UK Festivals: Summer in the City

Festivals, eh? It's all stinking mud, trench-foot and tents riddled with cigarette burns, right? Or ungodly dustbowls peopled with sweaty punters covered in the three-day stink of eat-sleep-rave-repeat, gazing at stages in the distance where matchstick guitarists and miniature singers stagger. If that's your bag, the UK has plenty to offer this year – we'll be covering yer in-the-field festivals next month. Now, lets take a look at the alternative – the many in-the-city, showcase and single day events taking place across the UK, often featuring a broad cultural programme of lectures, workshops and events alongside the gigs. 

One man playing seemingly every festival going this year is William Doyle, aka East India Youth. In particular, he is looking forward to Liverpool Sound City, which he says "has the upper hand for having a large spread of interesting venues and an incredibly diverse bill." He's pleased that this year, he will be "getting to play at hours where I think my music fits and not at 3pm in the blazing sunshine." Doyle toured with Factory Floor last year - the band's Gabe Gurnsey describes him as "a good lad." Gurnsey is also looking forward to Sound City, which sees gigs happen across dozens of Liverpool venues: "It's good for bands who are used to playing bigger stages to be thrown back into that arena. It's important for the crowds, not just the bands," he says.

Gurnsey is also enthusiastic about the workshops, talks and networking events at Sound City. "There's a real lack of community in the music industry at the minute, because it's all done on the bloody internet, which can be great, but it's nice for people to meet face to face," he says. Factory Floor play events like Sound City "because it does open doors to interesting collaborations and remixes." He's also looking forward to the Liverpool crowds, who gave Factory Floor a hero's welcome at the Kazimier earlier this year: "I think it was a Wednesday night, but it felt like a Saturday!" he says.

Doyle will also consider checking out the events programme at Sound City: "I've seen some really interesting panels and talks at these sorts of things and it can be great to help you consider the wider context of music and your relationship with it," he says. "It kind of makes you feel like maybe there's actually a point to it all and that we're not just here to passively consume music and alcohol."  

Both Gurnsey and Doyle are looking forward to catching Jon Hopkins live at this year's Parklife Weekender in Manchester, where they both play. "I seem to be following Jon Hopkins around the UK festival circuit pretty much everywhere," laughs Doyle. "I just hope he doesn't think I'm stalking him..." Asked if he feels nervous at all about plying his one-man show at some big festivals this summer, Doyle replies confidently: "I'm quite active on stage, and the sound of the set has certainly grown in scale over the last year so I'm not too worried about feeling dwarfed by anything. I reckon I can handle it."

Gurnsey isn't worrying about Factory Floor's tight, locked-in playing perhaps over-running at this year's events. "Sometimes someone will appear at the side of the stage and say: 'You've got ten minutes left,' and we'll be like 'Fucking hell, haven't we already done two hours-worth?' You get so immersed in it sometimes, you do totally lose track of time," he says. "Sometimes we've gone over by half an hour and been kicked off stage – that's happened before. It's all good, it's quite nice to cut it dead at some point, and leave the audience wanting more. We're not worried about running over – we nailed our set on the UK tour, there's a nice run at each of the tracks, it is a lot more consolidated. But we could play forever to be honest, a week's worth of music... a bloody kraut-rock frenzy jam."

Also playing Liverpool Sound City, and Glasgow's own in-the-city festival Stag & Dagger, is Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., playing tracks from his 2013 EP AHJ. "Both of these sounds a bit like South by Southwest," he says. "I like being in the city. It's closer to everything, so that's kind of nice. I told my booking agent I had a great time playing in the UK last time, so I've always wanted to tour for 3 weeks and play everywhere. I've done my best to make that happen." Hammond will also play dates supporting Phoenix when he hits the UK this summer. "I had a great time in Scotland last time," Hammond recalls. "I played at 1.30 in the morning. It was amazing. I don't think I've ever played that late." 

One city festival with a strong electronic lineup is London's Field Day, where Daniel Avery will be playing back to back with his Phantasy label boss Erol Alkan. "I've played for them a few times and they are all friends of mine now," says Avery. "They supported me from a very early stage. I played to next to no-one, but in those early days I got to share the stage with artists I really respect and look up to, and since then I've worked my way up the bill with Errol, and it feels good."

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"We could play forever... a week's worth of music. A bloody krautrock frenzy jam" – Gabe Gurnsey, Factory Floor

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Asked if he feels like he is spearheading an acid house revival at this summer's festivals, Avery agrees that "there's definitely something happening right now," namechecking Matt Walsh of Clouded Vision, Ben UFO and Funkineven as fellow travellers. But, he says: "Revival is maybe the wrong word to use – I never want to see what I do as retro in any way. I want to play music that sounds like it comes from the future. There's an alternative edge to the techno and acid we're all playing." Each of these acts "have a kind of acid edge to what they do."

Scotland gets its own electronic music shindig at the Riverside Festival, where venerated Glasgow duo Slam will be showcasing their wares. "We are teaming up with our German brothers Pan-Pot for some back to back for the finale on the Saturday night," says the duo's Orde Meikle. They go on after Derrick May, "who is still one of the best DJs in the world... so we are certainly under pressure to perform out of our skins!" He is looking forward to sets from Laurent Garnier, Andrew Weatherall, Maurizio, Visonquest, Jamie Jones, and a rare back to back on Sunday from Chicago legends Cajmere and Sneak. "Glasgow is extremely vibrant right now," he believes. With Riverside taking place at an "unusual and breathtaking location, with the infrastructure built from scratch," Slam will be serving up Glasgow techno in their own inimitable style at this one-off event. 

A look through the summer festival calendar for in-the-city and showcase events shows just how healthy and diverse the UK music scene is at the moment, with many if not all of the acts booked for these smaller, more bespoke festivals coming from within the UK, with a few big names from overseas sweetening the pot. One thing's certain – if you care less about seeing Kasabian for the umpteenth time, and could do without Calvin Harris bothering you with cheesy trance drops while you're trying to enjoy some avant garde surf-punk, these are the festivals for you.

The Denovali Swingfest (18-19 Apr) in London is not a celebration of big band swing-dancing, thank goodness. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but we'd much rather see the likes of top-class experimental producer and Tri-Angle beatsmith The Haxan Cloak, and Edinburgh's Tru Thoughts-signed jazz/folk/hip-hop collective Hidden Orchestra, than learn how to twirl and jive. Taking place at London's Village Underground and Cafe Oto, Swingfest is brought to us by Germany's Denovali Records and a line-up which also features Scotland's John Lemke, Ulrich Schnauss and others.

Brighton's increasingly gigantic in-the-city showcase The Great Escape (8-10 May) have booked more than 400 band in total this year, playing across 35 venues throughout the city – and Brighton itself provides some serious attractions in terms of all the boutique shops, hipster bars and picturesque pebbled beaches you could possibly desire. Highlights from the lineup include Glasgow favourites Casual Sex and R.M. Hubbert, alongside big names like Wild Beasts, These New Puritans and Kelis, and hotly-tipped emerging acts like Blue Daisy and Circa Waves.

The Supersonic Festival (30-31 May) in Birmingham celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, and along with cutting-edge music, also showcases film, arts and crafts. This year they'll be welcoming a seriously eclectic lineup, with the big draw being the full-on sonic assault of Michael Gira's Swans. There's also the experimental likes of Ex-Easter Island Head, Matmos and Wolf Eyes to tempt you in. 

Now we come to the city-based electronic festivals – an increasingly popular subsection of the UK circuit, with punters turning away from the enormo-trance gatherings in fields so popular in the early 2000s in favour of warehouses, disused airports and club spaces. One of the best this year, in terms of its lineup, is London's Field Day (7-8 Jun), attracting some of the biggest names on the non-tents 'n' mud circuit – as well as featuring Daniel Avery and Errol Alkan's back-to-back set, they have Pixies and Metronomy headlining, with support coming from Warpaint, Evian Christ, Neneh Cherry & Rocketnumbenine, Oneohtrix Point Never, Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks, The Horrors, Danny Brown, Ghostpoet, Temples, Jagwar Ma, and Glasgow's Jackmaster – with more still to be confirmed as we go to print. Also in London, James Lavelle's Meltdown (13-22 Jun) will see Ninja Tune founder Lavelle's carefully-curated lineup take over London's Southbank Centre, again with Miss Cherry & Rocketnumbernine, plus Mark Lanegan, Lavelle's own UNKLE project, Chrissie Hynde, Edwyn Collins and others, as well as a programme of film screenings.

In Manchester, the Parklife Weekender (7-8 Jun) has an equally impressive bill – curated by Manchester's Warehouse Project team, the lineup is as diverse as it is mercurial, with headline sets from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Foals, SBTRKT, Kendrick Lamar, Public Enemy, Warpaint and Disclosure, and more experimental artists such as Flying Lotus (also appearing as his hip-hop alter-ego Captain Murphy), the aforementioned Jon Hopkins, Gold Panda, DJ Koze, Illum Sphere, Thundercat, and the Givenchy-loving, punch-throwing, one man dubstep car crash that is Zomby.

Back up in Glasgow, the Riverside Festival (3-4 May), organised in conjunction between Electric Frog and Sub Club institution Pressure, is a two-day festival of all things house and techno, with sets from French techno don Vitalic playing live, along with 2manydjs, Slam, Tiga, Felix Da Housecat, Laurent Garnier and Andrew Weatherall, amongst others. Meanwhile Tramlines (25-27), Sheffield's inner-city music festival, with gigs across various venues in the city, have booked Public Enemy for their headliners, alongside Deap Vally, Gold Panda, Jonwayne, The Gaslamp Killer and The Wedding Present. 

Edinburgh gets its own mini-showcase festival at Wide Days (9-10 Apr), an industry convention organised by Born To Be Wide, and featuring performances from six carefully-selected up-and-coming artists – Edinburgh's mesmeric vocal experimentalist LAW, jangly indie tykes Model Aeroplanes, Lost Map newbies Tuff Love, The Jellyman's Daughter, and Angus Munro.

Also taking place in Scotland, up in Inverness, is goNORTH (4-5 Jun) – no line-up details had been announced at time of going to press, but it's a great place to discover Scotland's Next Big Thing, with sets from emerging bands and labels from around the country, and talks, showcases and workshops from industry high heid yins. And of course, there's Glasgow's multi-venue blitzkrieg Stag & Dagger (4 May), always a healthy snapshot of the international landscape – they've got Albert Hammond Jr., Forest Swords, Courtney Barnett, Ezra Furman, Jungle, East India Youth, and many more. 

Two of the big players now, both in the Northwest – first there's the gigantic Liverpool Sound City (1-3 May), now one of the UK's biggest convention-cum-showcase festivals, with over 100 bands playing across a great swathe of Liverpool's best venues over three days – as mentioned above, our chosen highlights include Factory Floor, Jon Hopkins, and East India Youth (the boy's a machine), as well as big names like Fuck Buttons, Kodaline, 65daysoftstatic, The Hold Steady, and a plethora of up-and-coming bands. Keynote speakers include Thurston Moore and John Cale.

Its smaller, more DIY rival, Salford's Sounds From the Other City (4 May) might only last a day, but there's some serious talent on offer – our Northwest edition has a feature, that will also run online, speaking to the organisers. The highlights include Glasgow's Golden Teacher, who we profile this issue, plus Lee Gamble, Adult Jazz and PINS, amongst others. 

Back up in Scotland, Aberdeen's The Big Beach Ball (4 May) is a one-day festival absolutely jam-packed with both national and international talent - there's a strong electronic line-up, with Green Velvet as Cajmere, Mylo, Kerri Chandler, Optimo and Silicone Soul manning the turntables, plus a wealth of Scottish indie talent, headed up by Admiral Fallow, The Pictish Trail, Malcolm Middleton, Fatherson and more. 

To finish up, a mention for two seriously avant garde and thrillingly experimental showcases. Firstly, the Tectonics Festival (9-11 May), taking place in Glasgow, twinned with a sister-event in Reykjavik. They welcome Thurston Moore, Muscles of Joy, Conquering Animal Sound's Anneke Kampman (aka ANAKANAK), Bill Wells and others for a series of special gigs, including one-off collaborations between the artists, and classical concerts from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and others.

Also featuring an impressive bill of avant garde performers is Glasgow's Counterflows (4-6 Apr), showcasing experimental jazz, electronica, psychedelic pop, drone and a myriad of other genres, with highlights including cult songwriter Ela Orleans in collaboration with filmmaker and counter-culture icon Maja Borg, Heatsick's Extended Play live set / installation featuring Joe Mcphee and Golden Teacher, and many other strange and wonderful highlights. Keep reading our Festval Watch coverage online for lineup additions and breaking news.