In the Gigwise arena, be sure to catch Patrick Wolf encapsulate the sound of happiness, fun, dammit, life in his glorious festival stomper ‘The Magic Position’, and hear Alpines, who’s experimental electro indie has been dubbed ‘night-pop’ but is equally as perfect on a sunny (fingers crossed) summer afternoon.
It’s great to see that the Flowerpot haven’t let grubby rent grabbing council types dampen their enthusiasm for music, or their ability to curate a magical mix on stage, with highlights including the frantic Slow Club, the hip hop trio Sound of Rum, who look more like Harry Potter lookalikes than your usual rappers, and Johhny Flynn, a fellow who started playing his guitar in a plaid shirt way before the term ‘nu-folk’ was even conceived, yet continues to sound fresh and authentic.
Accompany this with no camping, an early curfew, and easy transport, this could well be my ideal festival… Tickets are still available – see you there?
Skip the being free, doing what you wanna do, yadda yadda and get straight to having a good time at this Sunday’s Get Loaded In The Park. The festival returns to Clapham Common for the seventh year, and with it does one heck of a line up.
Absolute Radio host the main stage, and I’m hoping that after dancing wildly along with Darwin Deez in a monster game of ‘Simon says’ and falling in love yet again with the deliciously verbose expansive pop of Los Campesinos, I will still have energy to rock to Wakefield’s finest, The Cribs. Probably the best band I have ever seen live, I’m looking forward to these northerners entertaining the crowd gathered on this southern patch of grass. And I’ve heard that the quirky British Sea Power will be invited to the party, and I’m expecting good things from a band with a track record for expansive and exciting music, that is always gloriously epic and immediately arresting.