save the date

Legendary Cambridge Bboy battle, Urban SINfonie, returns this summer as part of SIN Cru’s 25th anniversary celebrations.  The event’s humble beginnings were in 2001, at the Kambar, a very dark and skinny venue some of our readers may remember as Route 66, and is now Pho restaurant.  Urban SINfonie was the brainchild of the original JNR Sinstars, shout out to Hoops, Loops, Gomez, Wongy, Dash, One Off, Snipe, Penfold, Assassin, and Catch.  With thanks to a grant from Cambridge City Council, Urban SINfonie was conceived as a Hip Hop night to bring together all the elements.  Brad Baloo from the Nextmen and TY did an amazing live set, alongside Visual Grafix projections, and a Bboy cypher that was proper five-alive.  The following year we moved the event to The Centre at St Pauls with a focus on the battle.  Urban SINfonie grew in reputation with enough stories to fill several series of Jackanory, and expanded to Cambridge Junction, for its 10yr anniversary.  This year we take our acclaimed grassroots community event online in response to the COVID 19 outbreak, and also as movers and shakers, exploring different platforms to share arts and culture.  Save the date: Saturday 18th – Sunday 19th July 2020.

The battle is at the heart of Hip Hop culture with practitioners in all the elements trying to out do each other in a test of skills to find out who is the best.  Urban SINfonie was born when UK Bboy battles and younger dancers in the scene were a rarity.  The event has a history of attracting overseas dancers to Cambridge from France, Holland, Switzerland, Korea… to compete with national Bboys and be judged by a pioneering line-up of special guest judges including London’s Pervez, New York’s Ken Swift, Italy’s Maurizio, and Sweden’s Freeze.

Bboys and Bgirls with UK lockdown being enforced as part of the COVID 19 pandemic it is the perfect time to get your dancing shoes on, push back the furniture, get some exercise and start training for Urban SINfonie 2020.

Do you have a favourite Urban SINfonie battle from back in the day, or any Urban SINfonie highlights you can remember?  Let us know.  If you have any photos or video footage from Urban SINfonie from over the years, please share your memories by uploading to social media using #SINCruarchive25.