Green Door Store celebrated 10 years of being one of Brighton’s much loved music venues with their mammoth weekender, 234 Fest.
Hosting a frankly outrageous line up of some of Brighton’s hottest up-and-coming bands, SOURCE headed down to catch the action. We left exhausted, exhilarated, and frankly ecstatic at the blossoming state of Brighton’s music scene.

Snayx

Beach Riot
‘Scene’ is a word that a certain generation of readers may roll their eyes at. We’re not talking ‘cat-screech nu-wave’ type scene as per NME in the naughties, when any genre of music that had 5 minutes of fame had a label attached to it.

Lambrini Girls

Lambrini Girls
What we saw here was a community – a coming together of like-minded folk, unleashed from the restraints of lockdown and celebrating the verve of live music like there was no tomorrow. Sure, beers got spilled, hangovers were unquestionably a thing, and the punk-fuelled raucous scenes looked wild. But the sense of love in the air was tangible, the yearning to be back and fully unleashed finally realised.

Libra Libra

LibraLibra
Every band went to see each other, support each other, and start moshes for each other. No aloof, better-than-thou vibes here. The crowds were a veritable who’s-who of Brighton’s music scene, with big-hitters Penelope Isles and personal faves The Slaughter House Band both getting more than involved (despite not being on the bill), alongside local legends such as radio presenter and all-round good egg Melita Dennett.

Wife Swap USA

Wife Swap USA
We’re not going to review each band that played (sorry!), as we started out simply with the intention of snapping the action. But our personal highlights included Snayx, Lambrini Girls, Wife Swap USA, Libra Libra and Beach Riot. The full line-up is below, and we cannot recommend enough having a dig through and adding some of their local dates to your calendar!
Happy Birthday to Green Door Store, and congrats on putting on such an ace weekend. Here’s to the next 10 years of supporting grassroots music!

Slant

Wife Swap USA
Saturday 18th September:
Lime Garden
BEACH RIOT
Murmur
Hanya
WACO
Lambrini Girls
Mangö
Dan Rumsey & The Dark Days
Toast
Dagobah Sisters
Sunday 19th September:
Holiday Ghosts
LibraLibra
Wife Swap USA
Snake Eyes
SLANT
SNAYX
Tally Spear
Out Of Love
ELLiS⋆D
Hutch
Green Door Store
Sat 18th / Sun 19th September 2021
Photos by Time for Heroes