The festival was founded in 1995 by
Lisa Paulon and four friends in the recording industry. She characterised the group as "five people who didn't know anything about putting on a gig" at the time the festival was first organised. and helped expand the festival, which went on to win "Best Metropolitan Festival" at the
UK Festival Awards in 2009, 2010, and 2012.
1995 , who played at the first Camden Crawl and in subsequent years Acts which played the first Camden Crawl included
Bis,
Blumfeld, Donkey,
Gallon Drunk,
Joeyfat,
Kenickie,
Killing Joke,
The Lemonheads,
Long Fin Killie, Nub, Penthouse,
Pure Morning,
Quickspace Supersport,
Saint Etienne,
Scarfo,
Spare Snare,
Bob Tilton, and
The Wedding Present. The first year of the event spanned only five venues: Castlehaven Community Centre, Dingwalls, Dublin Castle, The Laurel Tree, and The Monarch (since renamed
The Barfly).
1996 Performers at the second Camden Crawl, which was held on a Thursday night, 19 September, were predominantly from Scotland. Of twenty acts which participated, eight —
AC Acoustics, Bis,
The Delgados,
Eska,
Long Fin Killie,
Mogwai,
Prolapse, and
Urusei Yatsura — were
Glaswegian or had ties to Glasgow.
1997 In 1997, for the first time, Camden Crawl expanded to other cities. Again taking place in September, the festival began in Camden on 17 September (a Wednesday), moved to
Manchester 18 September, and concluded in Glasgow on 19 September. As a result of the change in format, the festival was rebranded as "Intercity Crawl". Performers that year included
Tanya Donelly,
Echo & the Bunnymen (at the
Electric Ballroom),
Headrillaz (at Dingwalls),
The High Fidelity (at the
Camden Underworld),
Mouse on Mars (at the Electric Ballroom), Navigator (at the Camden Underworld),
Snow Patrol,
The Third Eye Foundation (at The Monarch),
Ultrasound,
Velocette (at The Monarch), and
The Wannadies. This year marked the last Camden Crawl until 2005.
2005 To mark the tenth anniversary of the first Camden Crawl, organisers resurrected the festival, and the event took place 10 March, a Thursday, with forty acts playing. Performers in 2005 included
Buzzcocks,
Graham Coxon,
The Cribs,
Hard-Fi,
Hope of the States,
Hot Chip,
The Kooks,
Le Tigre,
The Magic Numbers,
Maxïmo Park,
Mystery Jets,
The Subways, and The Wedding Present. Both lineup and attendance were greater than before the hiatus, and the festival sold out. As a result of the success of the tenth-anniversary Camden Crawl, organisers decided to resume holding the event annually. Other performers in 2008 included
Crystal Castles, Hadouken!,
Soko,
Sam Sparro and
White Lies.
2010 Camden Crawl won "Best Metropolitan Festival" at the UK Festival Awards for the second consecutive year in 2010. It attracted both a younger audience and attendees in middle age in 2011. Among the non-musical performances scheduled as part of the festival that year was a full day of presentations on art history. Other non-concert features at the 2012 Camden Crawl included alternative press, comedians, games,
Hip Hop Shakespeare, KaraUke (
karaoke combined with
ukulele music),
spoken word performers, and
swing dancing. In 2012, for the first time, Camden Crawl included a separate set of dates outside the UK — 11–12 May in
Dublin, Ireland; Dublin performers included
And So I Watch You from Afar,
DELS,
Le Galaxie,
Jape, and
We Are Scientists.
2013 The summer leg of the 2013 Camden Crawl took place not in Camden, but in Dublin; the festival returned to Camden venues for a winter leg in October.
2014 Spanning 20–21 June, more than twenty venues, ==Financial difficulties==