Port Eliot festival 2018 – the first lineup

Pic­turesque Port Eliot fes­ti­val, set on the South East Cor­nish coast, has built a rep­u­ta­tion for its thought­ful­ly curat­ed line­up, a mix of music, com­e­dy, work­shops and talks. Food, fash­ion and lit­er­a­ture also fea­ture. The beau­ti­ful estate is buzzing from dawn to mid­night and beyond with a huge vari­ety of events, so one minute you…

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Sea Change festival adds Dartington Hall as a venue

Sea Change fes­ti­val in Totnes has estab­lished quite a name for itself in its two years of its exis­tence. Start­ed by Drift Record shop, its knowl­edge­able own­ers have enticed a raft of stel­lar names both emerg­ing and estab­lished, to play at a host of quirky venues around the town. There’s the restored Totnes Cin­e­ma, two…

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Deltiron festival in Cadiz

Things have been a bit qui­et at Gourmet Gigs while I’ve been vis­it­ing south­ern Spain. But as chance would have it, we were invit­ed to a local music fes­ti­val called Deltirón in the breezy, friend­ly coastal city of Cádiz. I swapped a life­time of damp fes­ti­vals on home turf for one with palm trees, enviably…

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No talking please, I’m listening to the band

I post­ed this in 2017 but its mes­sage sad­ly rings truer than ever. “This is a place for music lovers. If you want to talk to your friends when the bands are on, please use the oth­er bar.” The above sign is plas­tered promi­nent­ly on the venue door at The Trades in Heb­den Bridge, York­shire, one of…

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Green Man festival 2017 review

This year was the 15th anniver­sary of Green Man, the bucol­ic fes­ti­val set in the Bre­con Bea­cons. It is – since the demise of Big Chill – my favourite fes­ti­val venue, with its lush moun­tain­ous set­ting and main stage framed dra­mat­i­cal­ly by the Black Moun­tains. For those short of stature (like myself), you’ll always have…

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Review: Leftfield at Bluedot festival

Review of Left­field ‘Left­ism’ at Blue­dot fes­ti­val, by Nicholas Mai “Come on Tom, let’s go and see some prop­er music”. And so the uncer­tain eight-year(ish) old boy duti­ful­ly fol­lows his father into the tent where Left­field are warm­ing up the crowd nice­ly as the first of the big name open­ing Fri­day acts at this year’s Bluedot…

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Music Day at Crouch End Festival

I am thrilled to announce a whole day of music on two stages – Crouch End Fes­ti­val’s very own Music Day on the 11th June.Head for the green out­side Hornsey Town Hall. And there’s an extra Music Night on Thurs­day 15th in the Sup­per Room in Hornsey Town Hall. I have had a hand in…

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Space 36: the Brexit issue

Wait­ing to Exhale: a cre­ative explo­ration in response to Brex­it A sub­ur­ban house turned into an exper­i­men­tal and beau­ti­ful space for the cre­ation of project-based art, this is the essence of Space 36, in Fins­bury Park, north Lon­don. In 2016, the own­ers of the house, Ahmed Farooqui and Alan Swann, held an exhi­bi­tion which they chose…

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