Latitude July 14-17, Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk
Latitude remains the idyllic getaway location for people who don’t really want to be pushing the pushchair through miles of Welsh mud like they did one year at Green Man. Polite respectability shall be your watchword, and while the main stage is all a bit Jools Holland (the National, Suede, pretend homeless guy Seasick Steve), Foals, Glasser and Deerhunter should all be worth leaving your spot lounging on a blanket by the pear cider stall for. The literary and comedy tents are some way above average – Richard Herring and Tim Key are slated for the latter – or take a roam into the foliage to find spray-painted sheep and a friend of yours passed out unconscious against a piece of site-specific artwork (this actually happened to me one year). Weekend tickets £170 and all information at latitudefestival.co.uk.
Hey, guess what? Yeah, that’s right! We’re hosting a stage at Lovebox this year. We’ve put together a playlist to get you in the mood. Appropriately enough, the tracks on it were produced by people who’ll be appearing at Lovebox festival from July 15-17 in London’s Victoria Park. Read more »
Lydia Lunch is the ambassador of this year’s 1-2-3-4 Festival. What does that mean? We’re not sure, exactly. So we called her up to find out. Read more »
Somehow Benicassim has sprawled into a marathon with four official days sandwiched between various pre- and after-parties. If six days in the sweltering Spanish sol doesn’t seem too big an ask then you get a valedictory performance from the Streets, a James Murphy solo show and Primal Scream doing Screamadelica while you’re at it. Long-weekend tickets £177.50 and all info at fiberfib.com.
The 1-2-3-4 Festival 9 July, Shoreditch Park, London
Fans of music and counting numbers sequentially will be greatly warmed by the news that Noisey, VICE’s new-music-loving younger brother site, is hosting the biggest stage at this year’s 1-2-3-4 Festival. Read more »
Sonisphere July 8-10, Knebworth House, Hertfordshire
Stately pile Knebworth has pedigree in staging colossal events – Oasis and Pink Floyd played career-high shows there – and this year, sandwiched between the Morris Minor Rally and the Pre-50s American Auto Club Rally, it hosts the UK leg of pan-European manicured metal three-dayer Sonisphere, whose Friday line-up alone boasts the thrash metal “big four”: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax.
Biffy Clyro, Slipknot and Limp Bizkit take care of business on the other two days, while tucked away on lesser stages we find Sisters of Mercy, Gallows and hairy comic Bill Bailey. There’s even a “Rock Royalty” option for hedge-fund metallers, where a tipi for six sets you back £2,465. Weekend tickets from £155 and all info from uk.sonispherefestivals.com.
What are you doing on Saturday, the 9th of July? Watching the Black Lips play music in a hot field while dancing around like you’re drunk (but you’re not really drunk for reasons pertaining to party promotion and media law)? Great, us too. Read more »
Exit July 7-10, Petrovaradin Fortress, Novi Sad, Serbia
It’s a cliché to harp on about the beauty of the coastline around Novi Sad and how the music at Exit, the biggest festival in the Balkans, is only half the reason to visit this part of the Aegean. But no one in their right mind would travel to Serbia to catch Hadouken! or House of Pain, so it’s nice to have the beach option. Who else is playing the 12th edition of Exit? Why, there’s Beirut, Arcade Fire, Pulp, Portishead, Laibach, Carl Craig and many more. Tickets cost £105 and all the info’s at exitfest.org.
Open’er Festival June 30-July 3, Gydnia-Kosakowo Airfield, Poland
Wanted to go to Primavera, but didn’t want your skin to peel or to have fresh fish food rammed down your throat? Then Poland’s strangely punctuated Open’er Festival may be for you. Caribou, Prince, Big Boi, James Blake and a funny little English band called The Pulp(?) will all be going out for sauerkraut and gherkins to celebrate their reunion after performing at Barcelona’s seaside party in May.
Running from Thursday, the 30th of June, until Sunday, the 3rd of July, at Gydnia-Kosakowo Airfield in Gydnia, weekend tickets can be snapped up at Open’er’s official site from a wallet-pleasing £69 (or 310 Polish zloty).
Like some benign festival dictator, Vince “I made Reading what it is today” Power insists on sticking his name above what’s actually a great festival, so long as you were born between 1935 and 1955. Last year it was Dylan, this year it’s a platinum-plated trio of the Eagles, Morrissey and Prince, plus Bryan Ferry and some young whippersnapper called Brandon Flowers. Weekend tickets £130 and all info at hopfarmfestival.com.
