Over the next three weeks, God Is In The TV will be publishing a series of guides into what we consider to be the very best music festivals, both in the UK and in Europe.
We begin by focussing on metropolitan festivals. As the name suggests, these are city rather than field camping events. From Inverness to Bristol, and from Liverpool to Brighton, metropolitan festivals continue to expand taking up a growing part of the music and arts live market.
Beacons Festival’s decision earlier this year to bid farewell to its established outdoor event in the Yorkshire countryside in favour of relocating to an urban setting is indicative of this trend. The Beacons organisers stated that feedback received from the majority of their festival goers showed that the cost of attending the more traditional, camping festival had become increasingly difficult for them to sustain.
Easier transport accessibility, availability of existing venue infrastructures, weatherproof indoor locations and the clear opportunity to extend the festival season way beyond the customary summer months make metropolitan festivals an attractive proposition to both promoters and audiences.
Unlike summer camping events, these festivals adopt many different formats, including both indoor (e.g. Live at Leeds) and out (e.g. Field Day), multi-venue wristbanded events (e.g. The Great Escape) and themed events that run over a longer period (e.g. Liverpool Music Week.)
Our top ten UK festivals have been carefully chosen on the basis of their overall influence, focus on new and/or more experimental music, and the quality of their individual line-ups which we believe represent a broad range of festival models and music tastes.
Focus Wales
22th – 25th April 2015, Wrexham
Focus Wales is a regional industry showcase event. Given Wales’ track record in generating unique creative talent, Focus Wales is a must for anyone interested in new music. A great deal smaller and personal than The Great Escape and Liverpool Sound City, it offers music from Wales and other lands (150+ bands!), stand-up comedy and a music industry programme, without treating non-industry ticket holders as second class citizens. Well worth a long weekend in Wrexham.
Music highlights: Axl Green, Bo Ningen, Eagulls, Future of the Left, John MOuse, Little Arrow, Samoans, Seazoo, Slaves, Sweet Baboo
Tickets and full line-up information: http://www.focuswales.com
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Live at Leeds
1st – 4th May 2015, Leeds
Back for its ninth annual outing, Live at Leeds assumes its customary position over the early May bank holiday weekend. Buoyed by the success of having bagged last year’s coveted ‘Best Metropolitan Festival’ award, this time around it promises two hundred bands, twenty venues and one wristband – all for the unbeatable value of £27.
Live at Leeds has built a strong reputation upon an ethos of promoting local talent alongside more established national and international artists, whilst also being one of the very best places at which to catch the year’s breakthrough acts.
Music highlights: Carl Barat & the Jackals, The Cribs, Brawlers, Emmy The Great, Joanna Gruesome, Hookworms, Lauren Aquilina, Thurston Moore, Tom Williams
Tickets and full line-up information: http://www.liveatleeds.com/
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Sounds From the Other City
3rd May 2015, Salford
Salford’s SFTOC is a local institution that came into being 11 years ago in Salford’s artistic hub of Islington Mill. Using unusual spaces and unexpected venues, SFTOC showcases experimental performance and art projects as well as new music. Rooted in the local creative community and drawing on the experience of the best small promoters from the North West, it fosters collaboration and focuses on emerging and under-the-radar talent rather than buzz bands or industry pushed up-and-coming artists. Its alumni include Alt-J, Grumbling Fur, Stealing Sheep, Deptford Goth, The Ting Tings and Post War Glamour Girls. Expect an even more curious show this year thanks to a grant from the Arts Council.
Music highlights: Cold Pumas, D/R/U/G/S, Jane Weaver, Last Harbour, Menage a Trois, Paddy Steer, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Silver Club, Shit and Shine, Zun Zun Egui
Tickets and full line-up information: http://soundsfromtheothercity.com
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The Great Escape
14th – 16th May 2015, Brighton
The Great Escape is the biggest new music festival in Europe and our equivalent of Austin’s SXSW. As much a industry trade show as a festival it offers an vast line-up of hundreds of bands from around the world playing dozens of venues spread across Brighton city centre. For a novice it is an overwhelming and chaotic experience. Getting in to see the hottest bands requires military planning, nous and boundless energy. Be prepared for long queues and sweaty small venues. The Great Escape Convention (industry conference), The Alternative Escape and Brighton Dome Shows all run alongside the main three-day event.
Music highlights: Alabama Shakes, Django Django, Dutch Uncles, H. Hawkline, Jack Garratt, Kate Tempest, Lapsley, Pretty Vicious, Turbowolf, Zun Zun Egui
Tickets and full line-up information: http://greatescapefestival.com
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Sound City
22nd – 24th May 2015, Liverpool
This year sees Liverpool’s Sound City ringing some wholesale changes. Not only does it shift to a later date in May, but it also moves to a totally different location on the city’s waterfront. Responding to criticisms from past years when many people had to either queue to get into some of the city centre venues or, in some instances, not even get in at all, the Sound City organisers have moved the entire event a couple of miles away to the Bramley-Moore Dock site.
The music festival and its accompanying conference – including a host of keynote speakers, round-table sessions and practical workshops – will use the dramatic existing industrial architecture and warehousing on the docks as venues, alongside an outdoor main stage and a series of pop-ups, big tops and tents. A three-day festival wristband is a perfectly reasonable £65.
Music highlights: The Flaming Lips, Belle & Sebastian, Roni Size Reprazent, Dutch Uncles, Fat White Family, Peace, Swans , Spector, Stealing Sheep, Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Tickets and full line-up information: http://www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk/
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Field Day
6th – 7th June 2015, London
Now in its ninth year, London’s premier outdoor festival has finally come of age. Spreading its wings to a two-day event, last year’s Field Day secured the festival’s reputation as one of the most adventurous and cool festivals in the country. Attracting young East Londoners and older 6 Music fans alike, it is not a drunken party festival but a more refined affair. Organised by London tastemakers Eat Your Own Ears, Field Day’s line-up is a cornucopia of sonic wonder, from iconic bands to the underground buzz sounds. Food and drink are pricey but are of equally high standard.
Music highlights: Caribou, Ride, Patti Smith, Allah-Las, Django Django, FKA Twigs, Mac DeMarco, Savages, Shura, Viet Cong
Tickets and full line-up information: http://fielddayfestivals.com/
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Supersonic
11th – 14th June, Birmingham
Learn to make aleatory music using Hexadic System, listen to cosmic disco and Oregon psych, or take your kids to an ‘Introduction to experimental music’ gig led by the exuberant Flamingods. The most alternative and daring festival on the list, Supersonic has secured its experimental reputation with over 10 years of consistently innovative and explosive concoctions of visual installations, films, exhibitions and music. Its status has been confirmed in this year’s partnership with The British Library and the success of its recent crowdfunding campaign that raised over £21 000. Guaranteed to open your eyes and ears to music and art outside the predictable genre labels and familiar performance spaces, Supersonic thrives on the spirit of adventure and discovery; and with four-day passes at only £95 it is a bargain to boot.
Music highlights: The Pop Group, TOMAGA, Flamingods, DELIGHT IS RIGHT – Richard Dawson, Eternal Tapestry, Happy Meals, Liima (Efterklang + Tatu Ronkko), Six Organs of Admittance, Slow Magic, The Will Gregory Moog Ensemble
Tickets and full line-up information: http://www.supersonicfestival.com
Long Division
12th – 14th June 2015, Wakefield
Long Division Festival in Wakefield works on the exact same principles as its West Yorkshire counterpart Live at Leeds. It takes place over a full weekend with the Saturday providing the main event, in this instance with over seventy local and national acts performing over eight different stages from midday until midnight.
Back for its fifth year and in keeping with the 2014 event, two of the stages will be housed in the magnificent Grade II listed building that is the city’s Unity Hall. Recently restored to its former glory, Unity Hall is the creative cultural heart of Wakefield and the centrepiece of what has fast become an exciting, vibrant three-day event. A Saturday All Day Ticket can be yours for £25. Be sure to get one quick as Long Division always sells out.
Music highlights: British Sea Power, Pulled Apart By Horses, Fat White Family, Boxed In, CryBabyCry, Her Name Is Calla, Menace Beach, Seazoo, Tuff Love, Withered Hand
Tickets and full line-up information: http://www.longdivisionfestival.co.uk/
Visions
8th August 2015, London
Visions returns to East London for a third year of merriment. The people behind Visions are none other than Rockfeedback, Bird on the Wire and SexBeat – prominent independent tastemaker promoters of London. Its top line-up, easy-going young DIY ethos combined with very competitive prices has gained a significant fanbase and great reviews. Previous line-ups included hot new artists (Perfume Genius, Young Fathers and Alvvays) more established names (Cloud Nothings, East India Youth) and cult heroes (Andrew WK). This year the festival have added new areas, including the Space Gallery Courtyard and St John in Hackney Church. As well as offering fresh sounds, a cool vibe and superior culinary delights, Visions manages to be criminally cheap, with tickets priced at just £30.
Music highlights: The Antlers, Fat White Family, Toy, Andy Stott, Ceremony, Girl Band, Hinds, Luke Abbott, Peaking Lights, Son Lux
Tickets and full line-up information: http://visionsfestival.com
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Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia
25th – 26th September 2015, Liverpool
Returning to the scene of last year’s glorious success at Camp and Furnace – a remarkable warehouse space deep in the heart of Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle – Liverpool Psych Fest has, in the space of three years, established for itself a fearsome reputation for putting on a cultural event that embraces all of the cosmic delights of the psychedelic sub-culture.
For two days and two nights you can experience a brilliant kaleidoscope of music, visual art, film, performances and exciting curations, all of which celebrate the continuing revival of this mind expanding musical art form. It is little wonder that Liverpool International Festival Of Psychedelia was named ‘Best Small Festival’ at the 2015 NME Awards.
Music highlights: Spiritualized, Sacred Bones Records (USA) v Bym Records (Chile), Death and Vanilla, Evil Blizzard, Fumaca Preta, Giant Swan, Hey Collossus, Lucern Raze, Magic Castles,Menace Beach
Tickets and full line-up information: http://www.liverpoolpsychfest.com/
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NEXT WEEK: 10 BEST BOUTIQUE FESTIVALS
Photo credit: Simon Godley and Mike Hughes
