Field Day curate a street-food feast

Field Day fes­ti­val has built a rep­u­ta­tion for intel­li­gent cura­tion and secur­ing exclu­sives – this year PJ Har­vey and James Blake are head­lin­ing, with artists such as Float­ing Points, Blos­soms, Goat and Fat White Fam­i­ly as part of the eclec­tic line­up. I’ll always be grate­ful to Field Day for man­ag­ing to entice the elu­sive Mazzy Star onto their stage in 2012. The team are work­ing sim­i­lar magic…

Read More

Eight reasons to love Bearded Theory festival

1  It’s the per­fect fes­ti­val sea­son open­er  three (and a bit) days of music with a choice of stages and two new ones for 2016,  plus the infa­mous dance tent. And there’s plen­ty more going on besides. Tick­ets are only just over £100 and Beard­ed The­o­ry fes­ti­val is, as usu­al, on the way to sell­ing out, so don’t wait too long. 2  Magical…

Read More

Green and pleasant: the ultimate festival guide 2016

If you’re a fes­ti­val fan, by now you’re dream­ing of a green field, ban­ners wav­ing in the breeze, the sound of a band on the main stage… yes, fes­ti­val sea­son is near­ly upon us again, and here is my Ulti­mate Fes­ti­val Guide. Most have been per­son­al­ly tried and test­ed, some on a year­ly basis – plus there’s…

Read More

Nadine Khouri, Romeo Stodart, Bernard Butler: The End Festival

Not con­tent with pre­sent­ing us with a mere week­end of music, this year pro­mot­er Howard Monk and the team behind The End Fes­ti­val, set in Crouch End, extend­ed the event over 11 days. Heady and ambi­tious stuff. There’s no point pre­tend­ing it’s all gone like clock­work but that’s not what The End is all about.…

Read More

The End Festival 2015: opening weekend

The End Fes­ti­val is at the half-way mark, and so far it’s been an enjoy­able, if slight­ly chaot­ic, expe­ri­ence, with a dai­ly ros­ter of bands appear­ing at venues around Crouch End. Open­ing night at Earl Haig fea­tured Ice­landic out­fit YLJA (they are appear­ing twice more over the fes­ti­val’s dura­tion) and are notable for their crystalline…

Read More

Ramsbottom festival 2015

There has been an emer­gence of a North­ern Pow­er­house of fes­ti­vals over the past few years, with Kendal Call­ing, a host of York­shire events – and one which has qui­et­ly made its way onto the cir­cuit – Rams­bot­tom Fes­ti­val. Being a Lan­cashire lass, I’m glad to see an event which gives a plat­form to so many established…

Read More

Review: Festival Number 6 2015

Fes­ti­val Num­ber 6 feels as if it has ful­ly got into its stride. It offers a dizzy­ing array of intel­li­gent­ly-curat­ed events, from bands and DJs to com­e­dy, night­time pro­ces­sions, work­shops and talks, plus some­thing this fes­ti­val has come to excel in – inter­views and inti­mate per­for­mances by a hand­ful of the main-stage artists.

Read More

Running a festival business – four traders tell their stories

Do you have a busi­ness that you think would go down well at fes­ti­vals? I asked four such  entre­pre­neur­ial types, with ven­tures in T‑shirts, vin­tage tents, gourmet cof­fee and holis­tic mas­sage – about their expe­ri­ences as fes­ti­val traders. Is it a com­bi­na­tion of fun and prof­it, and are you guar­an­teed enough time out to catch a favourite band? One…

Read More

Review: Ealing Blues Festival 2015

  With a rare glimpse of sun in a gloomy July, we head­ed to Eal­ing Blues Fes­ti­val held in Wal­pole Park, it’s one of a series of sum­mer fes­ti­vals run every year put on by Eal­ing Coun­cil. The event always resem­bles a ‘prop­er’ fes­ti­val in minia­ture, with a choice of two big music tents – the Main Stage,…

Read More