That time of year is coming around, the sun’s kinda coming out even if it isn’t heating anything up right now. SXSW kicks it all off next week, check out my reccomendations here.
Being in England, in theory I have a vast array of festivals at my disposal, however I only choose to go to the very coolest non-commercial festivals where there is zero chance of U2 or lily allen popping up on the bill due to the lack of television cameras. Here are my favourites from central england, where I live.
Dot to Dot Festival (Bristol, Nottingham, Manchester)
First up is the burgeoning Dot to Dot festival. As with all i’ll be highlighting they’re getting bigger every year so it probably is only a matter of time but definately catch them while you can.
This is a non-hipster, minimal queueing version of London’s “let’s turn a good idea into a logistical nightmare and see how much we can charge people to wait in lines for the majority of the weekend and end up seeing about 3 bands” joke of a festival, Camden Crawl. Here’s my review from last year.
The headliners for this year aren’t ideal but if I’d have only judged last year for the headliners (which I didn’t stay for) last year there’s no way I would have gone. This is a festival where you’ll find some great hot tips that’ll keep you going for the rest of the summer seeing them in cheap bars around the country while they remain your favourite secret.
Great things about Dot2Dot: You get to see loads of your favourite smaller bands in one day, bands everyone else is talking about and make up your mind yourself, inexpensive (£25!), find new great bands before everyone else, you get to see all these venues you might not have been in before all in one day! It’s also great exercise, trust me!
Los Campesinos– My year in lists
Summer Sundae (Leicester)
This is in leicester and goes on for three days, maybe it could be crammed into two but there’s alot of other stuff going on in and around the place the town really wakes up for this.
The line ups for the past few years have been exceptional, no huge headliners just great acts playing consistantly through out the weekend. Mumford and sons may well be playing ridiculous festivals like reading and glastonbury, i’d love to be proved wrong but such is modern life. So this is your chance to see them play a smaller, friendler and less dripping with lager and kebabs kinda crowd (:
Local Natives are also one of my favourite bands from ’09, they made a beautiful album and their live show is the most uplifting of gigs. These two and alot of the acts that have been put on the bill so far are acts i’ve been expecting great things from for a while so this would be an amazing chance to see them all, people like laura viers, erland and the carnival, goldheart assembly and the whip. The sunshine underground are also playing, just if this dessert inspired festival wasn’t cool enough.
Truck Festival (Oxfordshire)
Truck is my favourite festival of the year. Only Mew have been announced so far (who are amazing live) but past years have had amazing line ups, usually including Frank Turner in some capacity.
There are 5 Stages, all quite close together with zero noise intereference, small campsite, great people, really inexpensive in the past but it is getting more expensive unfortunately.
I’ll be doing another post on truck once more people are announced.
MP3s:
2000 Trees Cheltenham
I haven’t been to 2000 trees before, looks like a pretty sweet eco festival! At the moment the line up looks a bit old school- Frank Turner, Subways and Bombay Bicycle Club (who NME recently voted best “new” band despite having been around for half a decade already).
About 2000trees:
In The Beginning: – 2000trees started as a reaction to the mainstream music festivals and their ever spiralling ticket prices, poor facilities and pursuit of profit at all costs.
Most Importantly: – 2000trees is about music. New music. Exciting music. Your faith in British music shall be restored! There are no genre distinctions (although most of the bands do tend to hold guitars), just great great music.
Almost as important: – In no particular order, a friendly and intimate atmosphere, high quality (but reasonably priced) food and drink, cheap ticket prices and keeping things as green as possible.
Along with these reasons and the fact that I found it impossible to choose an image because they’re all so beautiful, I’m going to be adding this to my list of favourite things about the summer after this year.
MP3s:
Subways– Rock and roll queen Oh wow, listening to this takes me back to seeing them in 2005, it’s a great album it’s all nostalgia though; it’s all very 2005.
Bombay Bicycle Club– Always like this I can’t wait to hear this track live, been a favourite for so long. NME is confusing.
Thankyou for reading and thankyou again for making this blog what it is, if it’s getting annoying me being so thankful in every post just say, feedback’s always welcome (:
The Outroversion Music Blog 
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