Northwest Festival Watch – June 2014

Aside from Oyé and Parklife, June in the Northwest is unusually quiet, probably because everyone is totally done in by May’s full frontal bank holiday assault, and saving themselves for summer proper. But a couple of alternatives for those same weekends have caught our eye.

The first is posited as an actual alternative to Parklife, with the wryly titled Pondlife taking to Platt Fields Park, the former’s old home before it outgrew its student roots as Mad Ferret festival (remember that? Also: remember Dpercussion? Them’s were the days). It’s the most casual of casual affairs, a chilled jamboree of music, art, big sheets to doodle on, and ‘a bit of food’ – they’re suggesting distributing scran for 50p a bowl – and it’s a community effort, so if you’d like to respond to their call-out for musicians or other entertainment (or stalls), you can do so via their Facebook page. Looks like jewellery, cake and clothes stalls have signed up so far.

The weekend of 19-22 June, meanwhile, brings one of the best-kept secrets on the dance calendar – Gottwood electronic music and arts festival, in Anglesey. This year is its fifth birthday and it’s brought in an anniversary-worthy line-up with Gerd Janson, Prosumer and WHO among the top bookings, while a live set from Max Cooper paired with the festival’s idyllic woodland setting will maximise your chance of transcending this infernal plane. Other unmissables include Werkha’s slack grooves, Rinse FM fixture Brackles and Shackleton’s pal Appleblim – and Bristol’s tastemakers Eton Messy are always good fun. Finally, before you’re totally spangled and dressed as a tiger in a small clearing, keep an eye out for locals Jonny Dub, Rich Reason, TCTS and the guys from WAXXX all representing.

Back in Liverpool, LIV-BCN calls itself the first independent festival of Liverpool and Barcelona, and promises to bring together a number of Spanish artists with local talent for a day of cultural exchange at The Kazimier on 21 June. It’s a varied line-up, with Barcelona-based folk artist headlining, plus tunes from producer beGun and known Primavera Sound party DJ, DJ Coco. Flying the flag for Liverpool are GhostChant, Etches, and Broken Men. We’re pretty interested in trying the promised Catalan drink vermut, live illustration from Conrad Roset, and generally just kicking back in the Kaz Garden.

And that’s kind of it. What can I say? Recharge your batteries; July’s calendar is already looking pretty disgusting.