Festival season will soon be upon us; and we’re sure you’ve all got your tents and six packs ready for the biggest Summer of Love we’ve ever had! We’re all glad to be out of this miserable Winter, and we’re getting a little too excited by the sun that we keep getting little glimpses of.
We’re lucky that here in Nottingham our festival season starts in April; well before most major cities. Hit The Deck will kick things off this year, with plenty of bands from the Alternative spectrum, including a lot of love for Nottingham bands too! You can expect to see the likes of ADELPHIA, LACEY and even the mental legends that are BABY GODZILLA , as well as many other great local artists, perform alongside some HUGE names from the Alternative genres including the Rock legends that are Brand New!
Up next we have Dot To Dot; which brings a huge variation of upcoming talent to Notts. Voted “Best Metropolitan Festival” at the Festival Awards 2013, D2D has made quite a name for itself, as one of the best festivals in UK! On the Notts side of things we have some pretty amazing acts repping our fine city. You can expect to see the huge anthemic sounds of AMBER RUN, incredibly catchy indie-popness from SAINT RAYMOND, some slick acoustic sounds from JOEL BAKER as well as many more local acts. They’ll be playing alongside some great bands including Peace, Kyla La Grange and The Midnight Beast to name but a few.
The newbie on the block is up next; No Tomorrow Festival kind of appeared out of nowhere about three months ago, and was very secretive. Now, as we’re only a few months away, they’ve given away some details, and it’s shaping up to be something very exciting. On the 7th June, you can expect Wollaton Park to be transformed into “something you have never seen before”. In terms of lineup, it’s a very current, more electronic-orientated festival that features some big chart-hitters, along with plenty of acclaimed DJ’s. Hometown heroes LONDON GRAMMAR are the main headliners; so it’s a great opportunity to see the phenomenal live performance that they put on. There’s plenty more Nottingham acts to be announced, so hold tight, and we’ll let you know who they are as soon as we find out!
Speaking of Wollaton Park, on the 19th July, you can expect the infamous Splendour to be making its return! Yes, Splendour is the biggest Nottingham festival out of the bunch, and for good reason. Besides huge crowds attending to see some huge names which this year include the likes of Tom Odell and The Happy Mondays, Splendour offers a massive platform to our home grown Nottingham talent! Not only will the winner of the Future Sound of Nottingham get to open the main stage; but thanks to the LeftLion stage, plenty of Notts musicians will get the chance to perform to the massive crowds. It’s not a bad gig!
Next up we have the most Notts dominated of all the festivals, Deerstock. Between the 25th and 27th of July, Deerstock brings loads of local acts to Newton Cross Country Course, all playing for charity. This year, all the proceeds are going to the Teenage Cancer Trust, Notts Linc Air Ambulance and The Lee Bonsall Memorial Fund. Yup, that’s right; you get to see the likes of Nistory makers FEROCIOUS DOG among many others, have a great time, and get that great feeling that you’re helping out charity! Win win!
Following that (I told you this was a long SUMMER OF LURRVEE!) we have Waterfront Festival, a date is yet to be confirmed, but it normally falls within the last week of July. As you may have guessed from the name, it’s a festival on the waterfront (The Canalhouse, to be specific), and it’s all brought to you thanks to our Media Dad, LeftLion, I’m Not From London and Audacious Face music. It’s basically one huge charity event, although due to it being one of the later festivals in the year, it hasn’t been revealed which charities will be supported this year. Keeping the secretive theme, there is no lineup available yet; but if we base it on the past few years’ which has included the likes of SPOTLIGHT KID, THE SWIINES, and many more great local artists, we’re sure it will be pretty damn awesome!
Finally, we have the mighty Hockley Hustle, which will be making its return on the 19th October after last being seen in 2010. Based in, you guessed it, Hockley; Hockley Hustle was a great festival that brought plenty of local musicians, culture, independent retailers, and more to Hockley. We all loved it cause it was at that time where we were starting to say goodbye to the sun; and we couldn’t think of better way to say goodbye. It returns this year. It’s gonna be massive. Get excited!
Well, there you have it. There’s plenty of great festivals featuring Nottingham artists going off in Notts this Summer. This Summer is full of great opportunities for Nottingham musicians, and there’s plenty for the rest of us to enjoy too. We can’t wait to get into the festival spirit over the next couple of weeks and we hope to see some of you fine people at a few festivals too! Get your shades ready, and remember; SPREAD THE LOVE!
Yours in Love of New Music,
Aidan Grant/ Sam Nahirny x
P.S Both Detonate Festival, and Everywhere festival were not mentioned in this article, as of now there are no Nottingham live acts on the lineups. As we help to promote live Nottingham music, we haven’t included these, however, they are still two great Electronic festivals; and we’re sure they’ll be a great addition to your festival calendar!
