Festival Season 2013: The Lesser Known
Festivals! They're still happening, except all the ones you used to just roll up to now sell out months in advance ’cause every man and his dog wants to go. Here are some lesser known gems for you to throw your pay packet at instead
UK
PARKLIFE (8-9 Jun, Heaton Park, Manchester)
www.parklife.uk.com
What started out as sloppy student-fest Mad Ferret (geddit?) a few years ago has evolved into Manchester's own 'proper' festival; and though the upgrade this year from Platt Fields park to a massive fuck-off venue more used to hosting firework displays and The Stone Roses removes the chance of finding yourself in an impromptu rave in a CD shop in Rusholme on the way home, a few one-off bookings and a crowd-pleasing DJ roster keep Parklife on our radar.
Don't miss: The opportunity to watch Todd Terje vs Lindstrøm duelling it out over who released last year's finest dance record (spoiler: it was Terje), The Bug's subterranean discomfort, young Detroit blood Danny Brown, and a still-triumphant Daphni on the decks. [LS]
Tickets: Day £45, weekend £69.50
GOTTWOOD (20-23 Jun, Anglesey, Wales)
www.gottwood.co.uk
Set in an intimate, forest-bound location and with a similar focus on the clever, experimental end of the dance music spectrum to that of Eastern Electrics (below), Gottwood is an attractive alternative to your more urban rave-ups, with an immersive environment including light shows, space to chill, and 'luxury furnished bell tents' for those who prefer glamping.
Don't miss: Hamburg's Extrawelt, Warp/Rephlex/Ninja Tune veteran Luke Vibert, Manchester's drum and bass don Marcus Intalex, breakbeat hardcore ambassadors 2 Bad Mice, and a massive lineup of underground DJ talent. [IK]
Tickets: £95
EASTERN ELECTRICS (2-4 Aug, Knebworth Park, Hertfordshire)
www.easternelectrics.com
Eastern Electrics moves from the Greenwich Peninsula to Knebworth Park to present a who's who of bleeding-edge dance music, with labels such as Hessle Audio, Hotflush and Numbers all represented. Think of it as a hipper Creamfields, with the emphasis on invention and innovation rather than straight-up hedonism.
Don't miss: The cream of UK bass music from Hessle Audio founder Ben UFO and occasional contributor Blawan, top-drawer techno, garage and bass from Numbers rising star Jackmaster and Hotflush hotstepper Joy Orbison, plus classic techno from legends such as Richie Hawtin, Dave Clarke and DJ Sneak. [IK]
Tickets: Day from £30, two-day from £70, weekend from £115
BEACONS (16-18 Aug, Heslaker Farm, Skipton)
www.greetingsfrombeacons.com
The brainchild of those behind respected venues like Leeds' Nation of Shopkeepers and Liverpool's The Shipping Forecast, Beacons matches great taste – with input from promoters including Manchester's Now Wave – with the atmospheric surrounds of the bracing Skipton countryside. Last year's maiden voyage felt 'boutique' without being tame; good food (grab the fried plantain), a small site, but still plenty rough 'round the edges.
Don't miss: A rare UK live set from Spanish producer John Talabot, whose sultry, stealthy album Fin was undoubtedly 2012's finest hangover soother, the aqueous, melancholic house of Floating Points, and an unforgiving Fucked Up. And as Beacons is one of those precious commodities – a UK festival that understands you don't want to hit the airbed at 11pm – your early hours are capably catered for by savvy Irish boys Bicep and Hoya Hoya's effortless, estimable Jon K. [LS]
Tickets: £74.50 early bird (limited), £99.50 thereafter
FESTIVAL NO 6 (13-15 Sep, Portmeirion, Gwynedd, Wales)
www.festivalnumber6.com
Made famous by 60s psychedelic espionage TV thriller The Prisoner, Portmeirion is a wonderland of mismatched, overwrought architecture, supposedly modelled on an Italian village. In the show it served as a gilded cage for a retired spy known only as Number Six. His character gives Festival No 6 its name – but it's not just a number, it's a killer festival, with indie rock stalwarts rubbing shoulders with the dance intelligentsia, and a strong literary and arts strand.
Don't miss: Post-dubstep pioneers Mount Kimbie and James Blake, hyped R&B duo AlunaGeorge, punk poet John Cooper Clarke, and DJ sets from Sir Andrew of Weatherall, house originator Frankie Knuckles, and techno legend Carl Craig. [IK]
Tickets: Day £65, weekend (adult) from £170
LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PSYCHEDELIA (27-28 Sep, Camp and Furnace, Liverpool)
www.liverpoolpsychfest.com
As with its inaugural event last year, the second Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia fills the caverns of Camp and Furnace with the best and weirdest of today's expansive buzz and tripped-out dirge. The UK's biggest celebration of psychedelic subculture also features art and film alongside the music, while Chicago's fugged-out Trouble in Mind label curate a stage, bringing some of their finest acts with them.
Don't miss: The first UK performance of Ty Segall's new band Fuzz, Sacred Bones Records labelmates Psychic Ills and Chilean duo The Holydrug Couple, Liverpool's homegrown Clinic, the naïve pop wanderings of the Netherlands' Jacco Gardner and the proggy, knotty foliage of Carlton Melton. [LS]
Tickets: £30 early bird (limited)
INTERNATIONAL
NUITS SONORES (7-12 May, various venues, Lyon, France)
www.nuits-sonores.com
With Barcelona's Sónar having gotten a bit too big for its boots, Lyon's Nuits Sonores is looking ever more like one of the globe's most sophisticated (yet still accessible) electronic line-ups. Running parallel to the festival is a programme of six installation projects, Images Sonores, bringing together artists, filmmakers, light designers and developers in creating 'scenographic' experiences that allow festivalgoers to participate in... erm, something. You'll probably be too fucked to notice.
Don't miss: Phantasy's prodigy Daniel Avery, whose tunnelling, paranoid Water Jump EP is something else played out live, Merseyside's Evian Christ with his weird mixture of searing Holy Other-esque bandwidths and screwed hip-hop vocals, Kölsch's stripped, sad synths, Pantha Du Prince and The Bell Laboratory performing their ambitious Elements of Light project, and the Kompakt DJ Crew high on a year of celebrating the label's 20th anniversary. [LS]
Tickets: All days and nights €148, various day/night options available
MELT! (19-21 Jul, Ferropolis, Germany)
www.meltfestival.de
Set in the island confines of Ferropolis (literally 'city of iron'), a city-sized museum filled with machinery, vehicles and contraptions from the 20th century and situated about an hour and a half's drive from central Berlin, Melt! boasts an enormous slab of a lineup well-balanced between dance and alt.rock/indie.
Don't miss: Thom Yorke's supergroup Atoms For Peace, Amon Tobin DJing under his stark, neo-brutalist dubstep guise as Two Fingers, an electro-pop deathmatch between CHVRCHES and Purity Ring, psychedelic hip-hop supremo Flying Lotus, and dark atmospheres from Trentemøller. [IK]
Tickets: €119
FLOW (7-11 Aug, Helsinki, Finland)
www.flowfestival.com
Helsinki has a vibrant musical culture despite its small size, and the highlight of its musical calendar is Flow, a hipster-friendly four-day gathering that focuses mainly on music, but incorporates a dynamic programme of film screenings, workshops, and top-notch food and drink.
Don't miss: The return of Swedish oddballs The Knife, Hudson Mohawke fresh from more collaboration with Lunice as TNGHT, Julia Holter's shy, ectoplasmic pop, and man of the moment Kendrick Lamar. [IK]
Tickets: Opening concert (The Knife) €54, three-day €150, four-day €180
DIMENSIONS (5-9 Sep, Fort Punta Christo Pula, Croatia)
www.dimensionsfestival.com
Toting by far the classiest of the Croatian dance festivals' lineups, and – for the heads among you – claiming a more exacting tech spec than the rest, Dimensions, only in its second year, strikes a faultless balance between euphoria and experimentalism, pleasing adrenaline hunters and chin-strokers alike (chances are you're both). Daytimes on the beach shift to the spectacular buildings of Fort Punta Christo Pula from 8pm to 6am. Prepare to enter hedonia.
Don't miss: Pearson Sound's spot-on sense of pace, the dark layers and recesses of WIFE, Karenn (aka Blawan and Pariah) turning aggression into some sort of art, Demdike Stare's ground-up, grainy sonics – and, because you're bound to be having more than a few introspective moments, respite comes in the shape of The Invisible and a live set from Portico Quartet. [LS]
Tickets: £135. Those travelling from Manchester or London may like to jump aboard the Sunshine Bus, bundling coach travel and a festival ticket for £330
ICELAND AIRWAVES (30 Oct–3 Nov, various venues, Reykjavík, Iceland)
www.icelandairwaves.is
Venue-hopping across downtown Reykjavík's 101 postcode – from the ship-like hulk of the Art Museum to the tiny 12 Tónar record shop – is an experience in and of itself; combine that with a programme that mixes international artists with local unknowns, a type of hedonism known only to those who've spent a night in tiny house-cum-bar Kaffibarinn and the opportunity to nip off and watch a geysir explode out of the earth, and you've got Iceland Airwaves.
Don't miss: the untethered ramblings of beyond-prolific Syrian folk artist Omar Souleyman, Piccadilly Records' album of 2012-scoopers Goat, and Icelandic pop pin-up Sin Fang. Oh and err, some German group or other. Kraftwerk-something. [LS]
Tickets: SEK18.500 (just under £190)