If Location, Location did festivals…

If the TV pro­gramme Loca­tion, Loca­tion, Loca­tion were to fea­ture fes­ti­vals instead of hous­es, I imag­ine the fol­low­ing would be select­ed. These have a mag­ic loca­tion ingre­di­ent, being either gor­geous, rur­al, coastal or just unique. A fes­ti­val in a great loca­tion can inspire you in the way a good hol­i­day does. Blue Dot (above)  22 – 24 July A new…

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Field Day festival 2016

I was tempt­ed to call this piece “A Tale of Two Fes­ti­vals”. Sat­ur­day at Field Day 2016 was pri­mar­i­ly geared towards a mid-twen­ties crowd, with plen­ty of dance music and DJs on offer. The cen­tre of the site fea­tured the fes­ti­val’s delight­ful Vil­lage Men­tal­i­ty area where games and gen­er­al silli­ness were in full flow on the ‘vil­lage green’, com­plete with hay…

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Bearded Theory review 2016

The weath­er gods smiled down on Beard­ed The­o­ry again this year: I can only imag­ine it was at the sight of so many hir­sute indi­vid­u­als dis­port­ing them­selves in the Mag­i­cal Sounds dance tent, stomp­ing along to The Lev­ellers on the main stage, or maybe it was the giant pink pup­pets pranc­ing about the fes­ti­val site. Each year, Bearded…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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.…

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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…

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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…

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