Bestival
The official full-stop on the British summer, it's hard to believe that Rob Da Bank's Bestival is only six years old such is its standing.
At this 2010’s ‘Year of The Fantastic’ themed event, the live line-up is simply staggering with The Japanese Popstars, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Echo & The Bunnymen and Ulrich Schnauss just a snapshot of the diversity on offer, while Mylo, Joy Orbison, Todd Edwards, Erol Alkan and Aeroplane are a tiny slice of the DJ bill. The Prodigy will be rocking their only UK festival date of 2010 and their last gig in yonks and Clash collaborator Don Letts will be dropping a DJ set a day. And that’s without mentioning the innumerable extras like the inflatable church, healing fields, the communal fancy dress mayhem or Buttercupcakes afternoon tea hut. Insane on every level and simply massive amounts of fun — come rain or shine.
WHEN? Thursday 13th - Sunday 15th August
WHERE? Robin Hill, Country Park, Isle Of Wight
HOW MUCH? £150 weekend, £150 student weekend, £75 children weekend, £free under 12s weekend
HIGHLIGHTS? The Prodigy, Dizzee Rascal, The Flaming Lips, Roxy Music, Hot Chip, The XX, LCD Soundsystem, Chase & Status, The Wailers, Simian Mobile Disco, Delphic, Tricky and Chic feat Nile Rogers
SW4
A social institution for thousands of London clubbers, SW4 is now a two-day event with Sunday’s event replacing Get Loaded festival on the common.
Upholding the SW4 traditions of old Saturday is strictly big room beats with Armin Van Buuren headlining the epic outdoor stage, while John Digweed’s Bedrock arena offering techno-leaning talents like Joris Voorn, Mutant Clan and Josh Wink, The Gallery’s tent presenting a high-energy trance orgy and Mark Knight’s Toolroom arena coming correct with electronic house dons like Dave Spoon, Dirty South and Funkagenda. Sunday takes things more eclectic with Fatboy Slim dropping his only London show of 2010, a Boys Noize Records arena bringing Boyz Noize, Switch, Erol Alkan, A Trak and more, while Together’s tent covers the full gamut of bass music with Andy C, Skream & Benga, Jack Beats, Ms Dynamite, Mixhell, SBTRKT and more. Fun, friendly, bursting with sick beats and perfectly formed, if you haven’t been to SW4 yet… what are you waiting for
WHEN? Saturday 28th - Sunday 30th August
WHERE? Clapham Common, Clapham, London
HOW MUCH? £75 + BF weekend ticket, £40 + BF Saturday ticket, £40 + BF Sunday ticket
HIGHLIGHTS? Fatboy Slim, Armin Van Buuren, Cal Cox, Josh Wink, Mutant Clan, Joris Voorn, Mark Knight, Dubfire, Vitalic, Boys Noize and Skream & Benga
Creamfields
Not only is this year’s Creamfields line-up ticking off every genre imaginable, it’s generally inviting the biggest brands in the business to showcase them...
...Sven Väth’s Cocoon, Paul Van Dyk’s Vandit, Northern dubstep/d&b giants Ape, Eric Prydz’s Pryda & Friends, hard dance boshers Good Greef, Annie Mac, funky housers Hed Kandi and Chibuku all host arenas across the two days. Cream favourites the Swedish House Mafia are also hosting their own arena for the third year on the spin, global DJ phenomena David Guetta and Tiësto headline the main stage on Saturday and Sunday respectively, while electronica pioneers Leftfield — or at least one half of them — shoot out of retirement for a nostalgic live set.
WHEN? Saturday 28th - Sunday 29th August
WHERE? The Matterley Bowel, near Winchester, Hamps
HOW MUCH? £100 + BF weekend camping ticket, £59 Saturday day ticket, £55 Sunday day ticket
HIGHLIGHTS? Plastikman, Leftfield, The Japanese Popstars, David Guetta, Deadmau5, Tiësto, Calvin Harris, Sven Väth, Armin Van Buuren, Eddie Halliwell and Ferry Corsten
Big Chill Festival
Growing from a word-of-mouth celebration of mind-bending downtempo music for 700 like-minded experience seekers to the globally recognised 35,000 plus festival it is today, the Big Chill’s 16-year legacy makes it something of a national treasure on the Brit festival circuit.
Arguably fresher than ever in its musical make-up, the open-minded gathering still invites plenty of horizontally inclined, bifta beckoning beats but now packs in plenty of late-night rave naughtiness thanks to names like Layo & Bushwacka, wonky Bristolian beatsmith Joker, Toddla T & MC Serocee, genre-crossing coverstar Redlight, a selection of top dollar drum & bass talent from Hospital Records and techno futurists Seth Troxler and Jamie Jones.
WHEN? Thursday 5th - Sunday 8th August
WHERE? Eastnor Castle, Malvern Hills, Hertfordshire
HOW MUCH? £155 adult weekend tickets, £120 student weekend tickets, £60 teen weekend tickets, £70 Sunday day ticket
HIGHLIGHTS? Massive Attack, Kelis, Tinie Tempah, Zero 7, Roots Manuva, Andrew Weatherall, Plan B, Dam-Funk, M.I.A. and Foreign Beggars and more
Global Gathering
Stadium-filling dance superstars, Brit-hop badboys, trance titans, drum & bass dons, hardcore heroes, techno trailblazers, electro icons and dubstep devastators…
…the 10th Global Gathering has it all and then some with 16 Funktion One filled arenas, over 150 strictly first class DJs and live acts, flashing fairground nonsense and 50,000 plus clubbers flooding into Long Marston’s disused airfield from across the lands to go absolutely batshit bonkers. No major surprises — if it ain’t broke don’t fix it is definitely the vibe for the decade anniversary event — although there are new tents in the form of Toolroom Vs Size’s electro-house arena and the debut of FWD Vs Rinse FM’s dubstep/funky/grime showcase.
WHEN? Friday 30th - Saturday 31st July
WHERE? Long Marston Airfield, Stratford upon Avon
HOW MUCH? £192 VIP weekend ticket, £132 weekend ticket
HIGHLIGHTS? Faithless, Dizzee Rascal, 2manydjs, Chase & Status, Armin Van Buuren, Carl Cox, Above & Beyond, Booka Shade, Sub Focus and Eric Prydz
Glade
The raver’s choice, Glade has become the essential annual mash-down for the discerning festival-loving electronic music connoisseur — especially boosted by its move to the Matterley Bowel last year, after years of dire sound level clampdowns in its previous site.
With its thai dyed hippy roots as a woodland clearing stage at Glastonbury, Glade remains decidedly less commercial than dance music festie forefathers like Creamfields, with a line-up that shuns the cheesy superstar DJs for headliners like Tricky, Simian Mobile Disco and Orbital. Most of all, though, Glade is all about debauched, devil-may-care fun. Whether it is the gut-wrenching dubstep and drum & bass bangers that will blast out of the Boomtown tent, the classic techno or future funky of Bloc’s Vapor stage or the wibbly, wobbly high-energy psy-trance basslines that worm out of the outdoor Origin stage, you can be sure that they’ll be met with messy, face-melting grins of appreciation from the notoriously hardcore Glade crowd.
WHEN? Thursday 15th - Sunday 18th July ?
WHERE? The Matterley Bowel, near Winchester, Hampshire
HIGHLIGHTS? Orbital, Tricky, Simian Mobile Disco, Jeff Mills, Green Velvet, Seth Troxler, Magnetic Man, Green Velvet, Holy Ghost!, and Skream & Benga HOW MUCH? £142.50 weekend ticket
Glastonbury
One festival that should need no introduction, the sprawling microcosm of madness that is Glastonbury remains a festival experience like no other in the country.
With well over 30 stages, absolutely massive main-stage headliners and endless pockets of eccentric weirdness, Glastonbury has also got one of the best dance line-ups around these days. A festival in itself, Glastonbury’s ever-expanding Dance Village now features over six separate stages covering everything from underground house to darkside drum & bass, disco grooves to dubstep deepness, and much more beyond, with perennial faves saddling up alongside upstart innovators. Main-stage headliners are still yet to unannounced, but with everyone from The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers to Fatboy Slim and Leftfield rocking things up on either the Pyramid stage or the Other stage in the past, expect some heavyweight electronica to join the assorted ensemble of indie icons, rock gods, pop greats and cult figures.
WHEN? Wednesday 23rd - Sunday 27th June
WHERE? Worthy Farm, Glastonbury, Somerset
HOW MUCH? £sold out
HEADLINERS? Joy Orbison, Dam Funk, Jamie Jones, Kode 9, Roska, Chase & Status, Simian Mobile Disco, Delphic, Above & Beyond, Kelis, Rusko and Chromeo.
Kazantip
This is not a festival. This is a project and my gosh it's immense.
Hold onto your hats and prepare to join the Kazantip Republic, because this baby has it's own philosophy, rules and not many limits.It lasts for about 3 weeks and the artist line up is staggeringly good.The tiny KaZantip Republic exists in a parallel reality, and everything here goes the way the PreZident came up with: "summer all year round" and "life with no pants". The sun is shining, the sea is swinging, the music is singing on every side and the wind is always blowing strong enough for flying with a kite. You can do nothing, if you want nothing to do with doing something or you can do everything you want the way you want it.This small land of the rising fun is peopled not with damn boring grown-ups, but with cheerful bronzed lazybones, not really eager to say goodbye to their childhood, as well as their PreZident himself. The nonexistence of the KaZantip Republic for the rest of the exhausted world makes its significant independency. It lives by its own constitution; it has its own great nation, small president and lolable government, responsible for the most important things in the state, such as sound and light, love and good humour, virtual deeds and illusions. There is also a visa regime, a bureau of customs, national traditions and the official religion - belief in the reality of miracles.It's on the beach, not far from a disused nuclear power station. It's nuts. It's worth a look if you think you're robust enough.
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