Art Car Boot Fair – Comedy and the Comic – Cubitt Square, Kings Cross, London, 20th September 2025 – And so what of this year’s fair? I reckon to have taken part in something like thirty of these Art Car Boot Fair events now if we’re to count the adventures by the seaside in Margate, Folkestone, Hastings and such, if we’re counting the side events in Liverpool or at the Apple Cart Festival or over in the Olympic Park or that time out in a forest in Sussex with Pussy Riot and such. Included in that thirty or so is me taking part as a participating artist in every single annual London Art Car Boot Fair main event since 2009 and before that first invite to take part, writing about the very early London ones for various versions of Organ, including covering the very first one that ever happened. If I have it right the first one was in Brick Lane back in 2004? What I am trying to say here is that I have pretty much seen or been involved in them all! And having been at or been involved in pretty much all of them, I can say that this one, twenty-one years on from the very first one, was a particularly good one, it was probably the best since it all moved to Kings Cross. No probably about it, it was easily, almost defiantly, the best since Kings Cross first became the Art Car Boot Fair’s home something like six or seven years ago now… 

“Art and Comedy got together and had a damn fine time on Saturday” declared founder Karen Ashton on the morning after the day before. Actually she probably didn’t say it on the morning after, she probably slept most of that morning, there a lot of work that goes in to something like this! And yes, before we go any further, if you haven’t got the drift already, yes this is me declaring an interest, yes I was one of the participating artists, yes I am standing on the inside looking at the outside here, I was behind my stall watching people walk by, I was watching the passing dogs, I was talking to those who chose to stop and ask (I like all the interaction, I like the faces I see once a year, the new faces, the old faces, the faces I can’t quite place). Yes, I am writing about something I was taking part in (yet again), yes this is from my point of view, this is direct from the red trunk of my (imaginary)  68 Chevy with pipes on the side (You know she’s my idea of beauty, that’s what I drive) and no, there were none of those bats in the rear view mirror that weren’t noticed somewhere on the edge of the old Coalyard just after the flashback to Bagleys Warehouse and the Mint 400 gigs at the Red Eye over on Copenhagen Street (OK, it wasn’t quite a Chevy boot, this look back at last Saturday is coming via our very basic gazebo and a red cloth covered table in the middle of the fair) and as always, I didn’t get to go too far from my own boot or stall or whatever we want to call it for most of the day (didn’t even get to the damn bar and not one of my fellow artists came over and said hey, thanks for all those countdown previews and all the work you did on the up front publicity, here’s a thank you pint!). What I’m saying here is If you want an objective neutral point of view or review or whatever then this isn’t it, I am not Switzerland here, my observations are from where I was stood, I was involved, I had paint splattered skin in the game (I do hope by now you’ve learn to trust Organ and know that when we do cover things we’re part of we are still being objective, we call it as it is around these parts, hell, the woman who works press and PR for the fair won’t even speak to us, let alone send us a press release, something to do with not liking the way we call things out around here! We are not yes men or women at Organ, we call it as it is and it seems we’re good at pissing people off. If we’re telling you this was a good one I hope you trust us enough to know we’re not just saying so because we were part of it, we’re saying it was a good one because it was!)   

So the weather just about held, the wind wasn’t on our side at times, John Lee Bird’s reading of the day’s news from a copy of The Sun was a particular highlight as was his Animal bit that Slapper might know something about? Did Mr Bird get there on a bus (for a bus)? I must admit I did not want to be placed right by the bloody performance stage. I wanted to be as far away from it all as possible, down the other end of the whole damn ditzy scene (still can’t get used to those extra Ditzy Scene layers but that’s a whole other review of something we might once have had skin in the game of as well). No, keep me well away from the Sweet Art stage and whatever the hell John Lee Bird and the rest of them were going to be doing I yelled before hand (even if our old collaborator Marnie Scarlet was threatening a performance). Was that Saddie Hennessey going past dressed as a fly and distracting me just then? yes, I wanted to be at the other end, my request was ignored and I was stuck right next the damn performance stage! The Sweet Art performance stage was brilliant!! All the performers were excellent, I was having pre-fair nightmares about bad stand up comedians, no no no, Sweet Art done really (really) good! They took it back to the days of Brick Lane, they nailed it, well done Sweet Art and the cast of performers we mostly only caught bits of while getting on with the business of selling art (what the hell was Marnie Scarlett doing?!)   

This probably was the first time Kings Cross maybe finally did at last really feel like a home for the Fair and as I have l already said, you can’t be moaning that it isn’t like it was back in the Brick Lane days because London as a whole thing isn’t much like it was back there and we long since past the point of no return (even if the Sweet Art stage and the performers did hit on that early years feel in such a positively uplifting way). 

Here’s another #43SecondFilm…

Are there more artists in here this year? Are we packed in tighter? It felt like it, it felt good. And I really wish I had had more time to go explore everyone’s art properly, I really didn’t see half of it and I needed more time to take in what kind of predictions the Misfortune Teller was casting out or to check out what Heath Kane or Rugman or Jealous Gallery of Smithson had to offer, never did see what Pure Evil had for us this year, missed StefDies completely, caught a very quick glimpse of Julia Maddison and an every quicker flash of Quiet British Accent, completely missed Lady Muck as well as Kira Rathbone and her magic typewriter although I did see several of her pieces go by. Alas real life got in the way of Emma Harvey making it to the fair this year (catch her via the on line version that about to open), somehow Grow Up didn’t get arrested or closed down even though we were right under the noses of Meta’s Kings Cross operation (seems Grow Up art isn’t popular with those who control our social media these days, can’t imagine why?!), Ben Eine made a lot of noise and never got around to using all the paint can he had out on his table over in what someone described as our naughty corner of the fair before disappearing half way through the afternoon (he’s right over from us with his stall, are we pat of the naughty corner with Mr Eine and Grow up?). Maria Brennies was looking as colourful as even, there another pink Juno Calypso bag going by… 

Hey look, I say it every year, can’t be cherry picking, as usual, I didn’t get to see anywhere near half of it and no doubt I’ve offended some artist or other by not mentioning them (it is very easy easy to offend an artist when you write about art so much, life would be far easier if I didn’t). Feels like I missed more then ever this time (hey, I was busy behind my own stall!). The thing about the Art Car Boot Fair is that there is genuinely something for everyone, and I’d be amazed if anyone liked everything? I’d be worried if people liked everything! So yes, I missed most of it, caught a quick glimpse of Vic Reeves was over there with Jim Moir, missed his art, I like Jim’s art. Rankin was somewhere if that’s what you wanted, Mr Doodle parked his big American school bus (that was for real, not imagined), can’t get into all that doodling though, it kind of feels like I might have seen it done before? And yes, there are still too many wordy bits and not every bit of art is my cup of tea and you’ve told that flip off back to London joke at the last three fairs now mate, do something new! But then there was Geraldine Swayne‘s beautiful paintings, there was Alice Herrick, there was Pushka working with his figures, faces, and lived moments that he says explore states of presence and transformation. Smaller versions of his large-scale oils seen of dry land rather then on a canal boat (he also runs the rather busy Canalboat Contemporary), there was Paul Sakoilsky‘s paintings when he could escape the clutches of Kunsty the Clown. I missed whatever Pam Hogg had this year and somehow failed to bump into Dion Kitson all day, was he there? Haus of Lucy‘s Wedgewood look like fun, oh look, it is about the one thing as a whole in much the same way a good group show is. It was about the art, the people, the event, about whatever it was John Lee Bird shouted  – he mostly shouted knickers at passers by – it was about the whole thing, I can’t be about picking out artists, I can’t be cherry picking or someone get’s left behind and it really was a big positive collective of a thing, the sum of the whole.   

And of course it is hard to just switch off and just have fun, to turn to comedy with the almost laughable state of so so much that’s going on with so many things all over the globe as well as right under our noses right now. These are not days to laugh at but then maybe the Art Car Boot Fair team were right, laughing in the face of it all, defiantly so maybe? There’s nothing funny about art of course, art is serious, it did turn out to be a fun day though, even the rain mostly stayed away while all around most of the country was swimming in torrential downpours. yes, this year’s Art Car Boot Fair was a good one. Of course it wasn’t perfect, of course there’s some art that grabs me more than other bits go, there are some things that just don’t grab me! Yes there were far too many words again, there are some things that make me cringe as I pass, there’s always loads of good art though, there’s often brilliant art, art to lust after, art to want (ART to really want if only I had the space and a bit of spare cash). There’s always way more than enough good art and this year was no exception.  

And then there was the people watching and the talking, the Art Car Boot Fair is where you get to talk to people. Quite often when you do an art show no one knows who you are, you can be quite anonymous in a room full of your art, you can hide in plain sight or just be invisible, here people just come up and talk, here hair is collectively let down, here art take a big gulp of fresh air and just has a good time for one afternoon. 

I must confess I wasn’t really looking forward to this year’s Fair, I wasn’t feeling that buzz I almost always have in the lead up, I wasn’t excited about making art for it, I really wasn’t expecting much, I wanted to just get through it, to almost get it over with. I certainly wasn’t up for comedy! Happy to report this year’s Art Car Boot Fair was a rather good one, it was certainly the best since we all moved to Kings Cross, it maybe even managed to touch on the early days without ever needing or trying to. Yes it was good back there in the early days but this is about now, the Art Car Boot Fair is about now and right now we need things like the Art Car Boot Fair even more than we did back there. Hey, what with everything that’s going on (or not going on) with the London Art Scene, with London itself, with life on the whole, we probably need the Fair more than ever and yes, this year really was a really good one! This year was probably the best one for years, it felt upbeat in the right way, upbeat in an almost defiant way, not in a crass way. if felt defiant in a we’re still here kind of way, it was less of the flippers and the flipping and more about the love of art really, it got a bit of the spirit back, that mojo… And then we had to go home and turn on the news again, it was fun for an afternoon though, yes, that was a particuarly good one, never to be taken for granted, Saturday was good day… (sw)   

And now it all moves on line for a week for those of you who couldn’t make it to Kings Cross or indeed for those of you who were there but miss that piece you wanted. The online Art Car Boot Fair opens for a week on Friday September 26th, head to the official website for more or watch this space for more

As always, do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show. All photos Sean or Marina (besides a couple that might have been stolen off social media). I shall be back to label them all in a moment…