festivals
theartsdesk in Switzerland: Lucerne and Gstaad offer curious audiences fresh perspectives on much-loved worksTuesday, 27 August 2024
The summer festival circuit in Central Europe can be a bit of a merry-go-round. Notices in festival towns promise world-class orchestras and soloists, but they are usually the same performers, making festival appearances as part of broader touring... Read more... |
Reading Festival 2024, Day One review - an eclectic line up and a perfect headline setMonday, 26 August 2024
Reading Festival’s 2024 line up was the embodiment of playlist culture. Once a key contender in the UK’s Rock and Alternative market, then a rite of passage for students partying their way into their first year of university, it’s fair to say that... Read more... |
We Out Here Festival 2024 review - generations of weirdness and wonderSunday, 25 August 2024
I won’t give it loads about the atmosphere and attendees at We Out Here – suffice to say that in its fifth edition, it has maintained all the strengths I mentioned last year, with the added benefit of slicker-operating infrastructure having ironed... Read more... |
Medicine Festival review - sound and music healing in the depths of BerkshireFriday, 23 August 2024
I had been softened up for the Medicine Festival by a recent visit to the global music extravaganza WOMAD – a trio of us met a guy called Paul aka SpriITman – an ex-IT expert who after a health crisis realised he was a healer. Bear with me on this.... Read more... |
Stowaway Festival, Buckinghamshire review - old ravers and their kids get on oneWednesday, 21 August 2024
The UK festival scene has been going through a bit of a difficult time in the last couple of years, with a number of events closing down due to financial problems. This has obviously hit the “boutique” end of the marketing hardest, with several... Read more... |
Brighton Pride 2024 review - the UK's most fabulous festivalWednesday, 07 August 2024
Brighton’s Preston Park came alive this weekend in the most magnificently colourful, sparkling and diverse celebration of love in all its forms for the UK's most famous LGBTQ+ community fundraiser.Saturday was the more hedonistic affair, seeing the... Read more... |
WOMAD Festival 2024 review - exuberant global roots sounds, hippies young and old, and blissful weatherWednesday, 31 July 2024
The weather is perfect. Rare at a festival in this country. The sun shines. Occasional clouds pass. There’s a light breeze. Flamingods are on the Charlie Gillett stage. They are a London-based unit of primarily Bahraini origin who make psychedelic-... Read more... |
Camp Bestival, Dorset 2024 - magical memories from an enchanting festivalTuesday, 30 July 2024
I sometimes think I’ve done the festival thing the wrong way round. When my babies were at their littlest, we did the big ‘uns – Latitude, Wilderness, Blue Dot, and the like – all family "friendly", but with slightly wilder, bigger, more adulty... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Ryedale Festival: dances, and songs, to the music of timeMonday, 29 July 2024
“Cherish the moments. They go ever so quickly.” Sheila Hancock, beloved actor, writer – and award-winning singer, notably of Stephen Sondheim in Sweeney Todd – gave us that carpe diem nudge in the course of an afternoon discussion of her favourite... Read more... |
Glastonbury Festival 2024: A Sunlit Epic of Music, Madness, Chaos and CultureThursday, 04 July 2024
SUNDAY 30th June 2024It’s late. But not really. Not by the standards of this place. Photographer Finetime and I are in Block9 in the South-East Corner. The so-called “naughty corner”. We take turns juggernauting quomble off a pinecone. Finetime’s... Read more... |
The Master Musicians of Joujouka, Morocco review - a healing encounterTuesday, 18 June 2024
A small mountain village, tucked away in the foothills of the Rif Mountains, south-east of Tangier. The “smallest music festival in the world”, so it says in the Guinness Book of Records. But this remarkable musical event – more of an encounter than... Read more... |
The Great Escape Festival 2024, Brighton review - 12 hours on the musical frontline of Day ThreeTuesday, 21 May 2024
If the weather’s good TGE Beach is a grand start to a day. As it sounds, it’s a purpose-built seafront space to the east of central Brighton, containing three stages as well as stalls selling vegan kebabs, Filipino street food and German sausage.... Read more... |
