Dot To Dot Festival - Manchester - 4/6/2012 Dot To Dot Festival - Manchester - 4/6/2012

As the summer months are upon us and festival season has begun in earnest, ticket holders for camping festivals like Reading or Leeds, all start following the weather forecasts with a little more frequency. Are they going to get fair skies to compliment the £200 worth of music they’ve shelled out for? Or should they prepare for a Bear Grylls survival weekend? Like with all things reliant on weather over the British summer, nothing is certain. 

Maybe thats why day long urban festivals like Dot to Dot have become so popular? They offer a great lineup of venues and rising stars at a fraction of the cost, (a ticket for Dot to Dot was only £20) without the risk of a wash out. Indeed the overcast conditions in Manchester didn’t affect the enjoyment to be had over the 14 hours of exceptional music that Dot to Dot offered it’s attendees.

Music Festivals of 2012 #2 - Dot To Dot Festival

Over the last few years there has been an explosion of the early summer “pop up” festivals dotted around the urban centres of the country; but few manage to capture the imagination in the same way as Dot to Dot. The festival, which started in Nottingham in 2005, was one of the first crop of these modern urban festivals and is still showing the competition how it’s done. The festival takes place in Bristol, Nottingham and Manchester across this years Jubilee bank holiday weekend.

It’s line up is a music lovers dream, with artists being selected based on talent rather than fame, meaning that it’s 5 stages are not filled with 'has beens' and 'also rans.' Instead festival organiser, Anton Lockwood, gives festival goers the chance to see the futures headlining stars: “Dot To Dot 2012 sees us welcome some of the most hotly tipped new acts in the world, including some stars of SXSW. This is what Dot To Dot is all about!”

For once, there is more than hyperbole to his claim as over the course of the weekend you’ll get the chance to see [edit] radio favourites like Pulled Apart By Horses, The Drums, Wavves, Willis Earl Beal and Neon Indian (Manchester only). The best part is that you can see all of these bands for the recession busting price of £20! which is insane value for money.

[edit] radio will be heading along to Manchester to check out the festival and all it has to offer, we suggest that you do too. It’ll be the best thing you do all Bank Holiday.

Buy your own ticket from Alt-Tickets or for more information about the festivals venues head over to the Dot to Dot Website

Music Festivals of 2012 #1 - Beacon’s Festival

Rising out of the wreckage of 2011’s flooding cancellation, Beacon’s Festival is back and this time bigger, better and most importantly more water resistant than ever! Having moved the site to an even more picturesque location and away from flood areas, the festival will see thousands of discerning music fans descend on the town of Carleton (near Skipton) to enjoy three days and four nights of some of the most groundbreaking musicians around.

The line up is incredible! Including [edit] radio favourites, Wild Beasts and Real Estate, who had the dubious honour of featuring in our 2011 albums of the year run down, and other artists we’ve supported such as King Krule, Willis Earl Beal and Cloud Nothings to name just a few. You can see the full line up here.

Whats even better is that this line up is available for the recession busting price of £74.50 for weekend tickets, with additional discounts available for students and for parents bringing along their children too.

To give you a flavour of the festival, which runs from 17th-19th August we’ve created a Beacon’s Spotify playlist for you to enjoy!

Right Now, If You Believe

Willis Earl Beal - Take Me Away

During a recent seminar, a lecturer asked “who are your modern day soul and blues voices?” For a minute the group sat in silence before our brains sparked into life and names like Erykah Badu, Macy Gray and even Amy Winehouse were mentioned. Our reticence to answer is understandable because apart from Badu, the soul and blues genres are devoid of credible voices that have found their way into the mainstream psyche. The selection of soul artist Michael Kiwanuka as BBC’s “sound of 2012” would suggest that the industries taste makers recognise this void and are trying to fill it. Predictably they’ve backed the wrong horse.

Step forward Chicago’s 27 year old, Willis Earl Beal who on the evidence of “Take Me Away” is about to invoke the spirit of 1920‘s blues acts like Robert Johnson. The home recording is primal and rhythmic, distorting the thumping sound of a rudimentary diddley bow to striking effect. Vocally Earl Beal is equally powerful and from the opening line of “Oh lord! Take me away” he sounds like a snarling Isaac Hayes lost in a gospel trance. Given it’s near 90 year old inspiration, it’s strange that Willis Earl Beal sounds so fresh when his contemporary, Kiwanuka, sounds so hackneyed. The harsh truth is that when it comes to blues and soul, genuine emotion is everything and unlike Kiwanuka’s coffee table version, Earl Beal really means it.