Location, location: music for 2013 in unforgettable venues

From tiny, friend­ly gigs where you feel as if you’re in some­one’s liv­ing room, to the big, bold and out­landish, 2013 is all about state­ment venues. Here are a few to whet the appetite. 1. Feb­ru­ary 17: Bush Hall, Shep­herds Bush, west Lon­don. Only £5. A mel­low Sun­day evening under the chan­de­liers beck­ons at this…

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The beginning of “The End” – a music festival for Crouch End

This week’s post is a bit dif­fer­ent, but there’s some­thing excit­ing hap­pen­ing next week­end in my neigh­bour­hood so I’d like to give it a heads up. It’s a mini music fes­ti­val called The End, and its hap­pen­ing in Crouch End, north Lon­don. The End takes place Fri­day 16th and Sat­ur­day 17th Novem­ber, start­ing at 7pm…

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Music Festivals – what’s on the horizon?

2012 has not been an easy year for fes­ti­vals. The eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion and the depress­ing wet weath­er took their toll. The sea­son kicked off with a dis­as­trous­ly sod­den Isle of Wight, fol­lowed by sim­i­lar prob­lems at Cream­fields dance week­ender, and Wake­stock in Wales. Even Mor­risons, the super­mar­ket chain, was due to get in on the…

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Review: Towersey Village Festival 2012

This is a fan­tas­tic small fes­ti­val. In 2011 it fea­tured the Cor­nish folk band 3 Daft Mon­keys, and the haunt­ing­ly beau­ti­ful Salt­fish Forty. Here is a review of Tow­ersey Vil­lage Fes­ti­val 2012 by guest blog­ger Tes­sa Gordziejko. Tow­ersey Vil­lage Fes­ti­val in Oxford­shire – now in its 48th year- has some­thing spe­cial that brings peo­ple back year after year. I’ve been…

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Green Man 2012

Into this post-Olympic, rain-drenched mid sum­mer, the tenth Green Man fes­ti­val burst into life. Nes­tled in the Black Moun­tains of mid Wales, Green Man’s are­na on Fri­day is a won­der to behold; still at this point a green and pleas­ant land with its beau­ti­ful­ly posi­tioned main Moun­tain Stage – a nat­ur­al amphithe­atre, with a con­ve­nient steep…

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A new rising star called Nova Festival

    It was a long await­ed moment, but here it is, Big Chill founder Kat­ri­na Larkin with co-pro­­duc­er Vic­to­ria Burns new fes­ti­val for 2012, called Nova. Big Chill com­bined a per­fect blend of ele­ments, planned with a metic­u­lous atten­tion to detail that made the fes­ti­val such a plea­sure. Every­thing worked – the intel­li­gent mix…

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Paradise Gardens festival at London Pleasure Gardens

Well this fes­ti­val sounds promis­ing! One of my favourite bands, the mighty Alaba­ma 3 are play­ing at Par­adise Gar­dens, a free Lon­don week­end fam­i­ly fes­ti­val with lots of enter­tain­ment for all ages. Up till this year, Par­adise Gar­dens Fes­ti­val has tak­en place at leafy Vic­to­ria Park in East Lon­don. This year, the fes­ti­val is the…

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Review: Field Day, Victoria Park 2012

  I’ve been to a num­ber of Wire­less and assort­ed day fes­ti­vals in Hyde Park but gen­er­al­ly not been won over. Pre­fer to wan­der around the are­na know­ing my tent, a cup of tea and a snooze on a musty sleep­ing bag are only a stroll away. But Field Day in east Lon­don’s Vic­to­ria Park was…

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Mazzy Star ate my ears

The elu­sive Mazzy Star have a new album release mid 2012, so the band are now out on the road, yay! The band played at Field Day fes­ti­val, at the same time as head­lin­ers Franz Fer­di­nand on the Eat Your Own Ears main stage. Mazzy played at the Vil­lage Men­tal­i­ty tent, and the await­ing crowd…

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