The Other Side Festival Guide 2010 by The Other Side Magazine

MURDER ON THE STANDON EXPRESS A delightful boutique festival with an ear for talent.”–Observer

staRring

LIARS

ORQUESTA

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB®

THE MAGIC NUMBERS

FEATURING OMARA PORTUONDO

EFTERKLANG

Etienne De Crecy presents beats ’n’cubes (new live show)

GILLES PETERSON

salena godden’s book club boutique i Interactive theatre swing lessons i Burlesque life drawing i rockaoke 16th Century Manor House Location i swimming pool i Bars open all-hours On-site nightclub i boutique camping i Gourmet street food at

6-8th august 2010 / standon, hertfordshire / www.standon-calling.com

welcome

t doesn’t take much to make me happy. Generally a mixed bag of nuts will do the trick, and come the summer I’m a beacon of light, the one that shines down on Jesus during bad religious films. I like the fact that other people seem to be happy, you can hide an overindulgence of pear cider the night before with some dark glasses, and best of all, tonnes of people disappear for their holidays. Sometimes me included. TOS is happy because we get to make a festival edition and frolic around in fields to our favourite music, hiding in teepees and dressing up as zombies, spacemen, Albert Einstein, Batman, Orvil... you name it we’ve worn it. Our summer edition is all about the best festivals on offer and not the ones where you might see a glimpse of Kings of Leon from 500 yards away, or the ones where you have to buy Carling or nothing. It’s also got its fair share of London too. We explore Elephant and Castle, Camden’s remaining record shops and even search the TOS archives. Enjoy. Ed.x

the other side | festivals 2010

CONTENTS

TOS GUIDE TO FESTIVALS

DISCOVER KING’S CROSS

IF YOU WERE A FESTIVAL...

CAMDEN’S RECORD SHOPS

ELEPHANT & CASTLE IN TRANSITION

SEVEN STOPS: ROOF GARDENS

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

TOP 50 THINGS THIS SUMMER

LOVEBOX

LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL

FIELD DAY

MELTDOWN

FESTIVAL BRAZIL

CARNAVAL DEL PUEBLO

FESTIVAL PEOPLE

STANDON CALLING

THE GREAT ESCAPE

DRINKING AT FESTIVALS

SHAMBALA

SUPERNORMAL

WYCHWOOD

TRUCK

BESTIVAL

END OF THE ROAD

LATITUDE

THE BIG CHILL

GREEN MAN

EDINBURGH FRINGE

SPANISH FESTIVALS

CROATIAN FESTIVALS

ROSKILDE

POST FESTIVAL SURVIVAL

DOPING PANDA

COMIC STRIP

READING IN 1973

PENWITH IN 1983

Who we are: Sam Lassman Watts, Nathan May, Rebecca Hall, Adam Hayes, Josh King, Adam Richmond, Joe Bridal, Dan Murdoch, Kayleigh Ann Witt, Nico Pico, Cardorowski, Mark Long, Ben Olsen, Lionel King Lassman, Tom Webster, Kirsty Henderson, Chloe George, Wolfgang Moneypenny, Steven Ellis, Alice Ross, Sara McCorquodale, Jez Berns, Katie Cox, Brenna Duncan, Clinton Cawood, Robert McCallum, Chris Bennett, Anthony Chalmers, Nick Gratwick, Vikki Cullen, John Daniels, Kitty Curran, Peter Quinn, Tom Ireland, Josh L Watts, Owen Pomeroy & Jack Bedeman Become a TOSer: www.theothersidemag.co.uk Advertising enquiries: advertising@tosmag.co.uk Editorial enquiries: info@tosmag.co.uk © No reprinting of anything without our permission

the other side | festivals 2010

GORILLAZ(UK) JACK JOHNSON(US) MUSE(UK) NEPHEW(DK) PRINCE(US) THE PRODIGY(UK) PATTI SMITH AND BAND(US) THEM CROOKED VULTURES(US/UK) ALICE IN CHAINS(US) BAD LIEUTENANT(UK) CV JØRGENSEN(DK) DIZZY MIZZ LIZZY(DK) KASABIAN(UK) KASHMIR(DK) KILLSWITCH ENGAGE(US) KINGS OF CONVENIENCE(N) LCD SOUNDSYSTEM(US) MOTÖRHEAD(UK) THE NATIONAL (US) NOFX(US) VAN DYKE PARKS(US) PAVEMENT(US) ROBYN(S) SICK OF IT ALL (US) TINARIWEN(MALI) VAMPIRE WEEKEND(US) AFENGINN (DK) MATIAS AGUAYO (CHL) ANALOG AFRICA SOUNDSYSTEM (DE) ARRIBA LA CUMBIA (UK) THE ASTEROIDS GALAXY TOUR (DK) BARON CRIMINEL (DK) BEACH HOUSE (US) THE BEAR QUARTET (S) BEAT TORRENT (FR) BLACKIE AND THE RODEO KINGS (CAN) BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTAR (SER) BONAPARTE (DE) BROTHER ALI (US) CANTECA DE MACAO (E) CASIOKIDS (N) CÉU (BRA) CHOC QUIB TOWN (COL) CIRCLE (FIN) CONVERGE (US) DAARA J FAMILY (SEN) DALA DALA (DE) DEN SORTE SKOLE (DK) DIRTY PROJECTORS (US) DRAKE (CAN) DULSORI (KOR) EFTERKLANG (DK) ELECTROJUICE (DK) THE FLOOR IS MADE OF LAVA (DK)

FLORENCE +THE MACHINE (UK) FM BELFAST (ISL) GALLOWS (UK) HEALTH (US) IKONIKA vs COOLY G (UK) JAPANDROIDS (CAN) THE KANDIDATE (DK) KASPER SPEZ (DK) THE KISSAWAY TRAIL (DK) BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA (MALI) LINDSTRØM & CHRISTABELLE (N) LOCAL NATIVES (US) JULIAN MARLEY (JAM) AURELIO MARTINEZ (HND) MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND (MEX) MIIKE SNOW (S) MODERAT (DE) NARASIRATO PAN PIPERS (SOL) NILE (US) JOHN OLAV NILSEN & GJENGEN (N) NISENNENMONDAI (JPN) ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO DE COTONOU (BEN) PARAMORE (US) PENDULUM (AUS) GILLES PETERSON & ROBERTO FONSECA present HAVANA CULTURA (CUB/UK)

WWW.ROSKILDE-FESTIVAL.DK

PORCUPINE TREE (UK) PRINS THOMAS (N) ROOTZ UNDERGROUND (JAM) ROSKA (UK) THE RUMOUR SAID FIRE (DK) SCHLACHTHOFBRONX (DE) SERENA-MANEESH (N) SHANTEL & BUCOVINA CLUB ORKESTAR (DE) NAOMI SHELTON & THE GOSPEL QUEENS (US) SÓLSTAFIR (ISL) SPEED CARAVAN (ALG/FR) STAFF BENDA BILILI (CD) TIM SWEENEY (US) SYSTEMA SOLAR (COL) T.O.K. (JAM) TECH N9NE (US) TEDDYBEARS (S) THE TEMPER TRAP (AUS) TITUS ANDRONICUS (US) DJ UMB (UK) VALIENT THORR (US) WHEN SAINTS GO MACHINE (DK) WILD BEASTS (UK) WOODEN SHJIPS (US)

- AND MANY MORE...

TOS GUIDE

by kirsty henderson So you’ve been to the last minute camping Mecca that is Millets, probably picked up some dodgy sleeping bag, got a cheap tent and crammed your backpack full with sunglasses, skimpy outfits and condoms. Sorted, right? Now don’t be so cocky. Having a good festival is all about survival of the fittest.

No matter what country you’re in, you will, without a doubt, need the greatest contraband of all – wet wipes.

Get a lanyard. Let’s face it, with a fuzzy head you’ll forget where you are and who the hell you’re watching.

On that note, get something stupid to mark out your tent. Ever got lost in a housing estate because every freakin’ house looks the same? Times that by a thousand and you’ll get the picture.

Drink loads of water. I’m not the best example of knowing when to stop – but a hangover, plus portaloo, plus serious sunshine, isn’t the cleverest equation. In fact, you’ll reek of regret: so bring as much bottled water as you can carry.

Don’t bring your best things. People lose things, people steal things, it’s a fact of festival life. But if you do, make sure you’ve got them on you at all times – you’ll be safe busting out your best moves and a lot happier on your final day too. If you’re leaving stuff in your tent, lock it, but don’t lose the key!

Money – carry as much as you can, unless you enjoy waiting for hours in torrential rain (Glasto) or getting sunstroke (Benicassim) in the ATM queue. But if you must, bring the wellies, the sun lotion and buy some Evian spray. Cold water. On your face. Amazing.

the other side | festivals 2010

Buy Batiste – the God of all dry shampoos and the saviour of the greasy Barnet. If you don’t have this you’ll risk looking more McDonalds than Megan Fox and all those fab ‘I’m having the time of my life’ photos will be completely ruined. Finally – go with the flow. Stressing about going from one stage to another, queuing for drinks, losing friends – it’s all a bit of a mood killer. There’s no rush. Enjoy yourself and soak in the atmosphere. Remember kids, festival frolics only happen once a year, and next week you’ll probably be back at your desk gazing at the clouds out the window. In the words of everyone’s favourite musical mini man… I’m going to party like it’s 1999 (again).

KING’S CROSS

Battle

Bridgeand Lost ‘the

Kings Cross They used to call it Battle Bridge. Romantic isn’t it? Not much romance here now, unless you count the fleeting hard-on from the old man in the cardigan as that derelict hussy flaunts at him...

think he’s extending his battle bridge right now. I don’t know why she’s working him so hard, he’s only paid a pound. We’ve all only paid a pound. I guess it’s worth it. A couple of goes on a quiz machine, a round of pool, a broadsheet or ten minutes being bombarded by Lady Gaga while a tramp fingers herself and bounces her pimped-up, pimppaid-for mammaries in what she must think is an arousing manner. Her tits are so unsexual it’s embarrassing, fleshy fake parodies, none of the subtleties of an Aphrodite or a Venus. It’s a Wafroed Pikey and a Penis. There’s no name on the door, but we locals call it The Flying Scotsman. No one at the bar knows why. The windows are boarded up and the only clue to the deviancy within is the occasional woman outside, tottering on high heels beneath an enormous coat, topped by a face thick with war paint. War. Battle. And back to Battle Bridge. And romance. You see romantic types claim this was the site of Boudicca’s last stand against the Romans. That the warrior queen is buried under platform nine at the station. But the more scholarly claim the name is nothing more than the corruption of Broad Ford Bridge, an old crossing point on the River Fleet, somewhere around St Chad’s Place. The place has always been that - a crossing point. A junction between Camden, Islington and Holborn. A nether region. It wasn’t until the 1860s that its role as a crossing place was cemented in name. George IV had a monument erected at the

place where a cross is formed by the meeting of Euston Road, York Way, Grays Inn Road and what is now Pentonville Road. An early attempt at adding some class to the area. Atop the 60ft column stood a statue of the King – and so this crossing place got its name. The statue and column were never popular and pulled down after a few years, but the name lives on. Battle Bridge lost and the King’s Cross. It’s the crossing that brought me here. Six tube lines, the mainline to The North and a high-speed to The Continent. There’s nowhere I can’t go. So, of course, I stay still. I sit tight. A spider in the middle of its web. But if I wanted, if I needed, I could be in Paris or Manchester in a couple of hours, Gatwick or Heathrow in 40 minutes, Oxford Street or Old Street in the time it takes to gauge a striptease at the Scotsman. WC1 baby. Say King’s Cross and people think prostitutes, you can’t get away from it (I wonder what thoughts Battle Bridge provoked). Some people throw in runaway children for good measure. It’s said that Dickens used the nearby St Giles rookery as inspiration for Fagin’s lair. But that was a long time ago, an older generation. Maybe the runaways grew into the prostitutes? ` It is run down. It is dirty. Just the other day I followed a windswept confetti of brownblotched napkins down an alley to a smouldering human turd. I suppose tramps have to shit somewhere. The phone booths are papered with calling cards. I get begged at on the way to work. I get begged at on the way home from

the other side | festivals 2010

work. My nights are interrupted by breaking glass and shouting. The traffic on the King’s Cross Road is so loud that it overwhelms my Sunday evening film and the street lamps so bright that my flimsy, cracked blinds can only splinter the glow into shades of amber and gold. Into this melting pot of ladies of the night and tramps of the shite, the European weekenders pour off the rail link. Great hordes of French teenagers with Tintin rucksacks, dreadlocked Dutch backpackers and bespectacled Belgian businessman towing their wheelie bags like gypsy professionals. Is this their first view of London? A trail of shit wipes leading to a steaming turd? Maybe. The Powers are making an effort. Kings Place, Kings Quarter, the new development by Regents Canal. In ten years time I wont be able to afford to live here. But that’s then. Now: I have only recently turned the tide in the battle against the rats in my kitchen, but I fear summer will bring a fresh onslaught. The house is a former foundry, built over a major link in the sewer that runs under Euston Road. There are two sewer access points in my basement and over the last century the rats have gnawed their way through the cement to set up a forward operating base under my floorboards. We lay the poison by day; at night we listen to the death howls, then grow used to the smell of the decomposing bodies as we wait for the flies to come. It is a battle. But this is Battle Bridge. Hear more from Dan Murdoch @ www.theothersidemag.co.uk

FESTIVAL QUIZ

IF YOU WERE A FESTIVAL picking the right festival is a difficult decision

the other side | festivals 2010

WHAT WOULD YOU BE? chloe george puts you in your placere

1. A sudden thirst comes upon you. Do you:

area that you can’t wait to attend. C. A grimy electro outfit you last saw in an east London warehouse. D. Grizzly Bear in one stage, Animal Collective on another and veteran Neil Young on another. How to choose?

A. Thank your lucky stars you’re at a heavily sponsored festival where there’s only one choice of piss-resembling beer that you can get your mainstream mitts on in a matter of seonds. B. Swallow a fruit smoothie to keep your vitamin levels up. Heaven forbid you develop scurvy in the middle of a field in Hampshire. C. Keep sipping water to try and keep hydrated, paranoid thoughts of Leah Betts creeping into your drug addled mind. D. Enjoy a local cider and share with your tent neighbours, aka your new best friends.

4. Festival food can make or break the weekend. What makes your mouth water? A. Burger and chips. After that vindaloo last year you’re not taking any chances. B. The Buddhist vegan breakfast in the healing field is second to none. C. Eating is cheating. Your stomach has shrunk to the size of a walnut due to a heavy narcotic lining and you don’t know if you’ll ever be hungry again. D. It’s good to try lots of different things, especially the local stuff. When the money is running out you can’t beat a Pot Noodle round the camp fire.

2. What to wear is a vital question at a festival. What’s your philosophy? A. Let’s all put on our Classics and have a little dance, shall we? Rave face paint and Trilby in case it’s sunny of course. B. You have a wide ranging portfolio of weather dependent outfits, including fisherman style waders, waterproof trousers, an enormous sun hat and thermal longjohns. And some factor 45. C. You’re not sure. The last thing you remember before you got to the festival was pranging out at Chievely services. You might have left your cardigan in the dance tent ... D. You’re bringing some warm jumpers, suncream and some heavy duty biker boots, the latter a la mode and super practical.

~ R esults ~ As. You’re the scum of the earth. Michael Eavis hates you. Fuck off to V Festival and don’t come back. Bs. Youre a big festival square. But the geeks have inherited the earth. You and Brian Cox will be laughing all the way to the Latitude Eco-toilets. Cs. If you’re not fragile natured, you’ll get past the sniffer dogs on the gate just fine. Book a week off work afterwards to let your brain cells and emotional defences regroup.

3. You scan the festival timetable for your favourite bands. Your eyes fall upon:

Ds. You were born to go to festivals. You might have moments of yearning to join a travelling band at the end of Glastonbury or occasional wobbles when it’s pouring with rain, but you’ll be back next year.

A. The main stage. Yay! The Hoosiers are playing. B.You’re not really interested in bands, but there’s an excellent whittling workshop going on in the craft

the other side | festivals 2010

CAMDEN

Nothing Record? on

f you want to buy music that comes in a shopping bag with a receipt there are still lots of places in Camden you can get vinyl or CDs. What you’re looking for may take a bit of hunting down and you may spend longer browsing, but isn’t that the whole joy of it? Going out to buy that Belle and Sebastian album, and coming home with a Buzzcocks bootleg and a Boney M picture disc.

Out On The Floor Nestled away on Inverness St, this Camden stalwart may be hidden behind tourist T-shirt sellers,

In the last couple of years, music shops have deserted Camden. Virgin, Zavvi, Tower Records… Even great independents like Know How Records and Bug Bear records – all gone. Even Woolworths with its bargain bin chart selection is missed

depending on when you visit, but there’s an eclectic selection of vinyl and CDs and an excellent collection of reggae. Downstairs are two even smaller shops that also sell posters, books, 60s and 70s classics and assorted rarities. If you’re looking for that rare Who gatefold or Lee Scratch Perry compilation, you’re in the right place. It can get busy in the small premises at weekends, but during the week you won’t have to worry about elbows in the face while you peruse the delights on offer.

of Inverness St to just near the Dublin Castle on Parkway, Sounds That Swing has an unparalleled mix of rockabilly, girl groups, soundtracks and surf music. Depending on your tastes, you might want to fill bags full of classic sounds or spend ages struggling to find something you’ve heard of, but either way, the staff are friendly and helpful. If you can’t get down to Camden, you can also buy via their website. www.nohitrecords.co.uk

A ll Ages R ecords Sounds That Swing Recently moved from the top

London’s only independent punk and hardcore record shop started

off as a stall in Camden Market. Then a few years ago they set up their shop on Pratt St, (turn off the high st at The Camden Head and walk for two minutes). As well as a comprehensive collection of punk CDs and vinyl, you’ll find a great mix of fanzines, T-shirts, gig tickets and a whole wall full of notices for people trying to recruit band members.

Industrial, Punk and Metal. Walk downstairs and you’ll come across this alternative music specialist. It’s mostly CDs, but there is a good selection, and there is a comprehensive list of upcoming releases on the wall, should you want to order anything. Great for Goths, and not just because of the basement location away from any natural light.

Stables M arket

R ecord Fairs

If you look hard enough, there are a few stalls selling old vinyl and the odd CD as well as one or two small music specialists. It’s best to visit Friday-Sunday, to guarantee they will be open, but if you’re in a rush, two of the best are in the row of shops parallel to Chalk Farm Road, just near the entrance to Proud.

The Electric Ballroom has monthly record fairs where you’ll find serious-looking men with copies of Record Collector under their arms. There’s an amazing array of vinyl, and you can spend hours browsing. If there’s a rare Jam single you need to complete your collection, you will probably find it here.

R esurrection R ecords

Charity Shops

On Camden High Street, just a couple of sunglasses stalls up the road from the Elephant’s Head, Resurrection Records is a small basement shop selling Goth,

Camden’s charity shops get lots of visitors, so any real bargains are likely to have gone by the time you arrive. But one man’s Little Richard is another’s Cliff Richard,

so you might find just what you’re looking for. The main collection of charity shops are on Camden High Street. However, the retro charity shop opposite the Spread Eagle on Parkway (Sue Ryder Care) does have a decent selection of kitsch vinyl.

Music and Video Exchange This branch of the second-hand chain is crammed to the rafters. From 60s soul to recent releases, stacks and stacks of vinyl and CDs fill every nook and cranny. If you’re in a hurry, it’s worth checking out the display cases for some of the highlights. For those with time to spare, rummaging through the bargain one pound CDs on the ground floor can unearth hidden treasures, (Pet Shop Boys Greatest Hits/Best of the Waterboys) and it’s worth browsing in the basement for cheap reggae and hip hop… just mind the stairs! Hear more from Joe Bridal @ www.theothersidemag.co.uk

ELEPHANT & CASTLE

Pre MEMoriam by wolfgang moneypenny

Today I visited an old friend. An old friend on death row. Haphazardry may have delayed the execution by two years… but it is definitely beyond reprieve. Bulldozers and cranes – a particularly savage deathodology – will rip it apart in 2012

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outh London is a world leader in bittersweet concurrent dichotomies. She is at once central and provincial - or, to use the sociological language, both core and peripheral. And, I willfully believe, beautiful/ugly for it. Much as the Virgin Mary is both saint and slut, South London too straddles seemingly incompatible dualities at once. And where else could be the epiphany of such but our Cathedral of now & then, good & bad – the Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre. I set off from my AnarchoSituationist Commune expecting to find a wreck. A useless shell echoing faintly with former glories & nagging regrets. Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre, sentenced to death for someone else’s crimes: the post-war town planning of modernity’s rationality. Knock it down. And dance upon its grave immediately with the hoisting of a new contemporary development. But… my friend was… alive! Vibrant. Vivid. Vivacious. It’s a mess, certainly, a mandarinenraging crumblejumble of not-neatness. What we have is an abandoned 1960s brutalist shopping mall – there is something of the post-apocalyptic here – but like fungus growing in a dampridden flat, life starts anew. The 20th century supermarket

meets the medieval village market. Stalls selling crap, fabrics, tat, bits, bobs, gloriously delicious foodstuffs, boomin’ reggae vibrations, and general material titillations, have, over long years, popped up hicklety-picklety/ fractal geometry/in your face/what a lovely place. From a ridiculous beginning - an absolute failure - South Londoners’ inherent transpontine truculence (a fair reaction to being an unwanted appendage) has seen them make something of nothing. This is the exact kind of thing, a sort of “natural” or “chaotic”

of pomo, the glass’d & steel’d mall-centric Redevelopment Project, is going to knock this beauty of a social hub down into dust… Put bluntly, this grand artefact is going to be destroyed because the likes of Starbucks and Gap can’t be arsed opening up in a heterodox shopping centre. This isn’t a call to arms, although I wish it could be (and I am bloody tempted to chain myself to the beautiful red E&C statue when the bulldozers finally come). Rather, I am documenting the faint echo of an already lost possible future. Oh, the pathetic

“this grand artefact is going to be destroyed” multilayered living-irony, a kind of playful fractal mix, that inspires postmodernism. But South London’s organic analogue dualities are under threat from a hypercapitalist hunger to continue their project of rationalised – McDonaldized – postmodern homogenuous designed dualities. And to think that hypercathedral

the other side | festivals 2010

tides we are swept along in. So, Elephant & Castle is threatened with the ghosttownisation of homogeneous rationalisation. The irony is (and my word don’t they love lashings of it!) that the implementation of this project – “Europe’s biggest” (as was Auschwitz) – will kill what it hopes to recreate.

The Troubadour Cafe Earl’s Court

Charge your Oyster for Seven of the best Roof Gardens in London

The Faltering Fullback Finsbury Park

Nestled in a side street of Stroud Green, the Fullback stocks an impressive range of draught and bottled beers, and has a friendly, laid-back local atmosphere. There’s also an impressively cavernous back room full of picnic tables and a pool table. Add to that the entangled garden that goes up, down and round and round, this is an ideal place to spend a summers eve. As the name suggests there are also screens to watch the football, however, it’s rather unobtrusive and you can enjoy quiet pints at the same time.

More magical garden than roof terrace, the Troubadour garden is overrun with plants, trees and tables to sit and relax at. Table service just makes this place even better, and food is served all day until midnight too. Downstairs is the club where Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon all played in the ‘60s. Now it is a slightly bigger venue, with a great programme of live music and poetry.

Tuppelo Honey Camden

One of those places on Camden Parkway that is ideal for a first date or meeting someone you’ve never met before without them having to wear a carnation and carry a copy of TOS. It has three levels and a pretty nice roof terrace decked out with, well, decking. Drink coffee, fresh juice or a nice array of wines, and proper decent food to boot.

The Driver

Upstairs at The Ritzy

King’s Cross

Brixton

It can be pretty intimate at the Driver. Comfy seats as well as crazy elephant carved chairs make up the cosy exterior which towers over the London skyline. The Driver offers picturesque views over London. You can’t miss it either, with Patrick Blanc’s vertical garden covering the outside. Standard cocktails on offer and not too pricey either, with enough bar bites to keep you going until the early hours.

As far as roof terraces go, this isn’t one necessarily conducive to relaxation. However, the sunny balcony of Upstairs at The Ritzy – the cinema’s glorious café – is marvellous for people-watching and super-comfortable. Overlooking Brixton’s Windrush Square, you can watch the evangelists and stallholders earn a crust by day and observe rudeboy posturing and swagger by night. But the real joy of this location is the constantly evolving entertainment schedule. Reclining in the sunshine or summer twilight, as sounds of live jazz, reggae and blues filter out into the evening air, is enough to make a smug Londoner of us all.

The Boundary Shoreditch

The Boundary Rooftop has a large bar and lots of seating arranged around an open fireplace. The garden is designed by Nicola Lesbirel and there is a grill restaurant serving up prawns and lobster. The rooftop is accessible by a direct lift and has a 360º view from Canary Wharf to the Gherkin and Barbican to the rooftops and spires of East London. Drink the Aperol spritz with Aperol, prosecco and soda. Find more great places in London @ www.theothersidemag.co.uk

The Festival Guide

very year around about May-time, people in this country start to get really excited about the summer, with a special jar of excitement for festivals. All of a sudden everyone is fighting for tickets to whatever the Guardian says is “the must-go-to festival of the year”. “OMG, so and so is playing at X,” cries the wannabe cool guy in the office. “I just had to buy the tickets.” Really? People are confusing a good festival experience with an X Factor 3rd round episode. “Lemar, Pink and Muse are playing”… in that case I will definitely go. We’re being herded into these so-called festivals like lambs to the slaughter. And you know the ones I’m talking about... The Wirelesses, Isle of Wights and V-F*stivals of this world. The ones that have an ATM machine at the gate charging £4.75 for a withdrawal, where your cans were confiscated at the door and it’s £9 for a pint…but first you’ve got to queue for the tokens behind a group of 35-year-old women on their hen do. Don’t do it. We at TOS enjoy festivals for what we hope are all the right reasons. The euphoric atmosphere that you can get whilst relaxing with a cold drink, brilliant music and comedy, a tent with something completely unexpected in it. But with a dash of party sprinkled over the top. The ones that can’t promise sunshine but can promise you the best weekend of your year. We’ve searched high and low to find people who love these festivals to write about them, to share their memories and to tell you why you should be at the special festivals. So tuck in, have a read and if you are going to Chelmsford for V, don’t worry – it’s not all bad. We’ve broken down this guide into the festivals we really love. Measured how far away from London they are and then put them in that order. You’ll find personal recollections, funny stories, tips, ideas and interviews with bands, organisers and festival goers. Enjoy. » illustration by kayleigh ann witt

TOM WEBSTER TELLS IT AS IT IS AND LETS YOU IN ON THE STUFF THE BROADSHEET JOURNALISTS DON’T KNOW OR ARE JUST TOO SCARED TO MENTION. THIS IS THE ONLY FESTIVAL SURVIVAL GUIDE YOU WILL EVER NEED. CUT IT OUT, LAMINATE IT AND THINK OF IT AS YOUR NEW TESTAMENT.

Doherty know only too well, that backstage is a much, much more boring version of out front, with less booze and, particularly, less chance of copping off with a sexy foreign type. Right now the hacks are sharpening their typewriters to prepare that most nonchallenging feature of music writing: The Festival Survival Guide!

Finally,

You’ve probably already seen three or four hundred of these, each one dividing the audience into sub-groups such as the ‘Newbie’, the ‘Top Shop Poppet’ and similar, and each either advising you to bring a folding stool or consulting some bloke out of Orbital for advice. The trouble with this is, the bloke from Orbital spends all his nonstage time ensconced in his Winnebago on a velvet throne, cheerfully oblivious to the mud-caked sunburnathon taking place a few hundred yards away.

the sun is shining, which means it must be festival season. All across the land, students are updating their FB status to tell you just how AMAAAAAAAZING Download is gonna be because NIN are on, only to change it to inform you how awesome Def Leppard were when they get back. Bestival goers are packing their pickernick baskets, and the interminable hordes of morons who spent £200 on a Glasto ticket BEFORE THEY ANNOUNCED WHO WAS PLAYING are polishing their ﬁnest paisley patterned wellies. There is, however, a more sinister and disturbing side to all this. All over the UK, endless lazy Sunday supplement journos are throwing their free press passes in the bin - journalists inevitably go to a major festival once, excited to be getting backstage. They quickly realise what musicians and Pete

All this is crap. There are a few things you’ll need for a festival obviously, but a Dolce & Gabbana Jester’s hat is not one of them. Instead, you need a compact packing list that will maximise your fun - simply follow this handy guide and you can be sure to dine out for years on your festival stories. Quite possibly on prison food.

On no account should you wear anything from a high-street store, instead, head to Surplus for combat trousers and boots. If combats aren’t available, go full-on and get leathers. Warm in cold weather, cool in hot, keeps out dust, cider and the human excrement that your ‘hilarious’ friend has smeared all over themselves. Those in the know choose Cow. Next up is the T-shirt. Perhaps you are thinking ironic Motley Crue tour shirt? Piss off. You need a Darkthrone shirt no less than 14 years old, with the sleeves ripped off. This will look like you know your music, and double as a vomit mopping device. If you have to accessorise, go with chunky leather wristbands, and possibly a bandolier. Finally, a Stetson is invaluable. And I’m not talking about the straw ones. High thee to a Western store and pick something black, that has clearly been designed to double as a trough for your horse. In short, you should look like Clint Eastwood if he was playing a bounty hunter. A real nasty one too.

You will probably pass out at least once at this thing, and if it isn’t in a hedge/bin/fire/ other festival-goer, then it’s worth bringing a tent (if nothing else, you can stash vodka in it). I’m sure you are thinking: “Hey! I already bought half my wardrobe at the Army & Navy, maybe I can get a deal on a secondhand tent, right?” Wrong. Ex-military tents may be sturdy and waterproof, but they also cost a lot, weigh a ton, and take 6 months and a team of Chieftain tanks to put up. Instead, it’s off to Tesco, where you can pick up a child’s play tent for a tenner. This thing will fit in a pocket - if you are wise you will have a hunting jacket with a thousand storage options. Carrying bags is for losers, man. Of course, the ultimate aim of any festival goer is to spend as much time as possible in someone else’s tent anyway, and come the end of your 3-day stint in the rock n roll wilderness, you can happily skip to the front of the exit line, because while everyone else is trying to roll up groundsheets with a hangover, you’ve simply set yours on fire. >>

So, all packed up? Grand, time to work out how to get there. If it’s in your country of residence (foreign gigs should always be attended by plane, thus maximising your drinking time in a foreign city), you have two options. One: Get a mate to drive. Remember, the best way to avoid paying for this is to work out a deal where they buy fuel, and you get the beer in. The beauty of this is that you can spend the entire trip quafﬁng colossal amounts of alcohol and hurling bottles of piss out the window while they try to keep a sensible eye on the road. Your other option? The Train. Inﬁnitely preferable to the organised coach. On a coach, you are guaranteed to be sat next to four cretins from Exeter, who will alternate their time between shouting about the merits of Slipknot, and playing their band’s crap demo on a phone. Travel by train, however, and along with the fun of freaking people out with your ‘BraveStarr’ look, you get a table. A table that will comfortably hold four 24 packs of Happy Shopper lager, and still leave enough room for you to pour Absinthe over a sugar cube. Or, if you are doing things correctly, Jagermeister, which leads us neatly to our next point;

Festival drinking is not like ordinary drinking. I don’t care if you normally prefer a nice Viognier. Here, you are drinking Strongbow at the bar (or from a plastic, one-gallon petrol container, preferably used), and Jager. Ideally at least one optic-sized bottle should be consumed before attempting to watch any music. This will imbue you with a swaggering conﬁdence, enabling you to eat the traditional deathburgers, and convincing you that the Tanita Tikaram set you just saw was the greatest moment in entertainment history.

At some point in proceedings, you will awaken next to a pink, rubbery wall in what appears to be an oven. Do not panic. This will be whoever you slept with last night. If this causes you to doubt your attractiveness, taste or humanity, simply apply more alcohol until the feeling lessens. Festivals evoke a unique code of the road, whereby meeting enormous Goths while Skid Row play in the background somehow leads to sexual intercourse. Remember, none of your friends have seen this person, and provided you can slip out of the tent without waking them, then you never will again either.

You mean there are bands on at this thing too?

1 : SEAfari, oban

3: Hop Farm Festival

6: WOburn

Take the train from Glasgow to Oban before embarking on a unique combination of high adventure and pure exhilaration with the thrill of close encounters with Scotland’s magnificent sealife and beautiful scenery.

With no advertising, sponsorship and certainly no VIP area, and Bob Dylan, Mumford and Sons and Seasick Steve all on the same bill, it’s going to be a sunshine packed event (even if it rains).

With a truly magical Safari park and a glorius Abbey with antique stalls and plenty of great places to eat, Woburn is well worth the short drive up the M1.

www.seafari.co.uk/oban

2: The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party The Sanderson Hotel is putting on a Mad Hatter’s Tea party, an experience that will no doubt get curiouser and curiouser. There is a Queen of Hearts teacake, Pineapple lollipops and colourful finger sandwiches. Tea comes with a glass of Moet, proving that this is not just one for the kids. The Sanderson Hotel, London Until end of May

Paddock Wood, Kent, 3rd July www.hopfarmfestival.com

4: Putsborough Easily one of the best beaches in the country. Putsborough’s sand stretches for mile upon mile. With Woolacombe at one end and Croyde the other. North Devon

5: Billingsgate MKT Get up astonishly early to source the freshest fish for a perfect BBQ. At Billingsgate in Docklands you might bump into some of the city’s top chefs. Open from 5am, E14

the other side | festivals 2010

www.woburn.co.uk

7: Manchester Ship Canal Cruise Take in a 6hr 35 minute boat trip along this famous inland waterway. Leaving from Salford or Liverpool. All summer

8: Lincoln Cathedral Regarded as one of the most incredible gothic buildings in Europe, Lincoln Cathedral overlooks the city and plays host to an array of concerts through the summer. www.lincolncathedral.com

9: Galway arts fest The unmissable Galway Arts Festival is a spectacle of dance, visual arts and performers in the very heart of Galway City in the West of Ireland. 12 July 2010 - 25 July 2010

10: Mount Snowdon Conquer one of Walesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; tallest mountains. There is a 360 degree view at the top and six different routes to the summit. Snowdonia National park

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LONDON 11: Opera in the park The operatic arias soar over the tree tops of Holland Park with a magical atmosphere created by idyllic surroundings. Holland Park Theatre 2nd June - 14th August

12: Royal Academy

Summer Exhibition Works by new and well known artists are crammed from floor to ceiling at the Royal Academy for its 242nd annual exhibition. The Royal Academy 14th June - 22nd August

13: London

Literature Festival With a huge diversity of topics and formats from readings to screenings, spoken word to short stories, the festival is perfect for literature lovers of any ilk. South Bank Centre 1st - 15th July

14: Hampton Court Palace Flower Show The Royal Horticultural Society organised show includes displays from over 150 nurseries. Some are beautiful, complex works of living art but many are on a smaller scale, to give you ideas for improving your own garden. Hampton Court 6th - 11th July

15: Carnaval del

Pueblo

A fiesta of all things Latin American, now in its 11th year, a celebration of their roots for expat communities in the capital, and a massive party for everyone else.

20: Anything on at the White Bear! (we mean anything) The White Bear was established in 1988 and focuses on new writing and Lost Classics. It exists to nurture talent, extend possibilities and offer a space where risks can be taken.

Burgess Park, SE5 Sunday 1st August

www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk SE1 All the time!

16: Camden Fringe

21: Festival of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Bringing together comedy, theatre, poetry, dance and much more, the Camden Fringe boasts 400 performances of 100-odd shows across five venues in Camden throughout August. 2nd - 29th August

17: St Paul’s Cathedral Dont be one of the 9 out of 10 londoners who have never been to St Pauls - better views than the eye, and cheaper! www.stpauls.co.uk

18: Into the Woods Into the Woods takes the stories of the Brothers Grimm and gives them a dark and humorous twist. Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre 5 August - 11 September

19: Robert Cray For 30 years, winner of five Grammy awards, Robert Cray has laid down track after track of good-time, low-down blues. The Barbican Centre Wednesday 7th July

Thousands of people flock to the streets around St Peter’s Italian church to watch the procession and participate in the feast where you can buy typical Italian products. Clerkenwell Sunday 12th July

22: Walk around east london Explore some of the incredible history of the real East. From the secret communist meetings on Whitechapel Road to Bevis Marks synagogue, East London is steeped in non-hipster history.

23: Neasden temple The Mandir is a masterpiece of Indian stonework and craftsmanship, replete with its towering white pinnacles, smooth domes and intricate marble pillars, all based on ancient Vedic principles of art and architecture. You need to see this to believe it! Neasden, North London www.mandir.org

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nature 24: The Lizard and Kynance Cove The Lizard is mainland Britain’s most southerly point with dramatic cliff-top walks, rare wildflowers and unique geology. A little further up the coast is Kynance Cove with its white sands, turquoise waters and breathtaking views. near Helston, Cornwall

25: Ashridge Estate The Ashridge Estate runs along the borders of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire and along the main ridge of the Chiltern Hills. The 2,000 hectares of woodlands, commons and chalk downland supports a rich variety of wildlife as well as offering lovely walks through outstanding scenery.

27: Carrick-a-Rede This rope bridge is one of Northern Ireland’s best-loved attractions. Originally erected by salmon fishermen, the bridge to the island crosses a 30m-deep chasm with fantastic views of Rathlin and Scottish islands. Ballintoy, Co. Antrim, N.Ireland

28: Coniston and Tarn Hows

A truly stunning part of the Lake District, surrounded by woodland and magnificent views of the mountains. Take the steam-powered Gondola across the lake and enjoy the tranquil scenery. Lake District National Park

29: White Cliffs of Dover

30: Rhossili Bay, Gower peninsula This award-winning coastline is the jewel of the Gower peninsula and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. With breathtaking views of Worms Head, rare wildlife and archaeology to be discovered, it’s definitely worth a visit. Rhossili, Gower, Swansea

31: Brownsea Island A haven for wildlife, including red squirrels, peacocks and sika deer, this peaceful island has many woodland walks and spectacular views of Poole Harbour. The island is more famously known as the birthplace of Scouting and Guiding. Poole Harbour, Dorset

32: Farne Islands These rocky islands are one of Europe’s most important seabird sanctuaries. Visitors can get up close to puffins, guillemots, kittiwakes, and a large colony of Atlantic grey seals.

between Aylesbury and Hemel Hempstead

26: Kinder Scout & Downfall

Northumberland

Well known for the mass trespass of Kinder Scout in 1932 by ramblers and the beginning of the Pennine Way, the moorlands are among the most popular in the Peak District. Kinder Downfall is an impressive waterfall on the edge of the western plateau and well worth a visit.

A protected Site of Special Scientific Interest, the cliffs of Dover are one of Britain’s most iconic landmarks. Enjoy endless coastal walks with panoramic views across the channel and rare flora and fauna.

Peak District

Dover

Music 33: Godiva Festival A festival in Coventry, including a procession led by Lady Godiva on horseback. Previous years’ headlines have included Kasabian and Idlewild. Coventry, FREE

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36: Africa Oyé: 34 : BALKAN FEVER FESTIVAL PARTY Balkan Fever festival takes the form of a 6-hour musical extravaganza featuring 5 top acts on a big stage with a huge dancefloor. With 4 live acts and Schliwobeatz DJ Ahilea, the Balkan wave comes crashing down in Hackney Ocean for a real one-off with music to both touch your soul and get you bouncing. Tickets £10-£16 www. myspace.com/balkanfeverlondon TOS has five pairs of tickets to give away - email info@kazum. co.uk with your name and quoting ‘TOS’. Why not vote with your feet to support the Save Hackney Ocean campaign below! Ocean Hackney Saturday 29 May, 6.30pm – 1am

35: Blissfields Festival

Blissfields is 10 this year and they are having a bit of a birthday hoedown at Bradley Farm. Festival goers will be invited to get into the party theme by dressing “Decades” on the Saturday! Culminating in “The Birthday Party” at the second stage the feel of the evening will be a celebration of the past and future. There’s music too as well as posh camping and a hidden hedge (more of an anything goes disco than just a hedge). Bradley Farm, Bradley, Alresford, Hampshire - 2-4 July

Africa Oyé is the UK’s largest free celebration of African music and culture and takes place annually in Liverpool. Beginning in 1992 as a series of small gigs in the city centre, the event has gone from strength to strength, moving to its present Sefton Park home in 2002 to cope with demand. Now in its nineteenth year, Africa Oyé continues to grow. In 2009 the event attracted an audience of over 20,000 people and even more are expected to attend Oyé 2010. Liverpool 19th – 20th June

37: Kendal Calling: Nominated for two festival awards in 2009, Best Small festival and Best Grass Roots festival. Celebrating its 5th Year Kendal Calling has had a thoroughly successful journey so far captivating its attendees and artists with its honest, diverse and cutting edge qualities. Growing from 3,000 attendees in the first year to 8,000 in 2010. Headline acts include Wild Beasts and Calvin Harris Lake District 30th July – 1st August

38: Gold Coast OceanFest

Held on the summer solstice weekend and practically on the beautiful Croyde Bay, Gold Coast showcases live music and film and has surfing contests on the

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beach to boot. Best of all you can nip out for a cream tea. www.goldcoastoceanfest.co.uk 18-20 June

water 39: Brockwell Lido Nestled in the corner of Brockwell Park, the lido is a muchloved local landmark. It’s been at the heart of the local community since 1937. The Art Deco Grade II listed building has been extended and now offers health and fitness facilities all year round. Dulwich Road, London, SE24

40: tooting Bec Lido Tooting Bec Lido is the largest fresh water, open air swimming pool in England. It has a 90m pool and children’s paddling pool with a nearby gazebo shaded area. A new entrance and café enhance the experience for all the family. London SW16

41: Aldershot Lido The Lido is one of Aldershot’s hidden treasures. Tucked away in the Heron Wood Ward and only short drive away from the A331, the Lido is one of the country’s few remaining original outdoor pools and has flumes, diving boards and a toddler paddling pool Aldershot, Hampshire

42: Harrogate Spa Choose from any number of

48: The Centre of New Enlightenment This is not an exhibition, it is an experience, an adventure and an education. The most visited museum outside London has over 8000 objects relating to art, science, history and natural history. Andrew Imrie

www.glasgowmuseums.com Argyle Street, Glasgow

luxury treatments or just spend time unwinding in the beautiful steam rooms and feel the stresses and strains of life just melt away. Harrogate, North Yorkshire

views 43: Bamburgh Castle There’s a coastline ravaged by nature and steeped in history, you end up not just looking at a view, but standing in the footsteps of kings, on one of the most dramatic coastlines in the UK.

49: The Wellcome collection 45: Richmond park One of London’s most ancient and amazing views. See right from Richmond Park to St Paul’s. Richmond Park, London

46: Hadrian’s Wall A landscape absolutely crammed with History. Walking alongside the wall you will discover many remains of Roman buidlings. This summer you will find reenactments of Roman battles. 10th and 11th July

Northumberland, England.

Museums

44: Edinburgh from

47: The Horniman

There is a 360 degree view from the top of the hill. Take in the Pentland Hills in the South, the Old Town and the Royal Mile to Prince’s Street not to mention the magnificent castle.

One of South London’s hidden gems. Through its collections and related exhibitions, the Horniman seeks to encourage a wider appreciation of the World, its peoples and their cultures, and its environments.

Calton Hill (above)

Lothian, Scotland.

www.horniman.ac.uk

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A free visitor destination for the incurably curious. The Wellcome Collection explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future. The venue offers visitors contemporary and historic exhibitions and collections as well as lively public events. www.wellcomecollection.org Euston, London

50: banners We just couldn’t leave out our favourite London eatery. Caribbean inspired food and drinks on offer from breakfast time to late. Top dishes include Chorizo Scrambled Eggs, Jerk Chicken Burger and Huevos Rancheros. You gotta book to avoid being left on the side of the road. www.bannersrestaurant.com/ Crouch End, London

Find more great places to go and spend your summer @ www.theothersidemag.co.uk

AROUND LONDON

heart beats

LOvebOx thReAteNs tO steAL the festivAL LimeLight by nathan may

the LAst six yeARs have seen Lovebox steadily climb the festival ladder, and it has certainly positioned itself as one of London’s biggest summer events. they are hoping to attract no less than 50,000 party animals this year, and according to their website, it will be ‘London’s premier festival’. good luck to them i say, it shouldn’t take too much to overcome some of the non-events we saw last year. Lovebox is the brainchild of dance duo groove Armada – this might be the first year they are not on their own bill – and this time the event expands to three days of fun at victoria Park in London’s east end. expect the park to be packed with temporary stages, fairground rides and burger vans. you can enjoy the whole thing for £100, take in two days for £80, or just the one for £45. Now you would be forgiven for thinking that, because of the additional day, there will be a few painful fillers in the line-up… you’d be wrong. friday kicks things off with the maccabees, mystery Jets and Chase & status. With headline

act Dizzee Rascal sure to ignite the party fires. saturday isn’t bad either, with the legendary Roxy music headlining the bill as part of their live performance comeback in 2010. before them, mark Ronson, Paloma faith, Wild beasts and i blame Coco will be entertaining the crowd.

party.’ Poly-what? in no uncertain terms, it’s going to be a bit camp. but the music remains impressive: the mighty hot Chip and Cut Copy should garner plenty of interest, before the night is rounded off by style icon and slightly terrifying female solo artist grace Jones.

“poly-what? in no uncertain terms, it’s going to be a bit camp” And just as you start to think ‘that’s probably the lot for a wannabe-festival in viccy park’, the good people of Lovebox announce plans for sunday: where the festival will be ‘transforming into a freewheeling, groundbreaking, noholds-barred, non-stop polysexual

the other side | festivals 2010

Design For liFe

the LONDON DesigN festivAL bRiNgs the best iN CReAtivity tO Light thROUghOUt the yeAR

tOs is as obsessed with design as the next independent magazine, more so, i would imagine. One of the things we believe in is a creative space for Londoners. A place where they can show their talents off. this issue in itself was put together by a team of four core designers and an array of talented illustrators. We’re excited by the prospect of the London Design festival, which unites a UK-wide creative community and brings together individuals and organisations from across the design spectrum. the festival, like tOs, provides a platform for the creative talent at work and creates a unique opportunity to visit more than 200 specific events and activities reflecting the diversity of world-class design talent in the capital. there’s only a small amount of events that have been announced so far, but the festival works yearround with key London venues and spaces such as trafalgar square, southbank Centre, the v&A and somerset house to programme engaging design-related content that reflects London’s diverse design story, and makes it a

global destination for new ideas and talent. you see, design is taking place all around us on a daily basis, everything from the illuminated local chicken shop sign to the recent election posters, and it’s essential that we sit up and take note without letting things easily pass us by.

one-off event. the festival acts as both a cultural and commercial event with things on offer to trade and commerce as well as visitors. the programme offers visitors an opportunity to see creative industries at work. During the festival, London will open its doors to the public with

“we believe in a creative space for londoners” the barbican Centre is hosting a ping pong tournament on may 13 like none you have seen before. inspired by the victorian era precursor to table tennis Wiff Waff (yep) where a row of books served as a net and a further two books were used to hit golf-balls from one end of the table to the other. A unique set of table tennis paddles have been specially created for the

the other side | festivals 2010

open studios, product launches, trade shows, major international exhibitions, private views and site specific public installations. the festival offers the chance to meet the designers at the heart of british design and to see their work in one condensed period of time. Hear more about the LDF @ www.londondesignfestival.com

AROUND LONDON

More ups, less downs

FIELD DAY WILL FIND ITS FEET AFTER three years of TEETHING PROBLEMS. NATHAN MAY REPORTS

2010 will be Field Day’s fourth year at Victoria Park, but if you had told 2007’s unhappy campers that the event would make it this far, you would have received some pretty shocked looks. The one-day festival in East London has certainly had its ups and downs. There were a number of horror stories doing the rounds after the first two shows: security guards emptying water bottles at the gate, only for the event to run out of its own supply inside, dreadful sound quality and horrendous queues for the insufficient toilet facilities. Thankfully, most of these problems seem to have been ironed out over the years. The toilet facilities have increased and the bar queues dramatically reduced. The official website is at pains to point out that the sound quality has also been dealt with, ‘Vanguardia have worked across live music from Wembley Stadium gigs to the Download event.’ Apparently organisers have been looking at ways to ‘improve noise levels for guests at our events

without rattling the windows Phoenix will headline the day, after winning this year’s Grammy around the park.’ 2009’s event seemed to have for Best Alternative Album. You could do a lot worse than its spirits dampened only by the horrific weather, as the actual line- spend £33.33 (+booking fee) up was second to none. During on that little lot. And with the the day, Santigold (and those shocking weather plaguing amazing dancers) got the crowd 2009’s showdown, based on going on the main stage, while the law of averages and a Wild Beasts were making a name significant measure of pure for themselves under the cover guesswork, we should be of a tent. Headlined by Mogwai, set fair this year. in typical instrumental post-rock style, it’s fair to Field say 2009 went off with a Day V musical bang. icto ria Park So with the ‘down’ bits , 31 J out of the way during the uly previous three years, I’m hoping it’s only ‘ups’ in store for 2010. The line-up looks pretty strong A couple of things to already, with the likes of Archie Bronson Outfit, Caribou and bear in mind: there is no reLightspeed Champion the pick of admittance, so once you step over that threshold, there is a good bunch. Bradford Cox, legendary front no going back. And because man of American post-punk dear old Aunty Doris lives band Deerhunter, will bring his two doors down, everything hotly anticipated solo show – stops in time for her to get Atlas Sound – to this year’s event, some shut-eye, so plan a sick and French electronic rock group after party yeah.

the other side | festivals 2010

over the

bridge

The south bank hosts some of the city’s best live music this summer as meltdown festival takes over, 11-21 june

As a kid my parents used to take me to the South Bank, we’d sit in the Queen Elizabeth Hall or the Purcell Rooms watching any form of live music. It could have been an old guy playing jazz chords on the piano or a surreal tribal band playing pan pipes and bongos.

wn tdo Mel Bank h out

Cent

11-2 June 1st It was always fun, and always something different. It’s obviously something that has stuck with me because I can still go and spend hours in there. I love the smell of the place – it smells old. It looks terrible, it’s a really awful design,

but that’s just part of the charm. Come the summer months, those halls are all hustle and bustle with folk waiting for something to happen. June is just an incredible month of music at the South Bank. This years Meltdown festival is curated by Richard Thompson, who first came to fame with Fairport Convention and was named by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the top 20 guitarists of all time. Thompson has collaborated with Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, David Byrne and Nick Drake to name but a few and it’s no surprise to see some familiar faces on the bill at Meltdown 2010. These are some of the not-to-be-missed shows over the month of June: R ichard Thompson’s Cabaret of Souls With a score written by Thompson and staring Harry Shearer of Simpsons and Spinal Tap fame, Cabaret of Souls is a musical chronicle set in Hell. 11 June 2010 - 19:30 Tickets: from £25 Joe Henry Crooning country and blues musician Joe Henry performs a rare London show. You only need to listen to the first 30 seconds of ‘The Man I Keep Hid’ to know this will be a show that will take your soul elsewhere. 12 June 2010 - 19:45 (£17.50) Seasick Steve You’ll find that the more intimate the show, the more you fall in love with Seasick Steve who is now a favourite on the festival circuit.

the other side | festivals 2010

The Festival Hall seats 2,500 but with the lights dimmed low and the theatre atmosphere you will still feel as though you are being treated to something special. 14 June 2010 - 19:30 Tickets: from £20 Field Music Jingly jangly art pop to make you smile, absolutely perfect for a summer’s eve. Field Music hail from Sunderland and their quirky northern tones simmer through piano, finger tapping beats and Beach Boys-esque harmonies. Lovely stuff. 15 June 2010 - 19:30 (From £15) The Duckworth Lewis Method Cricket fans should be able to relate to the Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) and Thomas Walsh (Pugwash) led farce that is The Duckworth Lewis Method. Brilliantly funny with songs inspired by Shane Warne, Michael Atherton and batting collapses this is one for the TMS lovers. 17 June 2010 - 19:30 Tickets: from £17.50 Elvis Costello One of the all time great singersongwriters, Elvis Costello, returns to Southbank Centre 15 years after directing Meltdown himself. 20 June 2010 - 19:30 (From £30) Broken Bells The new project from Shins front man James Mercer and producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse: Broken Bells bring sunshine to the festival hall. Expect exciting light shows and beautiful melodic pop. 21 June 2010 - 19:30 (From £15)

AROUND LONDON

BEN OLSEN REVIEWS THE BEST SOUTH AMERICAN FESTIVALS ith a glut of festivals using a similar revolving cast of bands this summer, why not try something a little off piste? The coming months will see the very best of South American culture arrive in London in the form of several high profile events...

South Bank, June 19 – Sept 5 In a vibrant celebration of all things yellow and green, Festival Brazil will be hitting the South Bank this June, bringing the colourful, dynamic culture of contemporary Brazil to the heart of London. The summer-long event will weave together all elements of the country’s rich cultural heritage including music, visual arts, dance, literature, debates and food. On the musical front, the festival will feature cultural icon Maria Bethânia, a singer with

a back catalogue of over 30 albums; superstar singer song-writer Gilberto Gil, whose musical style incorporates an eclectic range of influences, including rock, samba, forró, and reggae; plus legendary psychedelic rock band Os Mutantes and tropicália star Tom Zé. Movement and rhythm will be at the centre of the festival, keeping the carnival spirit alive with world masters of capoeira wowing audiences with their leaps, kicks and spins. Brazilian art is represented by Ernesto Neto, a contemporary visual artist renowned for

the other side | festivals 2010

Illustration by Jack Bedeman www.bedeman.co.uk

Burgess Park, Aug 1

interactive sculptures, while two of the country’s hottest comic book artists – Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá – will offer an irreverent commentary on urban Brazil. On the literary front, there will be talks from some of Brazil’s most evocative writers and poets including worldrenowned author Milton Hatoum and footballing legend-turnedcultural commentator Socrates. With Brazil one of the favourites to win this summer’s football World Cup, this celebration of one of the happiest of nations may yet prove to be even more colourful than the organisers could ever have intended.

If that whets your appetite for a slice of South America, don’t miss Carnaval del Pueblo – the largest Latin American outdoor festival in Europe – for a day of music, dance and fun. Bringing together the collective cultural wealth of 19 Latin American nations, this is the event of the year for the half a million estimated Latinos living in London as well as the hundreds of thousands of other admirers of Latin culture. A huge three-mile carnival procession of vibrantly coloured floats and dancing troupes will set off from Elephant and Castle and make its way across the city, bringing the crowd with them to Burgess Park in Southwark. Music plays a central role in the festivities and with four different music stages the festival is renowned for championing Latin urban music in the UK, enabling a wealth of upcoming artists to

the other side | festivals 2010

get their first big break and amass new fans. Thousands of people are expected to flock to see the hottest acts in Latin culture, ranging from Brazilian samba and Latin hip hop to Colombian salsa and Bolivian folklore. The vibrant colours, sights, sounds and smells mean the event is also fantastic for those with children, who as well as seeing the exotic float procession go by can also look forward to a range of activities from costume workshops to face painting. London hosts many free events throughout the year, but this is one that really shouldn’t be missed. carnavaldelpueblo.co.uk For the best in Latin art, music, film and culture, visit suramericana.co.uk

suramericana JOURNAL LONDON’S LATIN

the importance of being che one of the The literary genius behind isable faces world’s most recogn

Plus... César Charlone La Linea 2010 Hidde

13 march 2010 n London

FESTIVAL PEOPLE

‘Gotta be at the front’ Mosh WARRIOR

estivals! They’re great! Everybody gets together to enjoy music in a wonderful, idyllic scenario where there is nothing but love and understanding. Everyone is there for one purpose – to have a good time with an awesome soundtrack. What could be better!? Yeah right. Festivals are a muddy mess of idiocy fulled by overpriced booze and a sense that if you aren’t having the best time – the only solution is to drink MORE. Dance MORE. It looks like someone on the left is having a better time than you DANCEDRINK! It’s loud, smelly, and for some reason you are joined by some of the worst people in the entire world – who inexplicably have the same taste in music as you. And you can’t escape from them. These are those people. 1. ‘Gotta be at the front. GOTTA’ I don’t understand this lot. Usually overweight girls with badly dyed hair and caked in cheap makeup, they have the supernatural ability to be attached to the barrier before the gates to the main stage are even opened. They then

Knows The Band Sound Quality Guy Sellout!

clamp their hands to the railing and will not leave, lest they miss a single drop of sweat from the singer that may fall in their vicinity. It’s not even a very good view. Madness. 2. Mosh WARRIOR OK, I get it – moshing is fun. But don’t be a dick. The mosh warrior IS a dick. Not content with flailing about a bit and having fun – the mosh warrior uses a combination of Jock-Fu and blind rage to propel fists and feet at supersonic speed, hitting anything around them, until all that is left is a pile of bleeding bodies. 3. Knows The Band You’re at the bar, buying yet another overpriced lukewarm beer served to you in a cup made of the thinnest paper you can imagine. A stranger sparks up a conversation with you. Hey – you both like the music and drinking – might be a cool guy! ‘Yeah…I know one of bands…’ Those words from his smug face KILL the conversation. Everything he now says will be self aggrandisement through mutual association. Yeah, you know the

Knows The Words Shovey McGhee

band. They are just people. They’re not Batman. And you know them. You aren’t them. Go away. 4. Sound Quality Guy Audiophiles at festivals are killjoys. You could be watching the most amazing performance in the history of rock – a band at the height of their powers rocking harder than ever before – a magic combination of stage presence, musical ability and sheer balls. You could be. But as soon as a bearded (they always have beards) BASTARD leans over and says ‘the levels are a bit off – pff’ – The moment is killed. Thanks. 5. Sellout! Why are you here? All you do is complain. Apparently I should have seen these guys two years ago when they played a cupboard in their hometown of Tinyville, Idaho. Because they were much better then. Now – they’re just sell outs. I should be listening to some obscure new band known only to Mr Sellout and his internet friends. »

Surfy McGhee

The Cameraman

6. Knows The Words It’s great to have EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. yelled into your ear by a tuneless dolt with breath like a dead tramp’s fart isn’t it? It’s not like you’ve paid good money to hear the songs by their original singer is it? OK – Singing along at certain bits of songs is appropriate and awesome fun. But not every word in every song. 7. Shovey McGhee When you’re watching a band pick a place and stand there goddammit! And if you need to move to get to back to your tend, toilet or bar, try to consider those around you. Squeeze through the gaps, turn sideways and at least make an effort to mouth the words ‘excuse me.’ That way I will make an effort to get out of your way. If you stomp up and try to walk through me, I will make it as difficult as possible to get past. You’re trying to go somewhere. I’m not. I’m already winning. 8. Surfy McGhee I understand the appeal of crowd surfing. It’s not something you can do at home.

Freebird

Tent Hermit

But if you do it more than once I WILL drop you. On your head if possible. Once is enough. And if you are 200 plus pounds of fat assery I’m not even going to make the effort. And girls who crowd surf? I’m not trying to cop a feel. I am going to stick my hand in the air to avoid getting kicked. I’m not aiming. Don’t flatter yourself. 9. The Cameraman You have a shitty digital camera or an even shittier cameraphone. You are in a huge field with flashing lights, smoke and are very VERY far back from the stage. You will film anyway. Why? The sound will be BRRRRRBUDDDDDDTSSSHHHCCDDD. The picture will be vague blobs and flashing. And if you film and replay what you’ve filmed on the tiny screen while the gig is still on – seek help. 10. Freebird It was never funny to yell ‘Freebird’ at a band in the first place. If you yell Freebird at a festival and I am standing next to you I will punch you in the head and get a round of applause.

The Casualty

The Family That Rocks

11. Tent Hermit You’ve spent god knows how many pounds on tickets. Spent three hours in a cramped, fart ridden Nissan Micra to get there, and when you finally do, you spend your entire time sprawled out by the tent fucked up on a cocktail of drugs and cider. You miss every band. You might as well have downed a bottle of Absinthe and sat in your garden. 12. The Casualty In the morning you wake up, wonder what the hell happened the night before, wander out of the tent into daylight and bravely make your way towards the toilets or food. Somehow there is someone passed out in the most unlikely place. They are almost always missing a single item of clothing and can remain unconscious despite the most elaborate attempts to wake them up. Not the best sight first thing in the morning. 13. The Family That Rocks Together Stays Together The Dad has too-blue jeans, a tour shirt from the mid nineties and a slightly hungry look in his eyes. Mum has Leather

Mr Wide Awake The Festival Virgin

boots, denim shorts, dyed blonde hair and a muffin top. The child is either borderline feral or utterly bored. They always have an amazing tent. 14. Mr Sleepy / Mr Wide Awake Two ends of the spectrum here. Each has its own faults. Mr Sleepy retires to their tent before the final note has been struck. They then decide to chastise anyone having the AFFRONT to still be up. Convesely Mr Wide Awake never sleeps. He spends every hour of every day stumbling into tents and yelling incoherently. Every hour. Of every day. 15. The Festival Virgin We were all there once, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t that much of a dick. The festival virgin is at a constant state of excitement, finding the most amazement in even the most rudimentary behaviour. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, it’s only ONE O CLOCK and I’m already PISSED....On CIDER....hehehe....OUTSIDE...ahhhhh...I LOVE the next band.” Words by Tom Webster Illustrations by Adam Hayes

MIDDLE ENGLAND

Strangely hallucinogenic Standon calling, 6-8 August, standon, hertfordshire

“try spinning that fact off to your friends after six pints of scrump” Oli Boyes

Boutique festivals are all the rage these days, none quite as good as Standon Calling. This year Buena Vista Social Club are the highlight. Revere front man Stephen Ellis reflects on his favourite festival. I first went to Standon Calling to play two years ago and had little idea of what to expect or of how long it had been going. There was

a surge in the number of ‘homegrown’ festivals and it suddenly seemed like there were a handful of new festivals clamouring for attention each weekend throughout the summer. Few lived up to their promises of great line-ups, enthusiastic crowds and that magical escapism which makes a great festival. A few did, however, and Standon Calling

the other side | festivals 2010

has stuck in my head as one of the most memorable. The first inkling we got was from the line-up – we were sharing a stage with Acid Mother’s Temple and Paloma Faith! Who in their right mind would put both those acts on the same stage together? But in the context of Standon we quickly realised that this made perfect sense. Standon Calling

LONDON

from

seemed to have a pitch perfect sense of who would be the next big thing, hence their devoted support of Paloma alongside Florence and the Machine and Mumford and Sons to name just a handful. All seen at Standon Calling. All have lived up to that initial promise

to become household names in ridiculously short spaces of time. But Standon also knows how to deliver to the fan of the obscure, of the performance, and of the ‘how the hell did they book them?!’ So we played alongside Melt Banana, Acid Mother’s Temple, Sun Ra’s Arkestra, Femi Kuti, Chrome Hoof to name some more, with Buena Vista Social Club booked in for this year. I guess you’re now reading this under the assumption that Standon Calling is the biggest festival you’ve never heard of. Well, not really. It’s an independent festival that seems to make no false claims about being the next Glastonbury, and like a few other boutique festivals - End Of The Road comes to mind - it fulfils on far more than just the music. At Standon, the seemingly ordinary becomes something out of the ordinary in a way that brings out that regressed sense of wonder as you wander around: some concrete stables becomes an unforgettable nightclub, lecture room and cinema for the space of a few days; a huge oak tree

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becomes a bar from somewhere halfway between a Kubrick movie and The Magic Faraway Tree. Last year, when it all got a bit much you could chill out in the Delorean from Back To The Future watching a laser beam vibrate along with the music, or just strip off and take a refreshing swim in the pool, pausing only to watch the various manga characters, astronauts, and other characters wander around. Strangely hallucinogenic, like walking into the middle of a Bugsy Malone movie... I’ve been twice so far and it seems like a festival constantly seeking to reinvent and improve itself, more in keeping with an artist reassessing their own work, working out how to make it an unforgettable experience, while genuinely pushing the boundaries back each year.

Words Stephen Ellis, Revere vocalist and guitarist Read our Standon Calling tips @ www.theothersidemag.co.uk

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THE SOUTH

postcard perfect pictures by victoria henderson

there’s more to brighton than Sun, sea and students What better place to have a festival than by the sea. The Great Escape is the UK’s answer to SXSW and is growing every year. Jez Berns lets us in on a few local secrets before the first major festival of the summer. If you are down in Brighton for a hectic, frenzied weekend of gig-going (no doubt you would be if you have paid the price for a weekend ticket), then the first recommendation, without a doubt would be to sign up to the text service that the Great Escape has to offer. Not only does the service inform you of the venues that are at full capacity, and the ones that still have lots of room. It also tells you of the street gigs, and impromptu sets that are happening constantly all around

the city. Unlisted acts such as Pete Doherty set up by the Pier last year and melted the hearts of many. It’s very exciting receiving these texts, and will make you feel fully immersed in the festival spirit from the second you step off the train at Brighton station. If you have bagged yourself a delegate pass, you certainly won’t be impartial to a bit of schmoozing and industry backrubbing. Head to the Thistle hotel, (Kings Road), you will find lots of industry types there. The whole atmosphere around here does become a bit strange, and vacuum-like. I wouldn’t suggest staying here for too long. This is definitely not where the magic is in terms of atmosphere. However, the journalistic,

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entrepreneurial you will want to return several times during the days to the Thistle, to take part in the host of different conferences about the industry that are on offer. There is also a fantastic interview by Garry Mulholland of Nick Kent, infamous journalist of the Punk, New Wave, Synth explosion era, and personal hype-machine. This needs an extra ticket mind, so don’t get too excited if the additional £10 is not forthcoming. In terms of music recommendations, for an end to the first night, you could do no wrong by heading down to Hectors House and checking out The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster. Still a massive favourite with the local »

Springsteen night recently which will still be busy, but you may have was incredible), and Lo-Fi indie. a bit of leeway in getting to these. Definitely one of the cooler late- If you are into alt rock, go check out the Holy Roar stage at the Pav night hangouts. The Prince Albert (Trafalgar Tav at the bottom of North Street. If you need somewhere to Street), just down the road from the train station is one of the best stay, Hotel Pelirocco on Regency of the smaller venues without Square would be one of the more a doubt. Superb sound, great ambitious choices. It’s a hangout atmosphere, decently priced alcohol. TGE is infamous for its queuing issues, so once you are in one place, you should probably stay there. There will be some acts that its worth taking a risk arriving a bit later “There is nothing in this grand for, but none of indoor market that you won’t find” Snoopers paradise, Kensington Gardens these will be the

middle of the floor. Directly above at the Penthouse, DJs spin all manner of Hip Hop, Skweee, Dub Step, Rock Classics (they had a

great headliners, and bands such as Wild Beasts, Blood Red Shoes, These New Puritans, Fiery Furnaces, Cold Cave will be touchy-bum close from very early on, so if you want to see a particular band, especially a popular one, get there one or two bands in advance to avoid disappointment. Anna Calvi, Here We Go Magic, Erland and the Carnival, King Charles, are the types of bands I would recommend that

FreeRangeLife

Brightonians, these guys rock, and their exciting, teetering on the border of chaos performances provide some seriously enthusiastic responses. Definitely head down to this one early. The venue itself has improved dramatically since its druggy, hippy heavy days, when the music was crass and played at excessive volume. Now, run in conjunction with Playgroup, a collective of young, ambitious promoters of some of the most exciting festivals in Brighton, expect a great atmosphere, improved sound system and cheap booze. The stage is a bit too low, but standing on the tables and chairs will be encouraged no doubt at this rocking way to spend the first night of The Great Escape. The Freebutt (Phoenix Place) is a great venue, blighted slightly by the intrusive pillar in the

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for Arthouse and Rockabilly types, they have DJs spinning every week from 8pm-12am, with jivers swinging in what is quite a tiny bar. The rooms all have kitsch, sleazy themes, such as ‘Sputnik’ and ‘Betty’s Boudoir’, as well as some very original ones inspired by places like Rough Trade in London, which makes it all the more endearing a place. They do get booked up very quickly, so get in touch as soon as you can. Signing up for the street gig service means you will discover a lot of Brighton by accident. There are many different cultural hubs. Kemp Town is the most gayfriendly part of town, with lots of clubs and fun to be had. The North Laine is still seemingly a bohemian part of town, but

London 47 Miles

there are lots of artistic-types around here, and the shops are very exciting – imagine a really condensed Camden Town. At the heart of the North Laine, a glance down the most frustratingly busy street in Brighton, Kensington Gardens, and the pace of the clumsy blue rinse brigade taking steps so slow in front of you it’s as if time is moving backwards. There is a good reason for this. Kensington Gardens is a street of gems. ‘Lydea’ is a café all of its own. Here you will find a very reasonably priced unique vegetarian approach to buffet eating, where the plates are piled high and the smiles are wide. With a wide choice of salads and mains such as butternut curry, enchiladas, falafel and roti, it may not be an ‘all you can eat’, but believe me, even for a greedy devout meat devourer such as myself, there is never a need for seconds here. And to walk off that hefty load swimming in your belly, you could do no better than to take a short walk a few doors down to Snoopers paradise. This place really does what it says on the tin. There is nothing in this grand indoor market that you won’t find. Old Victorian games and

dolls. Vintage 1920s and 1930s dresses, suits, bowlers and bowties. 1980s video games and consoles. Stalls crammed full of 12” and 7” vinyl, that I guarantee will put a smile on your face, if not for finding a forgotten favourite, then definitely an obscure and hilarious 1970s prog metal band with ridiculous haircuts and song titles. Retro furniture, rare Star Wars and Dr Who memorabilia, stalls squeezed together, overflowing with fabric, buttons, old, rather heart-

breaking lost family photographs. Stage props, instruments. You name it, you will find it here. It is a haven for the browser. For other places to eat, I suggest checking out the now famous Bill’s. So far Grizzly Bear, Beach House and Yeasayer have all said they haven’t been able to leave here on their recent visits. During the Great Escape, you may well be dining next to your favourite bands. The food is also incredible, if expensive, and the desserts are amazing. For amazing food on the go, head straight to Pompoko, the

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Japanese take away on Church Street. I recommend the Tori Chili Don for £4. Heading across the road, you are in the heart of what is known as the Cultural Quarter of Brighton. The Dome and Corn Exchange, The Theatre Royal, and the beautiful Pavilion Gardens are all ahead of you, the gigantic Library and Swimming Complex behind you. But for now, head to the coolest pubs in the city – Fitzherberts, and the Mash Tun are the trendy hangouts, and the Colonnade is the sophisticated, eccentric pub for all the theatre loving Luvvies. Heading away from the cultural quarter, and all the music madness and rushing around, no doubt you will need to chill out at some point. Fabrica art space, (Duke Street) has a wonderful piece curated and soundtracked by Brian Eno. ‘77 Million Paintings’ is well worth seeing, all the more for feeling the trials and tribulations of all those gig queues drift into the ether. Eno is the curator for this year’s Brighton Festival, which is happening the same time as TGE. If you are arriving a bit earlier, or staying later, the Brighton Fringe brochure has some smaller, alternative shows which are well worth researching. Have a great time in Brighton, there is so much to discover. Do your exploring, because ultimately, that is the only way you can really indulge in what an exciting city such as Brighton has to offer. Got something to say about Brighton? Say so @ www.theothersidemag.co.uk

Charting a course away from the mainstream during festival season has no end of benefits. One of the most obvious is that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re less likely to end up having to choose between uninteresting lager and generic cider by clinton cawood

The greater overall diversity at a boutique festival, as well as a decreased reliance on big-name sponsorship, means that your choice of beverage shouldn’t reflect the fact that you’re in wellies in a field, two days from your last shower. Smaller events are likely to have more relaxed (or at least more rational) policies on what you can bring onto the site. This is no time for supermarket brand vodka – you wouldn’t touch that stuff normally, and being at a festival is no excuse. Whether you’re making a drink at your camp, or buying it from a stall, festival drinks deserve some attention. The first factor to consider, and one that will apply to various other aspects of your festival experience, is provenance. Drinking local has its rewards, not least in the benefits this has for local business, as well as to the festival itself, which is often reliant on these sales. The rewards for the discerning drinker are undoubtedly there in terms of taste, and local is usually cheaper too. A pint of local ale will be fresher, more distinctive, and will cost less than a pint of industrial

have any real cider? You’re not doing it right… There’s always a distinct line at festivals between observance and participation, and tourists that don’t actually get involved no doubt have less fun. Sipping a cup of dandelion wine made only a few miles away from the site is just one way to do this. The quality of food at festivals has dramatically improved in recent years and this has been accompanied by a rise in quality juices and other soft drinks which are invaluable as mixers. From fresh orange juice to mix with vodka, to coconut water to go with your rum, you’re likely to discover something new. Incidentally, that rum and coconut water is vastly improved with a squeeze of lime, and that same rum in a coffee will get you through the almostinevitable downpour when it happens. A word on bringing your own spirits, which is clearly your best choice in terms of weight concerns. Some festivals will set a limit on how much you can bring on site, but all will insist on no glass bottles, and rightly so. A

Went to a festival in the west country and didn’t have any real cider? Your’re not doing it right... something produced far away and benefiting a company based even further away. When you start looking, you’ll be surprised at the number of small stalls selling mead or local wine, or preparing vast vats of chai. Went to a festival in the west country and didn’t

small funnel, some empty plastic water bottles and some advance planning are your best bet here. Consider spirits that you can drink on their own - neat gin is an acquired taste, but a nip of whisky from a hip flask has no doubt saved many a flagging festival-

the other side | festivals 2010

goer in the early hours of the morning. A hip flask is essential kit for any discerning festival drinker (and is another reason to buy that funnel). Wine in a box is a controversial subject, and justifiably so, given this particular format’s sordid past. If fermented grapes are essential to your festival experience though, then this is your best option – it’s almost not worth the effort involved in decanting bottles of wine into plastic bottles. Bag-in-box wine has admittedly improved in quality in recent years – you’re likely to find a better offering at larger supermarkets or wine stores. And if none of this meets your high standards for libations at what is, to be fair, a festive occasion, there are more options available to you. Some festivals have decent cocktail bars, with drinks produced by highly competent bartenders. Failing that, it isn’t difficult at all to produce a cocktail in a campsite. With some preparation, and some inventively sourced ice, it’s not impossible to create a great drink in the middle of a field. A Caipirinha only needs cachaca, sugar and lemon, and few drinks are more festive than this Brazilian staple. For the more classically minded, a Manhattan can be premixed in bulk at home (just whisky, sweet vermouth and some bitters), ready to be chilled and served with minimal effort. Other classics like Cosmos, Daiquiris and Margaritas are all equally easy to prepare in advance. On the other hand, if all you’re looking for is lager, you won’t have trouble finding plenty of that.

MIDDLE ENGLAND

Shhhh... ... it’s a secret

hen it comes to bank holiday August, you’ve got choices... For one, there’s that really large carnival in west London, and if that’s your kind of thing (crowds in the region of one million people), you’re welcome to it, you certainly won’t be the only one. I’ll be in a field in a secret location in Northamptonshire instead, with far fewer people, at a great, non-commercial festival. At the first Shambala I attended, I was unprepared for one of the festival’s primary claims to fame. It was the Saturday afternoon, and the festival site became inexplicably deserted. A friend threw accessories in my direction – a mask, a pair of marigolds – and as we wandered into the night it soon became clear that everyone had been at their camps preparing for what is arguably the best collective display of fancy dress on the festival circuit. This is only one of its selling points. It’s also the festival site that capitalism forgot. Or maybe couldn’t find (the festival’s secret location means that less money goes to policing the gates, which means more money for the festival itself). Shambala’s self-

by clinton cawood

described as non-commercial – there’s not an advert or any trace of conspicuous consumption. A few years ago I couldn’t even find a stall at the festival that would sell me a pack of cigarettes. The festival draws a distinctive crowd, too. For one thing, I hardly ever meet someone that’s heard

There’s plenty to do in the main festival area, the musical offering is varied, with strong leanings towards both the dance and the gypsy ends of the spectrum. And when that’s explored, a forest filled with art installations provide a rather trippy contrast. One night we found a mirror ball

Shambala 27-30 Aug Not sure where yet

of Shambala but hasn’t attended. This isn’t one for media hype or big band names. Rather it’s for those involved, for the relatively small extended family that return year after year. The crowd is notably friendly too, with a distinctly above average ‘randomconversation-with-a-stranger quota’ to enjoy. The site’s size is ideal. Large enough for there to be enough random stuff to discover for the entirety of the bank-holiday weekend, but small enough that a quick trip back to camp doesn’t turn into a military operation.

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suspended from a tree in a small clearing, along with a few carved chairs, coloured lights, and some ambient music. The creative and meticulous hands behind Shambala became apparent. No idea is too small to execute – no detail overlooked. Another distinctive, and potentially useful facet: half of Shambala, the sunlit part, is dominated by children. It’s like being in an empire run by small people, where we’re able to steal a bit of time in the evenings for our revelry. I know of no more childfriendly festival.

Boutique - Y

This brand-new, completely independent experimental arts festival is truly boutique, says Robert McCallum

raziers Workshop is a nonprofit organisation that has run yearly since 1995, taking a one-year hiatus last year. Previously, 30 international artists have lived together as a community for 16 days, the idea being to remove them from their usual working practices. The workshop promotes collaboration, but in a departure from its usual structure, this year the focus will be on a twoday festival at the end of 14 days.

Supernormal 21-22 Aug Wallingsford The festival itself will therefore take place in a living gallery, complete with installations and artists encouraged to showcase, present and perform as the festival takes place. Co-founder Gill Ord explains: “We decided that the whole focus of the week workshop should be on the final weekend and that we would invite

interesting performers to be a part of the festival.” The line-up is already looking very strong, although very little has been released. Krautrock legends Faust currently head up the bill that also boasts one of Rocket Recordings’ finest, Teeth of the Sea. Following the release of last year’s ‘Orphaned by the Ocean’, the band has been building critical acclaim as a must-see live act. Also on the bill is The A Band alongside upcoming bands such as Less and Gnod. The final line-up, the curators hope, will ‘represent our breadth of artistic and musical interest.’ Over the years the workshop has attracted more than 300 artists from more than 60 different countries, and the interaction and collaboration between them in this setting is bound to produce interesting results. Gill Ord says, ‘it is an amazing venue, 50 acres of fields, an orchard, sheep, pigs, chickens, a listed walled organic garden and a gothic mansion with a history dating back to Ian Fleming’s family.’

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The weekend promises ‘all kinds of magical performances and site specific installations’ and a real diversity of creativity on show that will create a weekend full of unexpected surprises. The organisers go on to say: ‘People will come for different reasons, some for the music, some for the art…we want people who come to be entertained, wowed and to leave enriched. ‘The 16 selected artists will be international and from across the art spectrum, so the outcome will bring the individuals’ ideas together and be another discovery for the festival-goer. ‘The experimental approach is still central to what we do, we don’t know exactly what the outcome will be ourselves.’ Previous workshops have produced installations such as guitar strings set up to make sounds in the trees, as well as giant fingers in the woods, so a truly surreal experience seems certain. If all this still hasn’t tickled your fancy (did you miss the giant fingers and gothic mansion?), then green facilities including composting toilets and showers with hot water, on a site that is only a short shuttle bus ride away from Reading station (only 30min from Paddington itself), should fill Londoners’ hearts with glee.

MIDDLE ENGLAND

wychwood festival I’ve always dreamt of setting up a portable festival advice bureau. I’d travel the towns and cities of this green and pleasant land in a second-hand library van offering words of wisdom to anyone who’d listen. I’d have a rotating stand with useful leaflets detailing the facts and fallacies about legal highs, a selection of hefty tomes to refer to and a mahogany desk with my name on, from where I’d dispense quality advice – such as while you’re there, you might be having the time of your life, but Facebook friends won’t want to hear about it more than once a day. If someone walked through the door giving little Johnny a shoulder ride and whistling What a Beautiful Day, then proceeded to put their Fairtrade paper cup into the recycling bin, I’d be prescribing them three days in the Gloucester countryside, a diet of ostrich burgers and fruit

by joe bridal

smoothies... in short, I’d be telling them to head to Wychwood. Cheltenham Racecourse is home to this family-friendly festie, and the music (Levellers, Lightning Seeds, Dreadzone, Happy Mondays) is perfect for the 90s festival goer who wants to recapture their youth. That’s not to say it’s stuck in the past – King Creosote, The Echoes, 6 Day Riot and The Leisure Society also feature on the main stage at this 3-day event held between 4 and 6 June. And make you don’t miss Pauline Black of The Selecter – more than 30 years since releasing her best-known song, On My Radio, she’s still as brilliant as ever. As well as the music stages, there’s a great mix of other cultural entertainment – if your kids are budding Darcey Bussells, they can take part in dance workshops run by the English National Ballet, no less! Or how about enjoying

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stories and events run by the Roald Dahl Museum… you could even drag the children along with you. Wychwood has been nominated for the Best Family Festival for the last few years at the UK Festival Awards, so why not take those nieces and nephews or cousins for a holiday they’ll never forget? If they’re under 10 they’ll get in for free. Camping facilities are good and unsurprisingly, this is the cheapest option. But if you’re feeling a bit flush, you can stay onsite in wooden huts complete with fridge, TV and a huge window to peer through and watch the paupers getting soaked in the rain – tempting, isn’t it?

Cheltenham 4-6 June

Truck festival, (from left): Lemonheads 2008 Truck stage 2009 Ash 2009

Truck festival Truck is one of the UK’s best and longest standing indie festivals, a village fete meets Woodstock with a cutting edge musical policy, free of any sponsorship or corporate agenda. You just have to go to Oxford to enjoy it all . I’m one of the select few people to have been to every Truck festival. Admittedly, at Truck ‘98 I had to go home at 8pm before the headline band Dustball had taken the stage, but then I was only 11. There were about 500 hundred people there, and everybody camped in the one field. The second stage was a cowshed. Being 11 and still in short trousers, the highlight for the day was climbing right to the top of the haylofts. Truth be told, I don’t remember a lot of the music, nobody came near the pop-genius of Holy Roman Empire. At one point, my 14-year-old sister got on stage and sang a song she’d written about

by chris bennett

trees. It was that kind of event. Since then, some things about Truck have changed: people no longer camp in the main field; the second stage has moved from the cowshed to the other half of the cowshed (which has more room); instead of 500 people, there are 5,000, with six little stages popped around the whole site. That said, most of the people involved in setting up the festival site are kids from the village who’ve been coming for years; the vicar really does still run the icecream stall, and I still usually miss the headliners. Although I don’t think she’s played the tree song for a while, my sister still performs every year. It feels good to be able to say that so much of what Truck is about has managed to stay the same after all these years. People come along to see bands and friends, help raise tens of thousands of pounds for good causes, even if

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they can’t quite remember all of the weekend afterwards. As for this year, I can’t remember a year that’s had me so excited about the line-up – Mew are a phenomenal live band that got me through my teenhood, and Teenage Fanclub are bona fide indie-rock legends. It’s often bands on smaller stages that astound: Yacht in the Beat Hive two years ago, and the sublime Disasteradio last year spring to mind as unexpected highlights. Stornoway are the returning hometown favourites this year, and their set is bound to be one of the highlights. Oh, and one more thing: we still do use a Truck for the main stage.

Oxford 23-25 July

Bestival ISLE OF WIGHT

photos by brenna duncan

(a small island festival with humble beginnings, where bizarrely clad creatures wander around spangly-eyed) by katie cox

The Isle of Wight plays host to Bestival’s annual aural antics with healing fields, a newly relocated main stage, 360° late-night music arena, comedy tents – a couple of years back Ed Byrne was so funny I almost had an asthma attack – all manner of circus accoutrements including a Big Top, a million different stages and lots of weird and wonderful places of which I remember everything and nothing. Fancy dress being the pungent crimson blood that thunders through Bestival’s veins, the theme is everything and this is the Year of the Fantastic, so let the limits of your imagination be your only barriers. I predict Disney, sci-fi, centaur/fawn type things, dominatrix, cat women, gimps, giant shoes made entirely out of jewels and so on, the only

rule being make it original, imaginative and fabulous. Although traditionally Saturday is fancy dress day, many favour a weekend spent entirely in various guises of costume, wig, paw etc. and I would welcome TOSers to join my friends and I in our selfappointed “Mime Friday” with beret, stripes, entrapment in boxes and communication entirely conducted through mime. It’s hard to know what to expect from this Year of the Fantastic because, well, they don’t tell you. Not even if you’re writing about it and phone them and say ‘Hi what are we to expect this year?’ The line up looks promising with Bestival’s traditional eclectic, and often eccentric, mix of acts including Roxy Music, Dizzee Rascal, The Prodigy, Hot Chip, Mumford and Sons, the xx and

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Echo and the Bunnymen. But one thing is certain, expect the unexpected, Bestival will spring some musical surprises. Lasting memory Being cross dressed as Freddie Mercury replete with love rug and ‘tache, straddling my flatmate dressed as Captain Hook slapping him repeatedly in an attempt to rouse him all atop a wicker swan. How to get there Being on the I Love Wight, there is a stretch of water to cross. After getting down to the south coast you can get the catamaran, hovercraft, or car ferry over. You can then hop on a shuttle bus direct to the festival, although it would be ever so ‘Bestival’ to fashion one’s own wings, Icarusstyle, and fly there yourself.

fantheďŹ remagazine.com

MIDDLE ENGLAND

a festival that dares 500 words on why End Of The Road is UNMISSABLE irstly, because it just is. It simply is the perfect festival – inevitably because its organisers Simon Taffe and Sofia Hagberg are festivalgoers themselves, and have crafted their perfect threeday festival of personal touches and fantastic music. This year sees the little festival that dared enter its fifth incarnation, and it will be the third year in a row that the festival has sold out. It is a refreshing change to the majority of festivals, with a choice of local beers and ciders, a more than friendly crowd and a list of bands that is handpicked by the organisers themselves. What makes End of the Road amazing

if the gods had handcrafted it themselves especially for the festival. Created in the late 1800s by Lieutenant-General

“try spinning that fact off to your friends after six pints of scrumpY” is their attention to detail on every level, from the gorgeously crafted programme put together by the folks behind Bearded magazine, to the fairy light lit woods complete with library, lighted dance floor, and hidden treats around every turn and every trunk. Everything is in its right place, and everything works with its stunning location. Somewhere between Somerset and Dorset, End of the Road’s location at Larmer Tree Gardens couldn’t have been more suited

Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (try spinning that fact off to your friends after six pints of scrumpy), as a ‘pleasure garden’, the site has beauty stamped all over it, and with parrots in the trees and peacocks rambling past you during the mid afternoon sets on the main stage, there’s a bit of a nature reserve thrown in for free. When the sun shines, there is no better place on earth.

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And the music, well, with past headliners ranging from Super Furry Animals to Explosions in the Sky to Fleet Foxes, you get to see some major bands in the tiniest of venues. And the End of the Road team have a habit of picking out some of the best bands you’ve never heard of. They also get a helping hand from London promoters The Local, who last year provided the casual festivalgoer’s annual highlight with a stage invasion during a riotous Zun Zun Egui set. Away from all that, a range of workshops, fantastic comedians – usually headed up by the fantastic Robin Ince – and a plethora of Scandinavian touches (inspired by Sofia’s Swedish roots), including the Scandi Kitchen, Viking Kubb (a strange game of wooden blocks the Vikings used to play with human bones) and a guaranteed handful of Scandinavian bands on the bill. It all adds up to a festival that is almost impossible to describe accurately using mere words – just go there, and whether the sun shines or it pisses it down, you’re going to be a part of something very special. words: anthony chalmers Find out about great live music @ www.goddontlikeit.com

The one that got away Latitude festival was always the one that got away from me, my friends went, I meant to go, the following year my friends went again and I went back to Italy or whatever euro destination I had on my globe light that year m I going this year? To see Vampire Weekend and Florence? Well, it depends on the PR at Latitude, who seem to have this ‘You gotta be a wool wearing, Lib Dem voting, broadsheet journalist to get in our doors.’ I could always buy a ticket? The festival returns for the fifth time in July. Set in the beautiful countryside of Henham Park Estate on Suffolk’s Sunrise Coast. The eclectic festival continues to hold its position as a strident and unique summer event. ‘Latitude, incorporates music, theatre, comedy, literature, film, poetry, dance, art, fashion and cabaret for a memorable weekend of bliss and adventure as well as inspiration and education.’ Four music arenas are to host a tasty blend of musical talent from new bands, rising stars and a global outlook, whilst the arts programme spills over into thirteen arenas and areas providing something for everyone – no matter what you’re looking for, you’re bound to find it. Last year one broadsheet reviewer claimed that Latitude was a kind of ‘Glastonbury-lite’ (yes, I do believe this is the only mention of Glasto in our guide) ‘with the superficial trappings of a bohemian music event but with

little of the hedonism or physical demands that test festival-goers’

It doesn’t stop at those mentioned above: The XX, Grizzly Bear, Empire of the Sun, Robin Ince, Josie Long and a Q&A with Bourne director, Crystal Palace fan and dad-of-daughter-Iused-to-have-a-crush-on Paul Greengrass. There is a heck of a lot going on, and I haven’t even started on the multi-coloured sheep, Wild Beasts, Mumford and Sons, Laura Marling, Yeasayer... So, Latitude, small(ish), middle class festival with middle class bands (Mumford are not from Ireland and wear waistcoats) and not a Dizzee, Calvin Harris or Chipmunk tune in earshot. It’s “There is a heck of a lot going on, and I haven’t even started on the multi-coloured sheep”

resolve.’ In other words, a family friendly affair, where the ground is generally dry due to the super absorbent soil – so if the rain does come you won’t be needing that canoe. In fact someone once claimed that Latitude was so middle class you have to put your kids on a waiting list to get into the play area. But, don’t let that deter you. The line up this year is fantastic.

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July too. It’s bound to be sunny, so here I am Latitude, asking for a ticket, I’ll make sure I bring cheese and good red wine, maybe the Sunday supplements from the previous week and heck, I voted Lib Dem, just for you. words: sam lassman watts Find out if Sam went along @ www.theothersidemag.co.uk

MIDDLE ENGLAND

Relax.

THE BIG CHILL, EASTnor Castle, 5-8th August by nick gratwick The annual ritual begins again, hungry for live music, beer and sunshine I’m keeping an eye out for a festival that looks strong enough to part me from my cash, which is no mean feat being an eclectic musicophile with not a lot of it. I’ve still not been tempted by the big guns of Glastonbury, I think I would have loved the place in years passed, but now I am not so sure. For one the entrance ticket alone costs more than it cost me to travel to Belgium and back, buy a ticket to the Dour festival and pay for camping and my share of an enormous tent, but perhaps most importantly, it no longer has the kind of eclectic spread of music that the Dour festival seems to collect now (although I’m sure it would like to believe it does). My only complaint about the Dour was the organisation and sanitation, I struggled to find space to pitch up a tent, seriously, and by the time I left I’d had to battle countless rivers of urine and mounds of faeces, which edged uncomfortably closer to my tent every day. Ahem. Plus l will never forget the endless walk with the already great unwashed, straggling like lepers from the train station to the camp site with enough baggage to put Princess Vespa from Spaceballs to shame. Which brings me to the year after, when I visited the Big Chill

The B

ig Ch

ill

festival in Wales, which cost very little to get to, but was easily far enough from the capital to enjoy the countryside. Although festival toilets are generally far from perfect, they actually flushed for most of the duration! Don’t think I’ve got a hang up about the things, but I’m sure I’ve seen sights (most of) you people wouldn’t believe, still burned into my retinas and this was a world apart. The guides on lanyards, wide variety of activities for all ages and friendly stewards all pointed towards excellent organisation, but most importantly of all, I overindulged whilst having a thoroughly good time and avoiding the clichéd festival pitfalls. Despite the fuzziness that sort of inebriation leaves, I still have many fond memories of the Big Chill 2009. I vaguely recall a day of record breaking, blood splattered zombie fanaticism led by a skeletal Noel

36 on, 1

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Lon

mile

Fielding, the Sailor Jerries tent kicking out summery reggae and ginger beer/rum cocktails under the beaming sun and a tour of the Red Bull tent which ended in our being exposed to a bald man disconcertingly shaking his tackle around like a rabid hyena. We spent a fair time discovering and rediscovering a wealth of new and old music, Ska Cubano were excellent, In Flagranti, Helios, Chrome Hoof, Lamb, Chris Cunningham (you have to see), Mulatu, Pharaoh Sanders

(unbelievable), Talvin Singh, Kode 9, the list was impressive. The grand finale from Hexstatic put up a mindblowing audiovisual set blending all manner of styles and videos, my favourite being Burt and Ernie rocking out to Ante Up, I’ve seen them twice now and there will definitely be a third. When too exhausted to traipse from stage to stage, I sat through a day of excellent comedy featuring the brilliantly musical Tim Minchin, a cheeky Russell Howard, the familiarly cantankerous Dylan Moran and a fairly average Noel Fielding (who’s fans were quite honestly more entertaining). Other highlights included sprawling around on the ground besides the main stage in front of a good few thousand people, until realising Orbital were on next (the less said about that the better probably), watching B movies in a burned out car whilst blood soaked zombies tried to crawl in through the windows and eating a truly global diet out of vans whilst generally enjoying the idyllic setting in choice weather. I have no doubt that this year will provide more of the same, as long as the Gods grant a few days grace on the weather front. I don’t mean to evangelise, I may not even go again this year, I still haven’t made my mind up where to spend my money, but for most demographics including those of you with children, you could do a lot worse than the Big Chill festival for a few days of multimedia entertainment off the beaten track. Read our 2009 Big Chill Review @ www.theothersidemag.co.uk

2000trees festival takes place at Upcote Farm in the Cotswolds and offers festival goers a more ethical, green experience. Two of the organisers, Andy and James took time out to speak to TOS about what makes the fest so special. 1. What do smaller festivals give you compared to some of the larger festivals? Andy – They are friendlier, more affordable and with less walking there’s more time to enjoy great bands in a beautiful setting. The intimacy makes people come out of their shells, so it’s just more relaxed, less crowded, smaller queues, cleaner toilets and traffic is minimal. But best of all, there’s the chance to discover your new favourite band (s). Intimacy also means getting really close to the stages. 2. What is the importance of 2000trees Festival for up and coming British artists? Andy – We’ve done our best to push the local music scene. Every band we book we’ve seen live because this is what it’s all about. 3. What delights can festival goers expect from this year’s 2000trees? James – The best line up we’ve ever put together by miles. However, it’s the undiscovered gems that we love people to find. People love our headphone disco which keeps the party going till late. Andy – One unique feature is the nature walk, which takes you about half a mile above the main festival site, offering stunning views over the Cotswolds and a great hangover cure! 4. 2000trees Festival has won an award for its commitment to being as green as possible – so what do you do to reduce the festival’s carbon footprint? Recycling: With the continued help of The Maker Green Team 2000trees has a comprehensive on-site recycling and composting scheme. This achieved a staggering 90% recycling rate in 2009, which is thought to be the highest ever at a UK Festival! Food & drink: The majority of the food and drink at 2000trees is locally produced and served in either reusable or biodegradable containers. Power & Lighting: This is produced using locally-sourced chipfat biodiesel, which is significantly better than any petro-chemical alternative; and in 2009 ensured that 2000trees saved over two tonnes of carbon. Artists: 2000trees policy is that all acts are UK-based, resulting in fewer miles travelled to reach the festival and zero use of air transport. Travel: There is a coach service to and from London and also a subsidised shuttle service between 2000trees and Cheltenham train station.

WALES

Set amongst the Black Mountains in the heart of Wales’ Brecon Beacons, Green Man has become something of a legend in new music circles. Beginning in 2003, the festival pioneered the nu-folk scene before it even was one, with early performances from the likes of The Fence Collective, Tunng and Bonnie Prince Billy, to name very few. Green Man offers film, comedy, science, art installations, dance, theatre and of course, cutting edge new music amongst so much more. Organiser Fiona Stewart, ‘As music changes and develops over time so do the artists we book.’ Recent names the festival can boast are Animal Collective, Bon Iver and Grizzly Bear alongside iconic artists such as Robert Plant and Hawkwind, unbelievable for a festival approaching only its eighth year. With The Flaming Lips, Joanna Newsom and Doves alongside new music in the likes of Fuck Buttons, Field Music and Memory Tapes on the bill with only a fraction of the line-up announced, another fine year looks a certainty. ‘It truly is a beautiful place to have a festival, it took a long time to find such an ideal location.’ On a river sourced for mineral water, it really holds an authentic festival feel. With only 15,000 people on site the weekend is also a truly intimate festival experience to immerse yourself in. ‘There is room to grow but this will only happen if we all feel confident Don’t miss the mighty Doves who headline the Friday night

Take the Bus Green man festival, Brecon Beacons, 19-22nd Aug

that the festival can retain the great atmosphere.’ Green Man is one of the only ‘independent festivals’ in the country, meaning no sponsorship. Just wait until you join the queue for the bar with the choice of local real ales on offer. No Carling here. ‘Remaining independent is important to us as it means that we can have the fro freedom to book the acts we m want.’ ‘We can take a risk and like to support new and emerging talent.’ With an amphitheatre main stage, some of the best food on the UK festival circuit

LON

“As music changes and develops over time so do the artists we book” and quirky places like Chai Wallah’s (which sells all kinds of herbal potions alongside more traditional green tea), Green Man throws up countless unique experiences, even if you disregard such a fine line-up. ‘It’s just the outcome of running an honest event without the trappings of modern entertainment.’ ‘People really value the authenticity of the festival.’ Festival organisers offer a holiday ticket for a negligible

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amount more than the weekend price, with a week in the glorious location starting on Monday and ending with the Burning of the Green Man ceremony on Sunday evening. ‘Music is the beating heart of the Green Man but there is so much more to see, you can stay from 1 to 7 days in an incredible place created for you, people leave replenished having been though a total positive experience. ‘Loss of independence would mean that profit and market forces would have to be the motivating factor rather than content.’ ‘Many artists see the Green Man as a launching pad for their new acts.’ ‘The audience of the festival expect to see the new acts emerging from the festival.’ So the festival really does create an escape from the trappings of everyday life. ‘Its fantastic when you can help people fulfil their dreams isn’t it.’

Mil

words: robert mccallum

Had some killers in our time, unexpected water borne viruses can be lethal! Funniest festival story: Weirdest: being woken up and finding myself dressed in a yogi bear outfit on top of our winnebago and then being told I was due to play our set on the main dance stage in five minutes! Will and the People play Glastonbury Top tip for a festival: Go with an open mind, don’t expect sleep, bring supplies... If you could take one thing: A tour bus obviously! In a not so ideal world... Just a pair of bright green wellies! Worst festival experience: Probably getting left at Glastonbury by my band and having to hitch back... No one wants to talk to an amphetamine filled Aussie dude for 5 hours on that drive back to London... With a 4 day party hangover! And he had no music... Best festival experience: Exit festival in Serbia on the river Danube... Absolutely incredible it’s set in a castle... And the weather is almost too hot.. just how I like it!

it’s time for the quickfire round. let me see those fingers

OK GO play Kendal Calling What is your top festival tip? Wear sunscreen - no matter how much fun you think you’re having, it won’t be enough fun to balance out the hell that is sunburn. If you could take only one thing? Toilet paper. What is your worst festival experience? We had about 10 minutes until our set and I had an emergency visit to the porta-toilet. There was no toilet paper left. I had to stop mid-visit and find something to clean up with. Thank god for concert T’s. What is your funniest festival story: I’m not 100 percent sure on this, but I believe in the UK they may have lifted a ban on psychedelic mushrooms for some time (or something very similar to them) – One afternoon after playing our set, I decided to try some of these vendor-sold hallucinogens.I had no idea they would be as strong as they were. I remember being absolutely scared to death of the bass player in Interpol, I had to hold on to the railing as they played through their set - I thought for sure he was going to turn on me at some point and slam me with his bass.

Tchiky is playing at Stop Making Sense festival in Croatia (see page 68 for our Croatian guide) Top tip for a festival: Make some Brazilian friends! If you could take one thing: My lucky ring. Worst festival experience: Only good experiences. Would you rather live with Morrissey or Robert Smith? Morrissey but just for seventeen seconds! Best festival experience: Chorus festival in Paris / France where i saw for the first time Dj Sandrinho playing real baile funk! Funniest festival story: Mhhhhhhhhh...too complicated to tell but it has to do, of course, with Gringo Da Parada!

Plump DJ’s also play Kendal calling Top tip for a festival: Must rehydrate! If you could take one thing: Nitrous Oxide, always a good laugh. Worst festival experience:

Read more interviews @ www.theothersidemag.co.uk

the other side | festivals 2010

SCOTLAND

(comedy lark) by vikki cullen A

London 401 miles

How does this work? This absolute trifle takes over Edinburgh in August. Anyone who has made a funny of themselves has done it on the Fringe. Think: “Mothership”. Stand-ups now in stadiums began here in 10 seater caravans. Monty Python, The Mighty Boosh, Paul Merton, Frank Skinner, Dylan Moran, Stewart Lee.. (Imagine all comedians ever.) Many big names will make the pilgrimage again this year for a sell-out night or two. But the pleasure of the Fringe is seeing those on the cusp of acknowledgement. Madrunning and drinking to cram five hour-long shows into the day, then more drinking (Summary: laughing, eating, drinking, laughing, drinking, eating, drinking, laughing...). Dungeons and Debenhams: Most enclosed 4-walled spaces in Edinburgh (plus many large tents) will hold the hundreds of acts intent on amusing. These annexes will generally be host to the Free Fringe. The Free Fringe is a platform for neonate comedians.

bit risky given that sitting t hroug h an hour of bad comedy can result in suicidal thinking and premature aging. But keep in mind you could accidently see the next Big Cheese, some lucky bastard out there gets to say “I saw Bill Bailey five years ago, in a sweaty basement with five other people. For free. Touch me.” So get a bit squiffy, stumble along (donate if you enjoyed it) then stick around and drink with the beautiful clowns. (I recommend- A Rabbit’s Foot Company @ the Jekyll and Hyde pub, 5-9th August, 12-1am. I know it’s good because it’s mine. But I’m not shamefully plugging it, I’m just recommending it. This is a recommendation. One you should tell all your friends.) The established hubs and bubs: Less risky, more guaranteed chuckles. The Pleasance Courtyard is an easy place to be, booze and hotdogs on classic cobbles with intimate venues for big names (tip: for potential free tickets to popular shows ask the yellow-shirts manning the queues. Anyone with a drop-out mate will give them the spare ticket; be pleasant and you may get lucky). Also of interest is the Pleasance

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Dome, a huge bubble structure where you can casually eat curry and spot up-and-coming cool cats. I once unknowingly stood within a metre of Simon Amstell and said to a friend “apparently Simon Amstell is here. When you see him, pretend you don’t recognise him.”- avoid doing this. At some point you will also inescapably run into a large inflatable purple cow. The Underbelly, sponsored by E4 has several pastures and an expanding network of “bellys”. The ticket-rippers look picked from a Skins-tree and a lot of the acts will potentially be the next Boosh. Also includes the Hullabaloo beer-garden, which feels like boozing in the Homebase outdoor furniture section, and a Silent Disco. Hurrah. The Royal Mile: Relentless buzzing. Arguably the best place to “feel the energy” of the Fringe, but if feeling energy is not your thing I imagine you will be perturbed when it takes an hour to walk a metre. You will be accosted by drama types and collect enough flyers to wall-paper the outside and inside of a Thespian’s ego. You need to by flyer-savvy. I recommend my personal technique: “the swap”- Take the first flyer theatrically shoved in your face by man dressed as a nun dressed as a concept, then swap it with the next flyerer, then the next.. At the end you are left with one flyer. Easy.

09 Things you are guaranteed to see at the Edinburgh Fringe*

unlikely musical genres does not the next big thing make. Good effort, but next time remember to be funny.

Something genuinely amazing

Usually at the most unlikely location you’ll see it. it may be comedy, theatre or seething else Str eet v en * Not an actual guarantee. dors entirely, but there will definitely be m a king a ki lling something that will leave your jaw se ll in g absolute Just like Seasame Street and on the floor and cause you to go TAT! Jimmy Carr, we can count. on and on about to your fiends ad A tartan rug on Here’s ten things to tick off your nauseum. A year or so later you’ll a pavement fille d with horrific ce Edinburgh Festival Eye Spy: ramic renderin encounter it again, late night on gs of teddy bears w 4 - radio or channel and you’ll be earing kilts is honestly a na Indescribable useating sight chuffed to the seams as you were on a morning af street there first. ter a night on the Bucky. But performances for some reason tourists (usually More flIers American, th an You’ll be strolling down the usually fat) are you dr ev er though t Royal Mile when you see it. like moths to a awn to them flame. A flame possible People doing...something. You’ll wearing a kilt. Try this fun game. watch agog for a while as they Before you walk from one arbit do whatever it is they do. You’ll rary location to another, estimate Other Londoners be amazed. You’ll then try to how many flie the rs you will be offere describe it to a friend. You won’t marv elling at d. (Times this number by three be able to. “There was a guy, cost of a pint . This is how ma ny fliers you will be and he had a...thing...and there offered) You may be at the Edinburgh was spinning...and then another are you ber remem al, but Festiv guy, then there was fire...it was ning also in Scotland. land of cheap Som eon e moa amazing...” Um. Yeah. ’s the at it you about w booze . So look about ho n n hill Londo w sed confu do see and bar e n Ea rn est you ng a ll go of nt amou the at lling types marve TV ex ecutiv es s one of these. change they get back after buying Ever y event ha e worlds biggest hu nting down th th e W hether it be . two pints and a packet of pork next Migh ty or a village fete Boosh cultural festival r last year. This scratchings. tte A whole slew of clean It was always be cut young mercial. If you people with expens ls loca year it’s too com off ed Piss ive haircuts y this, you are sa desperately trying to hear someone in find the to punch them the next unlikely TV legally allowed e lik ks hit. Sitting or w w la h through hours of go the dick. Scot tis dawful experimental comedy sea Yeah, the festival brings an that. rching for some way to sell it into th absolute shit-ton of money into e network. failing miserably. Edinburgh. But it also brings Words: Tom Webster with some in a shit-ton of people. And it’s help from John Daniels a for s shop the n dow nip to hard Earnest young are ts stree pack of fags when the comedians who clogged with tourists buying tat think they are from street vendors and watching For tickets, news, reviews and to plan your trip to the Edinburgh the next Mighty Boosh a man doing a thing, possibly Festivals please visit with fire. Look guys, just because you www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk dress in elaborate costumes and feature sketch based comedy about

the other side | festivals 2010

AlICE ROSS GIvES yOU THE OTHER SIDE’S GUIDE TO STAyInG SAnE AT SPAnISH FESTIvAlS

If you like your festivals chilled-out and dreamy, Spanish festivals aren’t for you. Even the most easygoing punter is likely to return from one badly in need of a holiday: whether you’re rocking out on the beach at Benicassim or sampling the farout electronica of Sonar, festivals in Spain are a hedonistic torrent of late nights, strong drinks and heavy beats. They’re not to be taken lightly. On the surface, many of Spain’s festivals seem distinctly more civilised than their UK counterparts. Rather than lugging your backpack for miles to camp in a muddy field, you wheel your suitcases to an apartment or hotel. Sure, you can camp at some of them, such as Benicassim, but in the steaming July heat you’d be demented to do so. So you check in, have a drink, and think about

and slight bemusement at the lack of people. By midnight things are gradually picking up, bands you’ve heard of will be on soon and it’s about time to head to the site: once inside, armed with a pocketful of drinks tokens for beers or wickedly strong gin and tonics, and head for the stages. At Primavera Sound and Benicassim, you’ll spend the next few hours of your life dancing outdoors in the sultry Spanish night; at Sonar you’ll be in aircraft hanger-like spaces with the crispest, clearest sound system in festivaldom. By the time the headline acts – the Pixies, the White Stripes, Arcade Fire – come on it’s heading out towards two or three and the night is gaining a relentless momentum that sweeps you along, even

city-centre MACBA museum. Forget neon face paint and fancy dress – this is meant to be civilised, remember? Shorts, shades and Havaianas are the order of the day; as night falls the sunglasses stay on and there’s no hint of a chill. Meet up with friends, but you won’t be going to the festival for a while yet: there’s a barbecue to have on someone’s terrace, people to meet up with at a beach bar where the identikit electronica is already ramping up, and all the milling about that happens when a big group of people gear up for fun times. Even at more rock-centric festivals such as Primavera Sound and Benicassim the first bands aren’t on till 9ish, but they tend to play to scant crowds of Brits in their uniforms of Topshop,

when you notice that by now most UK festivals would be closing down for the night. Bit by bit the guitars fade out, replaced by the mind-shaking beats and blinding light shows of big-league DJs, first in the tents and side stages, then erupting onto the main stages. This is where the Spanish crowd comes into its own. Bands are all good but here the DJ rules supreme – the more twisted the better. People don’t just dance here: the crowd pulsates and seethes with hedonistic energy, breaking out into flamenco clapping and singing the choruses as though they’re football chants, with a raucous energy that can bludgeon the DJ into dropping a particular track. A crowd like that, teased just to the point of explosion, threatens to rip the roof off if you’re not »

Kitty Curran

where to go for dinner. As you get ready you eye up the bed and shower, congratulating yourself on how much more refined and comfortable this will be than grubby old Glastonbury, and not realizing that once things kick off you won’t be seeing them much. Spanish days are long and languid; little happens before dusk, and most festivals don’t even open till 8 or 9. Head to the beach for some hardcore lounging: you’ll need those batteries fully charged. If you’re at Sonar you can opt for a more or less random selection of reggae, low-key rock and hilarious leftfield weirdery (the vegetable orchestra has stuck in our memory) at Sonar del Dia, lounging on the fake grass in the courtyard of the

already outside; it’s an adrenaline blast so intense it leaves you gasping, and it’s utterly relentless. Fuck civilised. Everybody’s smoking like it’s going out of fashion, having intense chats in the loo queues and nobody’s feet are fully touching the ground. Still the beats go on and on. The first thoughts of dawn are lifting the edges of the sky but you only get chilly when you stop dancing – and this is such a tune – so off you go again. As the sun comes up the music’s at its heaviest: you’re pummeled by grimy, aggressive techno, carried along on waves of industrial-strength basslines and pounding rhythms. You muster every ounce of stamina you can: the only thing that matters is that you keep on dancing. An hour or two later and stages are closing one by one, funnelling ever-more partiers towards the last remaining sound systems. By this point it’s all beginning to sound a bit samey, though: time to move on.

“SCREW THAT, YOU CAN SLEEP WHEN YOU’RE DEAD”

www.mrahayes.co.uk

At this point you have two choices. You can head outside, wait an hour for a taxi, head back to your apartment, say hello to that shower and have a nice sleep. Or you can decide screw that, you can sleep when you’re dead and right now there are better things to do. The festival doesn’t end at the gates. At Sonar or Monegros – Spain’s biggest rave, held in the desert somewhere outside Madrid and an event strictly for the hardcore – the after-party’s right outside, in the dusty car park. At other festivals, keep your eyes peeled, ask around, tag along and go with the flow. On the beach, or in impromptu clubs hidden behind metal shutters on industrial backstreets, there’ll be a similarly twisted after-party out there somewhere: your job is to find it. As speakers pummel you with trance and all the other music you only ever really enjoy at 10am after a night of no sleep, wired (but surprisingly organised) crusties sell beers out of shopping trollies, and you join a gurning bunch

of wreckheads storming towards midday. It’s ramshackle but exhilarating: you’re completely unplugged from normality, and there’s not a Carling logo in sight. If you’ve managed to hang onto your sunnies, congratulations – anything that makes you feel less like a vampire, squinting in the hard morning light, is a bonus. Sooner or later the sun, beating down so fiercely it’s almost solid, drives even the most staminablessed partygoers to hunt for shade, or bed, or a dip in the sea. Tumbling into that lush clean bed at gone noon, you’re in no state to appreciate it fully, drifting straight into some short hours of blank exhausted sleep – if you’ve made it that far. If you’ve passed out on the beach, do your very best to turn over every 20 minutes or so you burn evenly at least, rather than spending the rest of the trip looking like Two-Face. Suddenly the decision to start the ball rolling so late in the day seems like sheer genius on the part of the organizers. Before you know it it’s dusk again and with your body clock now truly screwed, it’s time to haul yourself out of bed and do it all over again. You’re half promising yourself that tonight you won’t hit it quite so hard, but we all know how reliable those resolutions are. Two days later you dash back to the airport and tumble onto the plane, utterly emptied of any energy, with a lopsided tan, a string of memories that gradually resurface over the coming days and weeks, and a determination to do it all over again next year, but harder. Perhaps the title of this piece is misleading: there’s no way to stay sane at Spanish festivals, and you wouldn’t want to. Spanish festivals themselves are dizzying bouts of mass hysteria; you might as well visit Moscow and swear off the vodka. Pack the Pro Plus and lots of sunscreen, try and remember to drink some water in between all those bastard strong gin and tonics, and brace yourself for some seriously late nights.

WHEN YOU THINK OF EUROPEAN FESTIVALS, CROATIA MIGHT NOT BE THE FIRST DESTINATION THAT SPRINGS TO MIND, BUT IN A SMALL FISHING VILLAGE ON THE WEST COAST BIG THINGS ARE HAPPENING. JOE BRIDAL WRITES... If you’re sick of having to commit to festivals that take more planning and commitment than the average marriage – and cost almost as much – then fear not. Now you can swap soggy burgers and overpriced falafel for freshly caught fish, delicious pizza and fruit bursting with ripeness; replace that army surplus tent with an apartment with ensuite bathroom; and feel smug as you contemplate those trudging through the mud while you swim in the sea and top up your tan as blissed-out beats pulsate in the background. PETRCANING IT Petrcane, a fishing village just 20 minutes in a taxi from the Croatian city of Zadar, is being compared to Ibiza 20 years ago — and not without reason. With regular return flights from London from around £200, it won’t cost that much more than a British festival. Head to Petrcane any time between July and September, and there’s a fair chance you’ll stumble across a festival. While not exactly a secret, it’s still unknown enough not to have been ruined by the crowd who ‘do Glasto’ with their vile Cath Kidston tents and designer wellies. The excellent Garden, Soundwave and Stop Making Sense festivals are all held here, but for £80, you can’t top Electric Elephant – a three day festival you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

ELECTRIC ELEPHANT 27-29 AUGUST Electric Elephant is brought to you by the people who started the legendary Electric Chair night in Manchester. The Unabombers, Justin and Luke, set up the night as a reaction to the superstar DJ corporate 20-quid-a-head club culture that was taking over British nightclubs in the 90s. Their refreshingly eclectic music policy has seamlessly transferred to the sun and sea of Croatia. Festivals apart, Petrcane and the surrounding area offers enough to keep you busy for a week. There are plenty of decent food places along the seafront for those who want to tuck into Mediterranean classics, neck a few beers and get back to the dancing, but there are also lots of smaller family-run restaurants offering fish straight off the boats, as well as traditional Croatian cuisine such as spit-roast lamb. The festival site is a compact area on the headland, incorporating a stage, open-air beach bars and a club. A large campsite lies next to the festival, so if you want to open your tent to sunshine and sea air every morning, it will only cost about £3 a night. The nightclub is a 70s wonderland where you could imagine Roger Moore schmoozing in a crimplene safari suit. The round building, Barbarella’s, is an authentic disco from the golden

age of Chic, Shaft and Studio 54. It has recently been refurbished, but has kept its disco soul. Open till 6am, it really comes to life after the outdoor stages have closed for the night. The line-up at Electric Elephant would rival the dance stage at most UK festivals, but being under the stars with the sea breeze rustling through your hair means you’ll enjoy it all the more. Highlights of last year included Four Tet’s beat-heavy live performance, while Horse Meat Disco’s brilliant DJ set left everyone grinning like idiots. There’s always music to chill or dance to, whether in the beach bar, on the legendary boat trips, stage or nightclub, but there are enough live gigs thrown in to mix things up. She Keeps Bees played on stage last year and the folk boat party was a revelation – hundreds of people enchanted by the beautiful voice of Nancy Wallace. The other boat parties were more raucous with hundreds of revellers content to lie back and drift off towards the sun and admire the beautiful scenery for a few minutes… before partying hard for a few hours – check them out on youtube. www.electricelephant.co.uk THE GARDEN FESTIVAL 2-11 JULY This is the one that kicked things off back in 2006. Bad weather meant the attendance was just a few hundred, but by the following year the word had spread and a few hundred became more than a thousand. Getting more popular by the year, they have had to limit numbers this year to guarantee punters get value for money — something UK promoters might like to ponder. Set over two weekends (2-4 July & 9-11 July) DJs include the legendary Terry Farley, Daddy G (Massive Attack) and Mr Scruff. www.thegardenfestival.eu

SOUNDWAVE 23-25 JULY With a line-up taking in reggae, dubstep and disco, Soundwave will be one to remember this year ” highlights include the brilliant Nathan ‘Flutebox’ Lee, Channel One Sound System and Bristol legends Smith & Mighty. Tickets cost £75 and last year’s event received rave reviews, being described as ‘The Big Chill on sea’. At the height of summer With Zero 7 playing a DJ set only interrupted by the sound of the sea lapping against the shore, is there anywhere you’d rather be? www.soundwavecroatia.com STOP MAKING SENSE 3-5 SEPTEMBER This is the perfect way to end the summer. Three days of top DJs including Theo Parrish, Carl Craig and Friendly Fires (DJ set). And good times are guaranteed with familiar names such as Favela Chic, SecretSundaze and the Swap-a-rama crowd (for the uninitiated, everyone swaps a piece of clothing after each song fi nishes). We recommend not turning up in just a pair of speedos. www.sms-2010.com Although all the festivals in Petrcane cover similar ground, once you’ve set eyes on the heavenly setting, you’ll soon realise why it’s becoming one of Europe’s best locations for summer. No matter which festival(s) you choose, it’s worth staying in Croatia for at least another week, sampling some of the delights of the country and its islands, and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. CROATIAN COOL One easy mistake to make would be to turn up with your pockets stuffed with euros. They ain’t no use here — but that’s not a bad thing. With the pound plummeting against the euro, »

Croatia has become more and more affordable and popular. Their currency, the kuna, means the country provides great value for money compared to Spain, Italy or France and with over 1,000 miles of coastline and hundreds of islands, it’s one of the Mediterranean’s most beautiful areas. Relying heavily on tourism, the people are friendly and you shouldn’t encounter any major difficulties communicating in the cities or resorts. And the Croatians love their footy — during the 90s the likes of Suker and Bilic took them to the world cup semi finals. Sadly they haven’t qualified this year, so it might be best not to remind them of this, but if you’re there during this year’s tournament you should have no shortage of places to watch matches.

www.mrahayes.co.uk

ISlAnd lIFe no trip to Croatia would be complete without a trip to at least one of its islands. They offer everything from diving to nature reserves, from all-night dJ bars on the beach to secluded sanctuary in the hillsides. Hvar is the most glamorous island, and its harbour is a destination for the Hollywood A-list, jet-setters, and those who fancy their chances. While the seriously wadded fill the exclusive hotels, the rest of us can still party here for free. As the sun sets, head to Hula Hula on the rocky hillside just a few hundred metres from the beach. This is a place to dance and pose, but the toffs in chinos with jumpers round their shoulders are far outnumbered by people hell-bent on having a good time. The island of Brac can be reached from the mainland or from Hvar by catamaran — it’s a pretty beach resort and perfect if you’ve got kids in tow. It’s very family friendly and the restaurants will happily shove tables together to cater for bigger parties. While it may not be party central, the beach in Brac’s main resort of Bol is idyllic and you could easily pass a few days away chilling out here postor pre-festival. If you get restless, it offers a couple of diving schools and, if you’re qualified, you can

just rock up and they’ll take you out to explore the underwater sea life. Pag is another place tagged as the ‘new Ibiza’, inasmuch as you can dance till the early hours by the beach. A small island with more sheep than people, the population of 8000 swells during the summer, with most tourists heading to novalja. The bars on the nearby Zrce beach are open around the clock, and dedicated clubbers flock here to dance till sunrise… then dance some more. last year Pag hosted the Outlook Festival – billed as europe’s biggest dubstep festival. The grazing sheep probably didn’t enjoy the ground throbbing with pulsating basslines under their hooves, so they’ll be pleased this year’s festival on 3-5 September has moved to the city of Pula, approximately 200km north of Petrcane. It clashes with Stop Making Sense, but if Plastician and Ms dynamite are more your bag, this could be the perfect way to round off the festival season. www.outlookfestival.com If you like your festivals corporate, you could do worse than going to the T Mobile Inmusic festival in Zagreb on 22-23 June. let’s be honest, you’re unlikely to leave here and move to Goa with the other middle-class hippies after 72 hours of dancing in a shamanic trance… but at least it probably won’t rain. This years attractions include The Flaming lips, lCd Soundsystem, !!!, Massive Attack and, erm, Billy Idol. Pensionable punks aside, the lakeside venue is attractive and if you like the line-up, go for it. If you’re not organised enough to plan your festivals a year ahead and can’t make it to Glastonbury, this could be a much better plan. The site will be open for five days for camping and merriment, so why not grab a few big rocks from the lake, make your own faux stone circle and have much more fun! www.t-mobileinmusicfestival.com/en It would be a real waste to go to a Croatian festival and head straight home. Take time out explore the contrasting cities (dubrovnik, Zagreb, Split, Zadar) hit the beaches and picture-book islands and fall in love.

DENMARK

Roskilde

2009 Thinking of heading overseas to get your music festival fill this year? Head for DENMARK and you could be one of those dots there. PEter quinn reviews roskilde

the other side | festivals 2010

‘Ah, you are English? Phil Collins and Emmerdale. We love them. You should come to our Asparagus festival...’ I’m not sure how I got talking with the Norwegian and Swede on the train from Copenhagen to Roskilde festival site, perhaps it was when they asked at 10am ‘Do you want some beer?’ that I realised they were my new best friends. The train car soon arrived into the dusty festival city, with its passengers all having bonded over a few jars and interesting language foibles, and set to disembark and start a new life. The 2009 Roskilde festival sold nearly 80,000 tickets, and since its people had built the city in six days prior to the main event – my arrival – I was charged with finding a corner of earth to call my own prior to doing what all the great ones do on the seventh day – rest (and drink rum – this is detailed in the Bible’s footnotes). There are competitions for the best camp sites, and so a sense of tribal pride smothers you, and encourages you to partake in the tradition of naming and whoring your site. It wasn’t long before ‘Camp Rum is Yum’ was born. The weather at Roskilde is notoriously extreme and for my visit it decided to be the hottest for 33 years. My coadjutants and I took a turn round the grounds, taking in the Human Carwash (where you could take a shower and be washed by…human girls), the beach (bit grim towards the

the other side | festivals 2010

end of the festival, so go early), the many tasty food stalls (I don’t think we had one bad meal) not to mention the usual festival stalls and watering holes. There is also a Naked Race which is…mildly diverting, and just a little bit embarrassing. Under matutinal sun you will hear the cowbells of staff selling highly potable coffee amid the camp sites, an idea that almost made me weep with joy. Musically, Roskilde has a treat for every imaginable ear. I won’t bore you with a list of headline acts, though I’d feel bad not mentioning Gogol Bordello who only played when Lil Wayne pulled out (big cheers at that), and were easily the highlight. Facing the main stage is a ferris wheel. It’s free to ride, but you first need to cycle for five minutes in order to power it. We sat in a car with a guy who’d been to the festival in 2000, when nine fans were crushed to death as the crowd surged. He’d lost a friend that day, but has been back every year since. The nine are remembered in a monument near the stage. A poignant moment on the ferris wheel, spoiled for us only by Kanye “Gay Fish” West garrulous discordance in the background. If you’ve not been to Roskilde before,I’drecommendconsidering it. Expensive as it is, you get a lot in return. The parallels drawn between it and Glastonbury are not unfounded – it’s vast, diverse and an experience, but there is a sweeter atmosphere here, and that’s what makes festivals memorable.

hile other journalists and, yes, even our good selves are giving you advice on what to do before and during a festival, there is nothing said about what to do when you return home, stinking, shell shocked and sweaty. Well, we at Downtuned Dot Net will fill you in with this handy list.

As soon as you return home – put worn clothes in the washin g machine. Do not leave them in a bag. No doubt they will be dam p with sweat, alcohol and variou s unidentified substances. Leavin g them in a dark, warm, enclos ed space will encourage growth of terrifying moulds and fungi. Ge t them in the wash ASAP. And wash them twice. You can never be too careful. Under no circumstan ces sniff your clothes. You may be tempted, out of perverse cur iosity. But no. Just no.

Don’t think velty hat – Burn it. no a ht ug bo ve ha u ent. You won’t. If you discover yo e festival environm th of e id ts ou it r fo u’ve brought you can find a use frankly retarded. Yo is l iva st fe xt ne e th ly way to And keeping it for first place. The on e th in it g yin bu by upidity. With shame on yourself y record of your st an y ro st de to is ity recover your dign . RE FI US O RM ENO

Take a bath. Even if you’ve come back from a festival that caters to fans of insane former Soviet State grind core in a muddy field in Kosovo, you’re not too hard core for a bubble bath. Gives you plenty of time to discover what blackout-injuries you have sustained . Gives you time to unwind and reflect on what the festi val ‘bad thing’ was. Gives you time to find and scru b away whatever was living between your toes.

Take a shower. The bath was nice, but now you have to get rid of the stuff in your hair. Stuff is probably the best name for it. not Analysing it further would probably t’s wha be a good idea. Thinking about been in your barnet doesn’t bear for thinking about. A bath may be good sure pres the body, but you’ll need high water to clear up that mess.

Restock your tent.

Cut off your wristband. You may be tempted to keep you festival wristband on as a souvenir, or to show off to others how much you love music and festivals, man. Please don’t – you look like an idiot. No one cares you were at Glastonbury. 150,000 other people were there too. You’re not special. Also, think how filthy that thing is and is going to get. It’s very near to your hand. You eat sandwiches with your hand. You don’t want to be eating the kind of things you touched at a festival.

This may not apply if you did as you were told in our guide and burnt your tent. However if you took it home, you will need to grab a few things so it works again. No doubt you were in a rush to exit the campsite, meaning you probably left a few tent-pegs behind. Your tent is useless if you can’t attach it to the ground. Go to Army Surplus and pick up some extras, and a spare guy-rope while you’re at it. You can never be too careful and this will relieve you of any last minute panic when you next need your tent. Now, you can sit back, relax and upload every single photo you took to Facebook. That’s the reason you went, right?

Illustrations by Tom Ireland

AN INTERVIEW WITH...

DOPING PANDA

I have always had a bit of a thing for Doping Panda, ever since I met them at the Great Escape Festival, Brighton 2007 t was love at first sight in a venue filled with about 15 people. So a few months later when I saw them in Tokyo doing a three-hour set to a 3,000-capacity sold out show, I was pretty sure I’d made the right choice talking to them in the grim backstreets of Brighton. The trio have been together for over 10 years, Taro (bass) and Yutaka played together in University and Hayato (drums) joined in 2000. I went over to their studio to meet with Yutaka, or ‘Rockstar’ to his fans. The vocalist and guitarist is one of the most down to earth people you’ll meet, and he is doing everything in his power to get across the border, including doing the interview in English. He started well… Can you describe Doping Panda for people who haven’t heard of you? “We’re not typically Japanese rock, and we’re not very unique…. Uh, I mean we are unique.” And the name? “There’s no reason for the name Doping Panda, I don’t know how English bands decide names but I don’t think it is important. It was just two random words, Panda is pretty and Doping comes from the word meaning to point, found in Japanese comics.” He started playing guitar at 15 after listening to Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains The Same but when asked about current

inspiration he goes in a very different direction. “There are so many bands that give me inspiration, but if I had to give a top three: Yeasayer are cool and I like the XX as well, Arctic Monkeys…they aren’t cool (laughs).” Yutaka has quite a negative outlook on the Japanese music world, with too many bad venues and recording studios that just don’t produce what he wants. So finally he built his own studio and now records all their songs himself. Even his favourite songs Miracle and Crazy he’s not entirely happy with. “When I made them, of course, I was very proud of what I had created, but the sound just isn’t what I wanted, it never is. I want to record them perfectly, in my own studio. “I can’t recommend a DP song, because we haven’t made it yet. When I write music, I don’t really think too much about the lyrics, they aren’t important. Japanese politics and things don’t really matter, they aren’t so potent as they are in the west. I’m a musician so it is easy to just write a love song and concentrate on the feeling of the music.” So, how has the music changed from the punk of 10 years ago to the DP of today? “I don’t remember what I thought back in then, the music style was not important. Back then I was young and impressionable,

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around me were lots of punk bands so that’s the road I took. Now I write for myself. “I’ve always wanted to go abroad, but it is very hard for Japanese bands, the music environment makes it difficult, my dream is to one day play Reading Festival.” His most memorable moment? “I don’t really have a memorable moment, I guess the only thing I remember is the bad things. When no one comes to our shows, even last year we did a show that was bare. We made a lot of mistakes in the music and we became more like a business rather than a band, which was not cool. “One of the craziest things that ever happened to me? I’m not sure if I should say this… I was given a ring by a fan before we went on tour to the UK, not an engagement ring or anything, but she wrote if I didn’t wear it on the plane, that it would crash. I threw it away (laughs). “I can only acknowledge myself, but I am always proud of Japanese people that fought to get abroad, like Kitano Takeshi. It’s challenging to go overseas. Most Japanese are too scared to go for it, we continue to take the risk and challenge ourselves. “I really respect the UK music scene, but Japanese musicians can make great music just like the English, or even better!” Interview conducted & translated by Joshua L Watts

Hmmm...

Yeah?

‘...London voted City of the Year...’

Just a slow news day.

Wow! Really?!

No.

Suprised you’re even open, no one but police on the street.

Actually you don’t. I do sell doughnuts...

...and isn’t that a stereotype?

Like an alcoholic freelancer?

Speaking of which, it’s nearly 12. Gin..? Go on then.

Afternoon Lucy, good day at school?

Its called ‘university’ these days, I’m not sixteen.

Do you have a loyalty card scheme?

Pity, I could half your wage. Why yes!

You buy five regular coffees, and if you like them...

Hello...what? Do we have wireess? ...er..yes, we do have a radio...

We should get the internet you know.

Oh...no... we don’t have the internet.

...you buy another one.

No card though.

I’m waiting until we’re in Timeout’s ‘Top10 Cafes Without Broadband’.

I forgot the idea is to disuade customers, but ...bit much? that sign...

Independent thought. You don’t get that down ‘The Three Cafe-teers’. When I was back in ‘Nam...

...then I’ll get it the next day.

You were in ‘Nam?!

It’s not a door policy, it’s a statement.

I came in with 20 jumbo flap-jacks strapped to my chest once.

Yeah, TwickeN’am.

It was hell out there.

No sense of humour. Central London is where I am now.

NO CELEBRITIES

That said, if I see one more tool from Shoreditch...

Jesus. I can still hear the screams.

Cock it.

...who has removed yet another working component from his push-bike, I may be tempted to close shop. Where does it end?

by owen pomery

FESTIVAL MEMORIES

Reading 1973

Your fine editor just arxed me to trawl back through time and space to glean the memory of a rose-tinted week-end etched in the mists of my over-extended mind. I am being demanded of a reminiscence from 37 years ago!

eading then, as I recall, was not so bathed in R&R history, not afforded such a glow. It was a grotty, little conurbation in the middle of Burke-shire that no-one in their right mind would wanna visit. Now I’m being arxed to go back? Well it weren’t bleeding Woodstock that’s for sure, but then again, neither was it Altamont. It was all very much more… English. The mud was sticky not slidey, the rain kinda drizzled, until the night-time, when it tried a little harder. And there was no Sha na na, no Hendrix, no Who and thankfully no Ten Years After. Instead we had The Faces and Genesis, and for those who think of a tired old Rodney and the facile Phil Collins, let me tell ya that The Faces then were filled by Plonk and were a joyous troupe of impending catastrophe waiting to happen, a million miles from the tired old hack that does it all by muscle memory. And when they pulled out “I wish it would rain”… well, it all coalesced into a moment of true and inspired beauty. The Sun might even have shoned. But mebbe that was 75? Arx yer

Mum. And you’ll probably need her to tell you that Genesis under the tutelage and helmsmanship of Peter Gabriel were a very different kettle of snappy sharks to the bunch o’ grasping goldfishes they became. All lasers and pyramids, day-glo make up and ultra-violet light (y’wanna try that pairing in the privacy of your

own bedroom!), tales of birds and worms and songs of crazed eccentricity! Jagged edges and lyrical beauty that was quite unique and utterly beguiling. Even the rain couldnae dampen the spirits. There was also The Sensational Alex Harvey Band who hadta be seen to be believed. VAMBO

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ROOLZ! Mad Glaswegian Yob with a touch of the Burns about him and more than a hint of the Anarchy that was soon to be made manifest in the punkeramalamadingdong that ensued. That his trail was ahead of its time and cut brutally short is as tragic as it was obvious. He turned the whole glam make-up thing that was about to erupt, into a GrandGuignol blood fest made mad by Marvel comics before the Watchmen were even a sperm in the uterus of comic nirvana. Mad and marvellous. Zal Cleminson anyone? Delilahhhhhhh? And taking up the 10yrs later spot were the ubiquitous Quo. Nuff said. I do seem to remember though that there was a protopunk outfit there that seemed to delight in getting bottled. Their name? Mid-afternoon on the first day, blazing sunshine, everyone settling in and widening out. Then this searing, melodyfree caterwauling erupts and the bottles began to fly. The Geezer who led that antagonistic ensemble was wearing some garish yellow creation, if memory serves, and with short dyed hair! He only started having a go back!

Mocking, sneering at the ursine crowd that wanted mere musical wash with their sunshine and ‘sheesh. Guess he was a speedfreak in a field of numb-nuts hoping against hope to make a connection. Wrong field buddy. Hope you made it through the ensuing four or five years without getting too bitter or frustrated. Of course that mighta happened in 74 or even 75, memory being what it is. Or was. Oh yeah and John Peel putting in a shift spinning discs and bigging up the scousers in that monotonous drone that mighta been raised to scorn by the current crop in the red shirts! But I digress. All that stuff you can read about in the trash mags, face tube, wiked-pediatrix and other such organs of misinformation and time-wasting. What they can’t tell ya is that the dope was benign, the booze warm and flat, and that the khazis reeked and overflowed. The food was shite, the sound often muddy and the girls weren’t putting out. Least not to a gangly public schoolboy yet to find a way with words! But what I do remember is the relentless tide of ‘tween band announcements, that Jim or Jack or Jaqueline should go to the emergency tent ‘cause Bill or Brian or Bertha had their “Insulin”’. Now, I’m still quite a gullible guy; I’ll follow stories and recantations down the most improbable slopes, willingly and energetically, and only feel mildly stupid when the rug is pulled. But even I am amazed that I didn’t twig to the coded wording going on all around me, as drugs of a

less than licit nature were being bandied around willy-nilly in the sight of the boys in blue and that the nefarious trade was tolerated in so nonch’ a manner. The benefit of hindsight would encourage me to sum up that the whole point of that, and any, Fest would be to: Get all dem yout’ wanna smoke, pop and drop. Put ‘em in a field and turn up the volume, least they wont be busting out in suburbia and distressing

And ya know what? It’s not a bad thing. Really. Good sometimes to have a go at something else and pretend it could last forever. Get off the Old Ink Line and ride a rail that goes nowhere. Make like a hippy just to change the clothes, bump into crowds that wanna be there instead of the bendy bus mangle on a Monday morn; punch the clock that walks across the sky and not the one that plagues your fevered eye; get to grips with

“Let ’em blow off steam and think they’re being free” the good tax-paying folk. Let ‘em blow off steam and think they’re being free, before we rope ‘em in for another year behind a desk. And has it really changed? What goes down at Glasto? Copready? Should I go see Bob down Hopfarm? I guess it’s much the same really. Y’can prob’ly get colder beer and the bogs ain’t quite so boggy, the food might even have become enticing and the sound might be clearer and I’ve heard the backy all got wackier many moons ago. In the end tho’, it’s all just crowd control. Sheep herding. And I say that as one who bought the lie and towed the line, baa’ed and bleated along to whoever took the stage. The perception of freedom and value for money. How many bands? On how many stages? A pretence of Unity and the big One Love.

the other side | festivals 2010

your tented neighbour; tell a joke or share a favour. Gotta be better than the grunt and howl, bump and grind of life along th’assembly line. Might even make ya jump ship and cut loose before ya buy into the mastadon bestiality of the abattoir slide they’re grooming you for. Take the licence and carve yourself an escape chute, make a plan and stick it to The Man. Or just kick back and let the sounds wash over as you learn the gift of yer gab that might get the boy or girl of your choice to come on over and put out! Good luck in whichever field you spend your Summer-days. Hope the sounds are emancipatory, the company encouraging and the crappers clean. Hear more from Cardorowski @ www.theothersidemag.co.uk

FESTIVAL MEMORIES

Penwith 1983 Back stage has changed over the years and the 80’s probably wasn’t exactly what we thought it was. Mark Long, singer from 80’s COLD WAVE band the Opposition explains

‘‘

ornwall’s biggest ever music for the masses, open-air rock extravaganza, featuring America’s largest rock star, Meatloaf, special guests 10CC, plus surprise guest appearance, Chuck Berry (with stars on either side of his name). Plus Aswad, Renaissance, the Opposition (my band) and finally Sid’s Taxi, plus a spectacular laser light show (£15 on the day). Tuesday August 30th 1983.” The poster didn’t list a surprise appearance by Billy Bragg who had come down in the van with his girlfriend for a couple of days’ holiday in Cornwall with us. Two days before, we had opened the Sunday at Reading Festival with some helpful advice from the stage manager: “If the bottles start flying, get off quick”. Steel Pulse had got bottled off after three numbers on the Saturday. There we were, waiting in the wings, peering out at a field of Thin Lizzy/Black Sabbath fans with hangovers and it’s 12 o’clock on a Sunday morning. Oh and... we are a three piece band playing err... New Wave/Cold Wave music

in the style of the Cure / Joy Division. So I turned my guitar up to number 10 and we hammered out 40 minutes and even got an encore. Thanks to the stage manager who was so relieved that he hadn’t had to sweep the stage for broken bottles and cans, “Go on, you’ve got time for another one.” So back to Cornwall in the sun, backstage, midday. Very relaxed and we’re picking our sides for the match and there are two people left: the bloke out of 10CC with the good voice w ho sang “ I ’m not in L ove” a n d Meat loaf… They chose the bloke from 10CC and we got Meatloaf, whose

Illustration by Jack Bedeman www.bedeman.co.uk

first question to me was: “What game are we playing?” “Football” – he looks confused… “Soccer” “Ahhhhh” His eyes light up: “I’ll play in goal then”. So we line u p ;

teams made up of Meatloaf, 10CC, Aswad, Billy Bragg, road crew, catering, helpers plus Sid’s Taxi. 11 a side – maybe even 14! With one rule – take it easy with the slide tackles – people have to be on stage at some point during the game. But there’s a ball, so it’s still very competitive. Aswad are overflowing with talent, not sure about the 10CC lads, I suspect they all went to public school. But Meat is a revelation in goal. Bags of enthusiasm and nothing is getting past him. He’s also rather worryingly, diving at people’s feet. He is, after all, the star of the show – or is he? (more of that later). The game is interrupted as bands go on stage to play their sets in front of 5,000 locals and holiday makers and come off stage and continue the game. Nobody has an idea of the score but Meat is convinced we’re winning because he’s not let any goals in. Aswad go on and do their set and there is a noticeable drop in quality on the pitch but then they return in their stage gear and divide themselves up so we can even up the sides. Then a rather tense looking promoter arrives, waving his arms and trying to get the ball. (another public school boy – wrong game mate!) Or maybe he’s finally panicked at seeing Meat diving at feet or maybe it was when he rolled the ball out and tried to go past everyone on the pitch and scythed down by a member of

the Aswad road crew. The promoter is a lovely man – we suspect that he’s new to this game – not new to soccer but to promoting concerts. There’s an endless supply of food, alcohol and he’s offered us a week in the hotel so we can all have a holiday. We surround him on the centre

ever met him before. We have all scampered from the catering tent to side stage, watching as panicking support musicians try to tune up to the living legend – without missing a beat. We stand and watch 30 minutes until Chuck looks at his watch and leaves the stage. To everyone’s

“If the bottles start flying, get off quick” circle and he explains that Mr Chuck Berry is on his way in his hire car from the station and has requested – or instructed the promoter – to clear the backstage area for his imminent arrival. I think we would have put up more of a protest if we had not been completely knackered from the endless football match, but we were happy to retire to the catering tent: Meatloaf (America’s largest rock star ), 10cc, Aswad, Billy Bragg and of course, Sid’s Taxi, staring out, waiting for the legend to arrive. Chuck (cos we’re in the business we can call him Chuck) arrives in a hire car which pulls up at the bottom of the steps leading up to the stage, gets out of the car and is handed a Gibson 335 and walks onto the stage and meets, for the first time, his band for the night. He stumbles into the first song: he’s in tune, singing to his guitar, unfortunately he hasn’t bothered to tune up to the other musicians – none of whom have

the other side | festivals 2010

surprise the crowd want more of this, the lovely promoter is patting Chuck on the back, telling him how much the crowd adore him and suggesting he goes back on stage for one more. Chuck says – fine… but wants to see the extra cash he will need to do another 10 minutes and “My Dingaling”. The brown paper bag is handed over and Chuck does another 10 minutes, gets in the car and drives off into the Cornish sunset. Meat goes on and does a two hour extravaganza with lasers, comes off stage and suggests we finish the game, under floodlights backstage but we all decide to go back to the holiday camp for drinks and stories. Footnote : Glastonbury teams (a year later): Black Uhuru, Billy Bragg, Andy Kershaw, Hank Wangford Band, John Martyn’s band and The Smiths (but not Morrissey who didn’t want to damage his stage clothes – maybe he could have taken some tips from Meat?)

AN INTERVIEW WITH...

ROB DA BANK

Putting on your own festival is not easy. It helps if you are a superstar DJ, have a nouse for hot new bands and a brain full of chaotic fancy dress ideas. Rob Da Bank has, and is head honcho of Bestival. That’s why we let him have the final word...

1. What is your top festival moment ever ? Getting engaged to my now wife Josie about ten years ago...I got down on one knee amongst all the discarded jacket potatoes and beer cans and popped the question. She said yes and we had a crazy 36-hour party with all our mates! 2. Wind down tunes for the car journey home…

David Bowie – Hunky Dory, Pink Floyd, Sebastien Tellier – La Ritournelle, Johnny Cash, The Orb and new bands Washed Out and Toro Y Moi 3. Who should festival goers absolutely not miss this year ?

At my shows? George Clinton and Friendly Fires at Camp Bestival. The XX, Fever Ray and The Prodigy at Bestival.

4. Do you have any advice to

who went to the legendary Isle

someone who wants to start their

of Wight festival in 1970?

own festival?

Yes we get a few. A Lot of them got left behind after the festival. There were 600,000 festival goers there so there are quite a few left and yes you can spot them a mile off!

Make sure you have solid financial backing and a good five-year plan. Make sure you can get a good position in a very busy market with something fresh and exciting to offer. 5. How do you come up with the themes for Bestival? Bottle of wine and rambling on for hours. 6. How do you stop a festival being perceived as ‘selling out’? Try and limit the visible sponsorship onsite, have great handmade artwork, go for acts no one else would dare to and don’t sell out!

8. What would be your dream line-up (past or present)? The Smiths, Jimi Hendrix, Dolly parton, The Cure, Joy Division and Florence and The Machine 9. Do you go for the tent, yurt, campervan or hotel? We have a beautiful 16-foot yurt in our garden with proper linings and yak skins on the floor. Lets take that! 10. Any other festivals you would recommend ?

7. Do you get many festival goers

the other side | festivals 2010

Not until we’ve sold out!

WIN...

tickets to Stop Making Sense f e s t i v a l in Croatia. 3 days and nights of musical anarchy by the sea

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DOPING PANDA New album Decadence out now. Tour dates 2010 1/07: Paris, France @ Japan Expo 3/07: Czech Republic @ Holcovice Festival 4/07: Czech Republic @ Rock For People Festival 8/07: Hamburg, Germany @ Frau Hedi 9/07: Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Winston 15/07: London @ Wilmington Arms 16/07: Linz, Austria @ MA Convention www.dopingpandablog.com