Festival season, like an impending wave of low pressure threatening to burst our river banks, is upon us. And to get our taste buds tingling, organisers have been chomping at the bit to let you know of their exclusive headline acts ready to define our summers. These days, the great line-up announcement has become a bit of a furore in itself, with countdowns a-plenty smattering Twitter feeds and Facebook pages alike, battling for your precious £65.95 + booking fee.
This week club promoters Dollop smashed our inboxes with news of brand new city festival Elsewhere, and it’s one to sit up for. Featuring Mike Skinner and Actress as headliners, the festival can also boast funk-fiend Floating Points and girl of the moment Kelela amongst their intelligent and exciting line up. Taking place in Hackeny at the start of May, the festival will be an indoor affair traversing several of East London’s best loved venues. And with ticket prices set under the £20 mark, there’s no risk of that overdraft being extended.
Spring was officially brought into play this week, alongside the announcement of two new headliners for Croatia’s Electric Elephant festival. The small capacity utopic fest has added Groove Armada’s Tom Findlay and Simian Mobile Disco both putting in some big DJ sets. With Derrick May, Francois K and Motor City Drum Ensemble already announced, this will be one elephant that you won’t want to ignore.
Keeping in the Croatian string of things, Dimensions Festival announced their beastly line up of launch parties, which are proving to be a truly worldwide affair. From Athens to Melbourne to Zagreb, lovers of underground bass and techno can indulge in their dimensions dreams, with parties being hosted by the world’s greatest clubs and promoters. At this rate a ticket to the launch and a flight to Sydney might just suit me fine!
Wondering why the RockNess line up hasn’t been released yet? Well after much speculation the Scottish alternative festival has confirmed that it will be a taking a sabbatical this year, promising to make 2015’s event bigger and better. The festival which takes place just round the corner from Nessie’s famous Loch will not be happening this June due to the huge string of events scheduled for 2014. With the commonwealth games happening down the road in Glasgow and the World Cup poised to take over our TVs, it seems like a good time for RockNess to take a breather. As for Scotland’s other big summer festival, 2014 seems set to be bigger than ever. T in The Park has just added 80s pop greats Human League to the bill. Don’t you want me baby? Yes, yes I do.
