Festivals-The Essential Ecstasy of 2014.

It's not hard to guess that well ever since the cold winds and rains of last autumn embarked, each and every music fan has had nothing to contemplate about the next six months except festival season. I myself, being heavily involved in this. Ultimately you have year after year of more demanding line-ups, looks and ever heavenly crowd climaxes, but how do you choose on such a scale? considering I'm still well, 15 its as easy as having a throw on festival jumper to get changed into as soon as the season arrives, that still being that I've only ever attended Glastonbury. You have the delights of the BBC to get the 'full experience' but surely, slot after slot it must be an all round feeling of complete envy at watching the girl on shoulders being caught on camera whilst wearing a flower garland round her head, or indeed the dude with neo painted sunglasses in a sweaty mosh. I'm apologetic to other countries and to the likes of America but British festival season is in honesty-incomparable in selection and an overall flow of diversity, whether it be under a tent or venue. All these things are instantly desirable from many and the true adrenaline of this can last forever. So which festivals exactly should you save up for, supplicate and strive through the mud for, ( however there was NO mud at Glastonbury 2013 so can't promise that) and remember the music is by no means the solid foundation-the vibe is ethically most significant.




Secret Garden Party-24th-27th July 2014
Huntington, Cambridgeshire.

The festival, which has been purposely placed at the top of its featured post, mainly because in terms of new, solid scenes it has the best line up. Yes-I know I said it's not all completely about who's where, but this does give it a significant boost. And really, it looks like a wild, superbly surreal atmosphere with a massive lake to jump into, paint

powder as replacement confetti seemingly on repeat at all its stages. With the likes of Wolf Alice, Jaguar Ma, Little Dragon, Honeyblood, Deap Vally, Kwabs, Fat White Family plus Bat and Ball just for starters its the kind of festival of "I saw them before they were huge" or if your'e not sickeningly hipster; just because surely, that amount of good bands all happen to be in one place is surely not by coincidence. But don't go their expecting stone circle kind of ceremonies, you've been notified. Definitely the best line up that's come out of this year so far, Secret Garden Party won't be hidden for long.

Line Up: Excellent
Crowd: Crazy 20 year old somethings.
Cost: Getting up there-£180.
Location: Cambridgeshire Ibiza. 1 hour from London by train.


Latitude-17th-20th July
-Southworld-Suffolk

Being based in a sunset strewn forest across dirt tracked forests and gondola riding rivers, Latitude has already got in in for one of the hotspots for 2014. Many acclaim it to be alike a mini Glastonbury yet in effect this term is irrelevant, Latitude over the years has identified itself to be diversely separate (not quite as hippy or long beards) whilst still sitting amongst the most talked about festivals. Being only in the trade since 2009 its climatic expectations are impressive and proudly so with the glo-stick gravitational pull of 2013 headliners Foals, a definitive peak for the years release 'Holy Fire'. However this year pulls out the same anticipation with Two Door Cinema Club,

Tame Impala, The Black Keys, Jungle, Haim The War On Drugs and Lykke Li, so it's pretty easy to assume this festival as a popular come into focus or indeed come back perspective. Why I like it? well, it has the traditional festival ambiance going for it which is on most accounts faultless. Yes it has the big hollywood/glasto sign on the hilltop surrounded by an array of spray painted sheep but unlike worthy farm, it's got comfort camping, pile-on you fear not. I for one, may be in a chance of getting tickets this year so expect some well deserved biasism. None the less don't hang around for the tickets!

Line Up: Pretty Decent
Crowd: More varied, teenagers, families, a few old hipsters.
Cost: A bit more on the expensive side- £195.00 per ticket. Worth it for living space.
Location: Imagine sunset skies inside a fairy winged forest.


Dot to Dot Festival-23-25th May 2014 
Manchester, Bristol and Nottingham.

Dot to Dot may just be the mere opener to festival season being at the end of May but by no means does this make it any more less significant. Whilst some outdoor, field/campus based festivals are a fantastic foundation for new music (for instance Secret Garden Party), I'm afraid this triple collection, if you live near them is probably even more promising. It's name complies of multiple if not all, venues with 15 in Bristol, 11 in Manchester and 13 venues in Nottingham opening up their doors to dozens and dozens of artists throughout the day and night. Just feel the pleasure to float seemingly from one 

from one venue to the next (clearly you'll need  the tickets) and possibly find a new obsession. Headlining the bill this year sees Peace,The Midnight Beast, Real Estate and Wolf Alice. Not to mention, Courtney Barnett, Darlia and Kyla La Grange as just the starting pallet of what's to offer, I'd stick around right to the end to get to the grindy grit of the various vibes you could discover. Clearly guessing, that this festival is entirely on the music however what draws me to it; Dot To Dot seems to incorporate a diverse, free flowing ebb to the definition of a festival, less residential and being incredibly adaptive and ergonomically well-slotted into a city. You may not get the high-fly flags or long drop toilets but this festival stands for fast,intimate yet wholly efficient summer festival innovation. 

Line Up: close, sweaty and super-impressive.
Crowd: Probably students (14-16/18's not accepted at all venues)
Cost: Exceptionally cheap-£20.00 a ticket.
Location: Thriving music capitals.


Y Not Festival-1st-3rd August 2014-
Pikehall-Derbyshire.

After winning many acclaims for Britain's best small festival, Y Not has an NME award under the arm to carry into this year. I have to say, it's line up isn't as good as some but still the ever circling bands such as ; Circa Waves, Swim Deep, Yuck and The Wytches suggests its indie grunge atmosphere is a strong lead. Ignore the fact Dizzie Rascal's

headlining because if you are fairly near by its undoubtedly worth a welly wading in the seasons of August. Y Not really empathises the festival refrain of 'quality not quantity'.

Line Up: Mainly good- a few exceptions.
Crowd: Mostly teens and adults looking for a band bombardment. 
Cost: Cheap-£83.65 including booking fee.
Location: The North's notorious land for ecstatic energy.



The Great Escape-8th-10th May-2014
Brighton, UK

Another extreme asset of new music. The Great Escape promises each year to have hundreds upon hundreds of new bands and artists brewing into Brighton's ever growing bowl of sensation ripening straight down to the root of its gritty venues, 35 of which are all viable through a wristband. Brighton for starters is a phenomenal contributor in its field

bring bands left right and centre out over night, so its no surprise that as one of the introductory season openers that it attracts over 400 gigs in one weekend. Acts such as Telegram,Wild Beasts, Girl Band, Doomsquad, September Girls,  Femme and PUP are all just a random handful of what you could grasp at the pier gone penultimate trend city this summer. As reminded before, Brighton is no carousel carnival. This is one to watch.   



Line Up: 400+ acts so writhing with raw vibes
Crowd: Mostly students but 14-18 can access some venues.
Cost: Cheap- under £60.00 for the whole three days!!
Location: Musically and atmospherically you can't go wrong.


Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts-25th-29th June 2014
Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset

Clearly the sunset shining, Tor Valley viewing, fanatical flag filling festival was going to be included. After 2 years in a row of local Sunday tickets I can whole heartedly say this festival is in a world of its own. A world where you walk a few miles for a underground, tunnel crawling rave having answered numerous riddles and weird rhymes because without sounding completely Glastonbury patriotic, this place is inevitably off its head even before you lug your bags into the dusty paths of the farm. As expected, with my lone day ticket it is impossible to get around the whole thing in one day,being as large as the city of Bath. But,what you can and will experience is a laughing joke of how much you

squeeze, smoke or smother in. Last year, from 10am till 1am I got around 11 gigs-not bad going! The line up is never a grudge but even so, you have way to much to get into anyway, every vibe is incorporated in to this one mix of a melting-pot. But just in case, the likes of Arcade Fire, Kasabian, The Black Keys, Drenge, James Blake and Blondie plus unconfirmed slots from; Prince and Massive Attack is a full sized gobstopper. I could waffle on and on about how supreme the memories are but it'll get boring if you never actually go. Although it's too late to book tickets, just have a blast at 2015 because you might just get a hug and stage shoutout from a teen hero with the atmospheric sunset twang, like I did. The aftermath- a massive 'Glangover' which will stick with you no matter how long you spend in the EDM tent. The Mecca of the music world may seem a commercial exaggeration, but Glasto's still got a 1 in a million multicolour glow about it.

Line Up: Fantastic.
Crowd: Everyone, everywhere. Plus some unforgiving fence climbers.
Cost: Expensive-£210 but in terms of soul-searching, priceless.
Location: A beautiful valley constantly sunlit in the limelight of legends.