Earth Island Books Release “Punk At Sea: A Rebellion Festival Photo Book” By Michiel Blijboom

If you ever plan to visit Blackpool, make sure it’s in the first days of August. Not that all of a sudden the sea turns light blue due to the rays of golden sun, but the fact is that the town really is more colourful than ever in that period. The reason: Rebellion, the annual punk festival in and around the not so aptly-titled Winter Gardens. For four days in a row Blackpool is the beating heart of everything punk and punk-ish.

No future? Doesn’t go for Rebellion, as it has been alive and kicking since 1996! This photo book is to celebrate the festival’s 30th birthday and 50 years of punk! You can flick through the 130- image packed -pages and enjoy the event, completely earplug-free. Having seen it all, even the most avid Michael Bublé-fan will have to admit that PUNK is FUN! 

A celebration of punk, people, and the seaside at Blackpool – Rebellion Festival in candid pictures. 130 image packed pages of punk rock mayhem and fun in the sun. What more could you ask for? 

Michiel Blijboom is a journalist and photographer from Amsterdam. His favourite punk song is ‘Criminal Mind’ by The Ruts. He prefers Blackpool to Saint-Tropez. 

Originally a headbanger, Amsterdam – born & bred Michiel Blijboom got bitten by the punk bug in 1979, and was fully baptised seeing the U.K. Subs supporting the Ramones.

Both bands would stay among his favourite punk outfits ever. Blijboom has been a sports journalist for about 35 years, covering everything in football, from World Cup, Euro and Champion League Finals, to games by the likes of Dagenham & Redbridge. 

Apart from football, he did – among other things – the Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii, the Royal Regatta in Henley-on-Thames, the K1 kickboxing finals in Tokyo, the Grand National at Aintree as well as the official world championship schnitzel eating in which he competed (and failed). Apart from sports he wrote about showbiz, thus traveling to, for instance, the Eurovision Song Contest in Zagreb, the Miss World Pageant in Cyprus, Oscar Night in Hollywood and the Cannes Film Festival. Along the line he interviewed A-listers like David Coverdale, Rowan Atkinson, Johan Cruijff, Sylvester Stallone, Slash, Ronaldo and good old Lemmy. 

He worked for well-respected Dutch publications like Panorama, HP/De Tijd and Veronica Magazine and published a string of books about motor gangs, football hooligans and The Beatles. Yes, that needed a bit of a punk injection! 

Now he’s made Punk at Sea, a photo book about the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, working alongside Earth Island Books.