Rapper’s Delight: DERT 2011. Part 1

OUR HEROES ARE RE-UNITED

What is rapping?
I’m no expert but, as far as I know, rapping is sword dancing invented by northern miners, performed in pubs. The tradition was dying out until some guy created the DERT festival, a national tournament that has rejuvenated the sport. This year it was hosted in Oxford.

Why did we go?
There were several reasons that we went to this seemingly random festival. We are all partial to a bit of folk: whilst we were at uni, Aled and I went to a hurdy-gurdy festival, a euphoric experience for both of us, and Kevin has the Irish connection or something... he’s a cultural man anyway.

It was a bit of a reunion for us. I hadn’t seen the lads since a wedding of our dear friends Aled and Jo Seago in the summer. We needed something big to get the old gang together. An adventure – comparable to the stuff that we got up to in Lancaster: DERT was it.

How Aled found out about DERT was a bit of a mystery to me – I presumed he had found it during a Google binge but unbeknownst to me, he also had some ulterior motives for journeying to Oxford...

Who went?
Instead of picking me up from Oxford station they hid behind the information desk giggling and waiting to jump out at me. Aled and Kevin’s circumstances have changed a lot in a year, but they are still the same precocious boys that I remember from university.
Aled still wears his heart on his sleeve, fawning over raven-haired beauties we pass in the street with awed whispers of “sweet wiggens”. He looked resplendent – if a little like a character out of a Belgian newspaper cartoon – in his tweed jacket, pastel blue skinnies and red shoes. As usual, his satchel contained a drawing pad and a fine selection of artist pens.

Kevin has also not changed. The same generous, rambunctious, thoughtful and mischievous Londoner he always was – although he does seem to have a fascination with Twitter. A sign of the times. I did not know that he had lived in Oxford before, running a restaurant there. There was rumour of eating at Jamie’s Italian, making the most of Kevin’s ‘I know Jamie’ discount, but instead we plumped for the cheap (but tasty nonetheless) option: bagels and salad that famous ice cream place.

And of course, there was me. Have I changed? More haggard yes but still wearing an Archie Fan Club T-shirt and looking like a hobo in my civies. This weekend has been a real breath of fresh air. The first week back from half term has been a real shock to the system – I’m fed up of the constant failure to meet my expectations that seems to be my job at the moment. So it was nice to do something completely different, instead of marking my year 10s’ controlled assessments or my year 12s’ coursework (whoops!).

DERT Oxford website: http://www.dert2011.co.uk/
Aled's blog: "Bearded Knitting"
Kevin on Twitter: BigChefKevoir