dose of turbo charged evolutionary mayhem served up by the makers of Cloud Cuckoo Land Festival, the community focused performing arts festival in the Clouds.

Prepare to shake your tail feathers as we blend vintage sounds with pumping bass riddums in the most unlikely of venues: an original Passing Clouds collective mash up.

Two floors of swing styled beats and bass ft. The Zen Hussies, Franky & the Jacks, the delightfully dubbed DJ Moneyshot, Madame Electrifie and a Glorious New Regime fronted by Clayton Blizzard, plus burlesque and fire courtesy of Hackney hooper Anna the Hulagan.

Not sure how to swing? Brace Yourself will teach you how, with FREE dance lessons early doors.

Run exclusively by volunteers, every penny we raise is invested in radically localised and resilient community building via our brand new guerrilla fundraising model, the mighty Koyaanisqatsi Trust.

http://koyaanisqatsi.org.uk/

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is the revolution, in a dicky bow. So don your dancing shoes and be evolution.

That was intense. Simply putting all those outstanding live musicians and pumping DJs together in one blog – it’s made poor old Cumulus giddy.

We should mention Cumulus, or Cumulus Puff to you and me, is the festival deity. You know the one, big fluffy beard, lives in the Clouds, all knowing…Cumulus.

Anyway…

We’ve given you everything in our Great Unleashing. Or at least plenty to be getting on with. In actual fact, the line up continues to build by the day, and there’s shed loads we couldn’t cram into the last ten days of rapid fire blogging.

Still, we love you deeply and we’d like to give you an extra special nudge, just to show we care.

So here’s the deal…

Every single weekend ticket bought in the month of May will earn a beer or cider as a thank you, completely FREE of charge.

Yeah. That’s right. Help yourself to a ludicrously well priced £55 Early Bird ticket to the Clouds, and we give you booze.

Simply buy a ticket, here or via the vending machine below, and your email will be added to our list, redeemable all weekend at the Splash Bar.

Don’t you just love buying stuff? Tell ‘em Bill…

Click here to view the embedded video.

On a serious note, tickets have been moving rather faster than expected in 2012. We don’t know why. Maybe something to do with the looming apocalypse? Since we sold out last year, we’re expecting one or two disappointed faces come early August.

Don’t be one of those faces.

Grab one early, tell your friends to do the same, relax and prepare for lift off.

It will be intergalactic. It will be planetary. It will be three days of information and inspiration so subtly interwoven, you won’t know whether you’re newly enlightened, or just hung over.

Come with us, Cuckoos.

Keep it quiet, but we reckon this one’s the best yet…

Sunday’s Headliners

BABYHEAD

http://babyhead.co.uk/

Babyhead is an 8 headed ska, hip hop, dub monster, extending their skank rock tentacles through the minds and ears of the UK and beyond.

Don’t miss these unstoppable DIY punk rocker’s hyperinteractive embrace of chaos,  delivered with raw hip hop swagger.

The festival’s final show, and undisputed highlight.

Click here to view the embedded video.

THE UNDERCOVER HIPPY

www.undercoverhippy.com/

The Undercover Hippy’s full 6 piece band mixes fiddle, Hammond organ, drums, bass and backing vocals to create a high energy, interactive and highly entertaining live show. Expect inspiring, thought provoking lyrics, awesome freestyling and heaps of audience participation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Think Jason Mraz meets Fat Freddy’s Drop…on a protest march…at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sunday’s Support

FUR

http://fur-real.org/

FUR take the finest elements of British Hip Hop – conscious lyrics and the role of the anti-hero – fused with Dilla-esque drum beats and West African horns, plus Ethio-Jazz and Dub.

Their distinctive sound is reinvigorated with a rawness only possible through the energy and spontaneity of a live band of Hip Hop heads.

FUR stole the show in the Clouds in 201. Word to our headliners – these boys could prove Sunday’s upsetters.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Franky and the Jacks

http://frankyandthejacks.com/

Set within the walls of the wailing harmonica and the screeching fiddle the sometimes dark and often caustic lyrics belie the foot stomping swing of the double bass and guitar. Here is where comedy and tragedy meet head on to deliver a full spirited testament to Franky and the Jacks’ one and only mantra…

Make ‘Em Dance

Click here to view the embedded video.

Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin

http://www.philliphenryandhannahmartin.co.uk/

Click here to view the embedded video.

Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin combine influences as diverse as English folk music, Indian classical and American blues to create a sound that is “textured, hypnotic and utterly captivating.”

At least when Phillip isn’t too busy busting out his beatbox harmonica…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Zen Elephant

http://www.zenelephant.co.uk/

Zen Elephant effortlessly blend genres like folk, roots and gypsy jazz in a lively style that is instantly loveable. Opening our Shearing Stage on Sunday afternoon, we hope they’ll set the tone for an unfolding free love free-for-all.

“Infectiously vibrant, up-tempo folk”

Love it? Or did we miss someone? Give us your feedback, and we’ll do our best to pull a few strings.

Need an extra nudge?

We’re celebrating May Day in style, with a bumper special offer on tickets sales for the entire month of May.

Details coming soon. Until then? Think of the world.

Saturday’s  Headliners

SHEELANAGIG

http://www.sheelanagig.co.uk/

Sheelanagig’s unique blend of turbo charged balkan folk mayhem has rightly earned them legendary status across the festival scene. Famous for fresh and distinctive, energetic and irreverent live performances, combining elements of story-telling and street theatre with intricate and irresistibly danceable music.

High octane stuff…brings out the Yiddish rude boy…

Click here to view the embedded video.

SAM AND THE WOMP

http://samandthewomp.tumblr.com/

Sam and his band of Wompers perform original high energy balkan, ska, dub and rave out material with a huge WOMP of gypsy dubstep for pudding.

Womp, womp, womp.

Click here to view the embedded video.

FEATURECAST

http://featurecast.co.uk

He’s got skills, he’s got style and he wacks out some massive party beats. Featurecast brings his unique brand of ‘ghetto funk’ to the Clouds with a simple brief.

To deliver the hands down, stand out set of the weekend. Don’t be surprised when he does.

Saturday’s Support

Maybe Myrtle Turtle

www.tyrtle.co.uk/

Maybe Myrtle Tytle are here to create great music, think about things and entertain. Mistachioed, red velvet cape wearing and sticker obsessed, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Sounds like…

Bob Dylan in bed with Fleet Foxes, with moments of Gogol Bordello madness…

Achilles

http://www.achillessound.com/

An instrumental outfit of locals, hailing from nearby Shaftesbury, best known for epic live performances of their distinctive brand of rhythm fuelled post rock. Achilles return to the Clouds with their genre-defying fresh mix of sounds, back by popular demand.

Like DJ Shadow but playing it live…

Rob Da Bank

Click here to view the embedded video.

Clayton Blizzard and the Glorious New Regime

http://claytonblizzard.com/

We are the Glorious New Regime and we are taking over.

Blimey. The best rapper the world has ever seen, Clayton Blizzard gets all the girls and that.

“If cod stocks are low – let them eat hake”

08 Economics 101- The Natal Lottery(1)

Will Varley

http://www.willvarley.com/

In 2001 Will Varley invented music as we know it today. By 2005 he was having drugs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. One time he even mistook a small child for a drug and tried to inhale him.

Shortly after this incident he went to rehab and when he came out he married his childhood sweetheart David Jason. They now live in Virginia Water with their two children “Apple” and “Twat”.

And the rest, as they say, is history…

Click here to view the embedded video.

La Mort Subite

http://lamortsubite.co.uk/

Balkano Carpathian Franco Greco Russo Turco Gypsy Jazz Folk.

Which just leaves Sunday. Ahh, Sunday, the infamous Cloud Cuckoo Land crew led after-party…

And what better way to celebrate an ancient festival marking Spring’s sacred renewal?

It’s here folks. Our full power and all knowing Shearing Stage line up has landed…

The Shearing Stage

Space: Full sized sheep shearing agricultural barn. Heavy.

Powered by: Long time festival heavyweights, the peerless Urgent Union Sound System.

Hosts: An interwoven web of overlapping collaboration, with Passing Clouds, Urgent Union and the Koyaanisqatsi Trust’s very own Super Ape adding texture to a  rich and steaming casserole of creation.

In a nutshell: With a capacity of just 500 and a wooden dance floor carved from local trees on-site in the days leading up to 2011′s festival, expect a unique atmosphere unsurpassed anywhere on the UK’s festival scene. The space is blessed with superb acoustics and an infectious energy – perhaps thanks to all the lambs born here each spring!

Director’s Cut: Too many incredible live shows to mention – though don’t miss Featurecast‘s unique brand of turbo charged ghetto funk late on Saturday, or Babyhead‘s show stopping, foot stomping ska, bringing down the barn on Sunday – the Shearing Stage owes everything to Urgent Union. Live music lovers, enjoy…

Friday’s Headliners

DUB MAFIA

www.dub-mafia.com/

Bristol based Dub Mafia have well and truly landed, becoming one of the most popular dance acts in the UK, Europe and beyond. The seven-piece band – who blend drum and bass, dub, bashment, breakbeat and world music into their own unique sound – play fully live, and pledge to “destroy your tent” with their dirty bass and dubstep rhythms.

Good luck bringing down our barn.

Click here to view the embedded video.

ONLYJOE

www.onlyjoe.co.uk/

Original party shakers, Onlyjoe have been blessed with the musical guidance needed to create their unique and powerful sound. This conscious, highly energetic and multi layered 9 piece, continue to dominate the UK’s festival scene, touring extensively with Chai Wallahs in 2011/12.

Onlyjoe’s massive energy and message of positivity, love and unity is guaranteed have festival goers jumping for more. You’ll find out why…

Click here to view the embedded video.

DJ PARKER

http://parkerbeats.com/

Where’s my monkey?

Parker

DJ Parker has earned a reputation as one of the most versatile cross genre selectors in electronic music today. Bringing together vital elements of bass heavy beats, Parker effortlessly glides between glitch hop, dubstep, garage, house and DnB, to name just a few.

His undisputed talent as a turn-tablist have see Parker smash stages worldwide, while productions, flowing from his Monkey Butler label, have gained lofty comparisons to the legendary RJD2.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Friday’s Support

True Ingredients

http://www.trueingredients.com/

With some of the freshest sounds around, True Ingredients are cooking up a musical revolution. Full live band, complete with DJ and vocalists, expect hip hop, soul and funk with heavy basslines. Infamous debut album, Prepare and Assemble, available only on sunglasses…

This sh*t is fresh…

Snoop Dogg, Lovebox 2011

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ivy Cairo

Ivy Cairo are a Bristol based threesome whose music combines torch-song vocals, soaring live strings and a heavy dose of the local scene’s soundsystem culture and love of all things bass driven.

Hayererah and the Human Bridge Band

The Human Bridge Band is formed at the will of the living creator as a necessary vehicle for the voice of truth to ring throughout the dimension of sound. Delivering a roots reality message of upliftment for every soul to feel.

Lyrics from Yah spirit realm.

Footsteps in a moving meditation.

Heartbeats in touch with creation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stay tuned folks, for full disclosure of Saturday and Sunday’s Shearing Stage line ups, coming very, very soon…

Who are we, and what do we have to celebrate?

Folks, we are the 99%.

And we stand together, in celebration of our solidarity.

Tomorrow is a global strike, and day one of 2012′s Global Spring, a tidal wave of popular organising, defiant protest and civil disobedience, in every corner of our world. Click on your fellow protester below and be inspired…

So what about our mythical utopia? How can we make a difference, occupy your tent?

Yes, we can.

And the rest of the Clouds. Because we reckon 99 to one are decent odds, and probably worth a flutter.

Slap, bang in the middle of the festival site, this is your movement. A space for popular organising, guerrilla campaigns and on site activism.

Expect the unexpected, plus the following renegades and revolutionaries…

Democratise the Clouds, with daily People’s Assemblies inviting you to take back your power.

Reclaim the Fields, with information and inspiration from a network of committed land rights activists, growers and eco builders.

Design your own on site action, with workshops from boundlessly creative environmental campaigners Climate Rush.

Connect with the next generation, with talks and workshops designed and facilitated by the Earth Inheritors, a dynamic collective newly emerging from the worldwide hub of  Transition, Totnes.

Create, with conscious sign making workshops and our Theatre of the Oppressed.

Rediscover your world, and rid yourself of dominant and suffocating propagandist paradigms, with the Bristol Radical History Group.

Liberate yourself from wage slavery, and reclaim you basic human right to shelter, with conscious squatting workshops and speakers from the SQUASH campaign, uncovering the core motivations behind the recent criminalisation.

Resist the destruction of our sacred world, with extreme energy workshops, and stories told by local campaigners, on of the most toxic processes known to humanity; fracking in the Mendips.

And revel, with the People’s Party, a 12 volt, tricycle mounted sound system which powered Occupy LSX. Check out the video, and grab a sneak preview of one of Friday night’s Shearing Stage headliners…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rise up, Cuckoos.

Occupy Your Mind. Occupy Your Tent. Occupy The Clouds.

“Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field.

I’ll meet you there.” – Rumi.

The Cloud Of Unknowing

Space: Fernhill’s vast Conference Barn, complete with People’s Kitchen and our site office in a tree house, the Tower of Power.

Powered by: Cyc Du Soleil‘s solar and pedal powered sound system and cinema.

Hosts: Another collaboration, featuring performers from legendary spoken word collective, Hammer + Tongue, plus an emerging juggernaut of new economics, radical history and cultural creation, the future building Permaculture Now.

In a Nutshell: Blow your mind or lose you marbles, with experts from across the progressive movement combining in information and inspiration. Share experiences. Build networks. Inspire hope.

Director’s Cut: The Embercombe Community‘s intimate and provocative catalyst programme inspires authentic leadership in an uncertain world. Designed for an emerging generation of cultural creatives, this is truly life affirming.

Inspired by a seminal work of Christian mysticism, authored anonymously in the Middle Ages, the Cloud of Unknowing was originally conceived as a powerful and distinctly feminine call to contemplative meditation and prayer, reconnecting through an opening of intuitive and emotional modes of knowing.

Motivated by love and embracing every genre of experience, we hope our Cloud of Unknowing will grow into a similar project, seeking an enlightened awareness, not simply through reliance on knowledge and our intellectual faculties, but through processes of inner transition which move beyond sustainability, laying the foundations for a culture of permanence.

Nestled within a full programme of spoken word, inspired storytelling and myth making, live folk music and creative workshops, discover keynote speakers including…

Mark Boyle, the moneyless man, Tim ‘Mac’ Macarthy of Embercombe, Climate Rush activist Tamsin Omond, the Schumacher College’s resident ecologist Stephan Harding, and Bristol’s #1 food lover, Claire Milne, plus many, many more, teetering on the brink of confirmation.

As if that wasn’t a stage full, immerse yourself in conscious cinema, debates and popular assemblies dedicated to our two major themes of the weekend:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Saturday: Eco community building, featuring the Freeconomy Community, Tinker’s Bubble, West Lexham and Embercombe, plus Greece’s very first eco community and beneficiaries of our 2011 fundraising, Free and Real. Plus, get the low down and give your feedback to the community behind the festival, the emerging Koyaanisqatsi Trust.

Sunday: Local, wholesome and home grown food, complete with volunteer led community kitchen, courtesy of the People’s Kitchen, Bristol based food experts from the People’s Supermarket and Bristol Radical History Group, plus urban permaculture workshops with Sarah Pugh and Dave Hamilton and speakers from innovative slow food social entrepreneurs New Dawn Traders and Dalston Cola.

This year’s celebration of information and inspiration is only the beginning.

We hope that our Cloud of Unknowing will become a platform for the creation of an independently resourced community focused and ecologically conscious gathering from 2013 and beyond, organised in parallel with our community focused performing arts festival in the Clouds, but evolving independently.

We invite you to join us and help shape our stories, as we open our minds to an unfolding, evolving journey home.

Life on Earth is somewhere in the region of 4 billion years old. According to the experts, single celled molecules first evolved a nucleus around 2 billion years ago.

Vertebrates? Around half a billion years old. And mammals? We’ve been birthing live young for over 220 million years.

Eventually came the supra primates, something like 50 million years ago. And not too far behind them, the primates. From little monkeys evolved bigger apes. Then roughly 15 million years ago, naked, forest dwelling and fruit eating, our most ancient of ancestors, the Great Apes slowly emerged to dominate the tree tops.

The fossil records say we’re little more than peculiar African apes, 98 per cent genetically identical with chimps, our closest living relatives. And for most of our extended family, not much has changed. Still naked. Still forest dwelling. Still fruit eating.

So how did we get here, teetering on the very precipice of time, boldly going where no ape has gone before, in 2012 and beyond? What makes you so different from a chimp?

How exactly did we become Super Apes?

Yes folks, our 2012 festival theme has landed.

Borrowed from an emerging tribe of regular fundraisers, we invite you to be evolution in 2012. Join us, on our unfolding cosmic journey through space and time.

Unsure whether you’re a Super Ape? Follow the link below for our fullest, longest, most elaborate explanation.

Go on, click on the big monkey’s belly.

Stay tuned for the final countdown of our Great Unleashing, ending in a supernova of love and light early next week with our full power Shearing Stage line up.

Remember Cuckoos…

We are here. This is now. And in the immortal words of the great, lion crowning baboon, ‘It is time.’

You are a Super Ape. Be evolution.

There is no space. There is no time.

…infinite, eternal existence.

- United Vibrations, 2011

Newly indigenous in 2012, just in time for the end of time…

The Cosmic Pyramid

Space: 40 ft Little Top Mayan Pyramid

Powered by: Magnificent Revolution. 100% reconnecting human powered energy.

Hosts: The Passing Clouds Collective, The Artful Badger, Scrap Dragon.

Director’s Cut: “Wear your rubbish home” on Sunday, courtesy of our endlessly resourceful and boundlessly creative Scrap Dragons.

In a Nutshell: Universally conscious by day, our tribe of ornately decorated Scrap Dragons, storytellers and myth makers will inspire and inform. By night, the Pyramid descends through the underworlds. Reconnect with your inner Goddess, enchanted by the Artful Badgers…

The Artful Badger

http://www.theartfulbadger.com/

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Artful Badger’s legendary brand of feral, festival mayhem must be experienced to be comprehended. Wild and instinctively playful, the Badger’s dancing, mask making, DJs and samba will artfully inspire a recollection of our essence, rooted firmly in primal intuitions and expressive animism.

Enter a magical realm, a nocturnal wonderland of mystical creatures and mythical spirits, from dusk till dawn…

An ecstatic disregard for convention…whipping the crowd into one whirling, communal flash mob.

- The Independent Review

Scrap Dragon

Click here to view the embedded video.

Scrap Dragon’s tribe of theatrical litter pickers and creative costume makers bring their unmistakable brand of reverence to the Pyramid each day till dusk.

Aztec Gods and Goddesses invite you submit yourself to their ancient traditions, relearning our sacred connection with the ecology in which we coexist.

Re-imagine the waste which you unconsciously condemn to landfill, by ‘wearing your rubbish home’, or join our junk orchestra, courtesy of on-site scrap metal magician, Duncan the Cosmic Welder.

The Passing Clouds Collective

Spawning forth from the legendary Dalston ex-squat and venue, the Passing Cloud Collective have long ago established themselves as the dominant creative juggernaut behind the Clouds.

All pervasive in their influence, the collective’s infectious energy will be channelled in 2012, mostly through the life affirming conduit of the Cosmic Pyramid.

Stay tuned for full details of a line up of inspired speakers, from Earth Mysteries to New Paradigm technologies, plus spoken word, conscious cinema and live, hand crafted percussion.

Magnificent Revolution

Ladies and gentle folk, back again in 2012…

The Cuckoo Club

Space: 1967 Routemaster Double Decker, with all the trimmings.

Powered by: The Big Red Bus, complete with full power sound system.

Hosted by: The Gentleman Jeeves (Tea) Vs. Grant Jarvis (Cocktails)

In a Nutshell: An original speakeasy, the Cuckoo Club opens early and late. Resident mixologist Grant shakes the martinis downstairs, while Jeeves brews the finest chai on site, upstairs in our VIP lounge. Two decks of debauchery.

Director’s Cut: Flash Mob Charleston’s with Brace Yourself. Go on, shake your tail feather.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Open from brunch, whether Bloody Mary’s or builder’s tea, till very late indeed, this is the double decker which never sleeps.

Swing by our speakeasy for a full power festival in miniature, plus refreshments. With resident DJ’s set to include Mum’s Old Vinyl, Fake Champagne, Madame Electrifie and John Hendicott, you may hang around for most of the weekend…

Stay tuned for a full programme of dance workshops, including swing, hula hoops and retro 90′s power aerobics, coming soon.