Review: BST Hyde Park Barclaycard, Arcade Fire

The hottest day of the year turned into a beau­ti­ful evening, and at Hyde Park, Arcade Fire gave a tru­ly inspired per­for­mance. No doubt the band were mak­ing sure that this, their last night of the suc­cess­ful Reflek­tor tour, would be one for us, and them, to remem­ber. Win But­ler was more engag­ing, and more humor­ous, than…

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King of the Mountains: a music festival for the Tour de France

York­shire has nev­er been shy of blow­ing its own trum­pet. “God’s own coun­ty” (coun­try?) and all that, as its cit­i­zens nev­er tire of remind­ing us. So it was fair­ly inevitable that the first stage of the Tour de France hap­pen­ing on God’s own doorstep – Leeds to be more pre­cise – would her­ald an extravaganza…

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Review : Beards, dreads and mud, Bearded Theory Festival 2014

 Every­thing looks spark­ly and fresh at Beard­ed The­o­ry’s new venue at Cat­ton Hall. The grass is lush, green and springy. The main stage stands at one end of the remark­ably flat new site, with a dance tent and the more inti­mate Tor­na­do Town tent just far enough away to be out of earshot, while a secret stage lies hidden…

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The best festivals for 2014 – an update

Here’s an update of some of my top fes­ti­val rec­om­mends for 2014 and as of the time of post­ing, still have tick­ets avail­able. These are all small to medi­um-sized gath­er­ings (no hour-long trudges to the are­na). All these fes­ti­vals have plen­ty of well thought-out activ­i­ties for chil­dren and a fair­ly broad age range of atten­dance, so whether…

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Green and pleasant: festivals for 2014

Dust down the sleep­ing bags and camp­ing stove, the start of fes­ti­val sea­son is only a cou­ple of months away. These days, music fes­ti­vals are work­ing hard­er to attract a fol­low­ing, offer­ing debat­ing ses­sions and work­shops, ban­quets and bal­loon­ing, hop­ing to carve out a unique and iden­ti­fi­able image from a sea of for­mu­la­ic events. Here…

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Festivals round up 2013. The greats and the RIPs

With such a gor­geous hot sum­mer it’s been a good year for music fes­ti­vals. Glas­ton­bury organ­is­er Michael Eav­is who final­ly bagged the Stones this year is call­ing it one of their best ever. But my inter­est is in small­er fes­ti­vals, part­ly because I like being able to walk from tent to are­na in under ten min­utes, partly…

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Review: End of the Road festival 2013

With David Byrne, Sig­ur Ros and Belle & Sebas­t­ian amongst oth­ers on the line­up, End of the Road fes­ti­val set in lush Larmer Tree Gar­dens in Dorset looks like a per­fect musi­cal finale to the sum­mer. Far from feel­ing chilled and serene, I’m feel­ing a knot of ten­sion. Which act should I see? … and while I’m…

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Review: Lounge on the Farm festival, Sunday 2013

Lounge on the Farm in Kent has big acts for the head­lin­ers, and local Kent bands enter­tain the crowds dur­ing the after­noon. I can only assume that every­one was suf­fer­ing from mas­sive hang­overs and too much par­ty­ing to Jessie Ware, as on arriv­ing at Lounge on the Farm at noon Sun­day, it all seemed suspiciously…

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Review: Ealing Blues Festival is now a sunny weekender

Imag­ine a fes­ti­val that only costs £5 entrance, has a choice of stages, sev­er­al food out­lets, the oblig­a­tory clothes and jew­ellery stalls plus a clair­voy­ant or two, a decent-ish bar, spot­less por­taloos with no queues… ok no camp­ing, but then you can’t have every­thing. This is what’s on offer each year at Eal­ing Blues Festival,…

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Review: Letting our hair down at Bearded Theory 2013

Beard­ed The­o­ry fes­ti­val 2013: it’s the fes­ti­val of Beards, Bands and DJs, and that just about sums it up. Now in its sixth year, Beard­ed The­o­ry is set in pic­turesque Kedle­ston Hall, Der­byshire. With some­thing like around 8,000 rev­ellers it’s a nice size, and man­ages to feel like one big par­ty. Beard­ed The­o­ry’s line-up leans towards…

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