More 2007 Festivals!

by New Noise

Updated 1 August - now includes Connect!

"Everything about this event - from the line up to the Circuses and Bread Field with its whiskey bar and spa - screams class"

Bloom
Dryham Park, Gloucestershire
Dates: 10-12 August
Attendance: Approx 8,000
History: Michael Eavis’ decision to give the cows and fields of Worthy Farm a break last year left a Glastonbury-sized hole in the festivals line up – one swiftly filled by dozens of new events. One of these is Bloom, which debuted at Larmer Tree Gardens in Salisbury with a mix of DJs, live music and family friendly entertainment, picking up a nomination for best UK festival in the process. This year Bloom has moved to the National Trust's, Dyrham Park in Gloucestershire.
Line up: Aim, Babyhead, Belleruche, Border, Crossing, Bosch, Stacey, Coldcut, Crazy, P, Decatone, Dirty, Diggers, Dub, Pistols, Eclectic, Method, Fujiya, &, Miyagi, Gospel, Superstars, Ingrid, Eto, (Zero, 7, Instrumental, Project), Joe, Paolo, &, The, Sunshine, Brigade, Jon, Kennedy, Little, Gaia, Long, Range, (Phil, Harntoll), Louie, Austen, Lowercase, Moe, Foe, Mr, Hudson, &, The, Library, Phi, Life, Cypher, Phonetics, Shakes, Shmoo, Shuffle, Soul, II, Soul, The, Earlies, The, Ratfinks, The, Whip and more.
Our view: Set against a backdrop of line-ups that can quickly blur into one, Bloom is refreshing in skirting around many of this year's festival staples in favour of an intelligent billing with a distinctly electro favour. With a mix of chill out (AiM, The Earlies) and edgier acts like Coldcut, it'll be interesting to see how this event develops. Definitely one to watch.
www.bloomfestival.com
Lucius Yeo

Connect
Inverary Castle, Argyll
Dates: 31 August – 2 September
Attendance: 20,000
History: Connect is a new Scottish festival set up by the organisers of T In The Park. Taking place in the beautiful grounds of Inverary Castle on the banks of Lock Fyne in Argyll, it is the latest outdoor event to follow Secret Garden Party, Latitude et al down the 'boutique' festival route.
Line up: The Beastie Boys, Primal Scream, Bjork, LCD Soundsystem, Jarvis Cocker, The Go! Team, Patrick Wolf, Nouvelle Vague, Seth Lakeman, Polyphonic Spree, Hot Chip
Our view: There’s no doubt that Inverary Castle will make an impressive location for the first ever Connect Festival. Four venues will cater to most music tastes and a separate stage will be devoted to Scottish unsigned talent - as chosen by Your Sound - a regular event run by Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut. Everything about this event - from the line up to the Circuses and Bread Field with its whiskey bar and spa - screams class. Definitely time to crack out the designer wellies…
www.connectmusicfestival.com
Lizzie Fletcher

Frequency
Salzburgring, Salzburg, Austria
Dates: 15-17 August
Attendance: Approx 40,000 per day
History: Frequency started in 2001 as a small festival in Vienna featuring just six bands a day. The following year they moved to their current spot, the Salzburgring, a former Gran Prix racetrack located in the mountains. Though the festival suffered teething problems as its popularity outgrew its capacity (particularly in 2003 when Metallica headlined) by all accounts the problems have been smoothed out and 2006 was reportedly one of the best yet. The event expands to three days for the first time this year.
Line Up: Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Kaiser Chiefs, Interpol, Chris Cornell, The Good, The Bad and The Queen, M.I.A., Groove Armada, Silverchair, Klaxons, Snow Patrol, …Trail of Dead, Manic Street Preachers, Jimmy Eat World, Pepping Tom
Our View: A relatively small selection of 40 bands over three days and the idyllic setting [pictured] mean that this should be a more laid back festival - no half sets or inter-stage dashes. The line up is commercial but refreshingly diverse, with the two heavyweight headliners backed up by a range of dance, rock and pop acts. Something for everyone.
www.frequency.at
Jennifer Perkin

Glade
Aldermaston, Berkshire, UK
Dates: 20-22 July
Attendance: 16,500
History: Now in its fourth year, Glade Festival has become an event all of it's own since branching out from "The Glade" area at Glastonbury. Having found an ideal location in the West Berkshire countryside - a natural bowl surrounded by woodland - the festival sells out at a pace and is now one of the most esteemed and respected electronic dance music festivals in Europe.
Line Up: Squarepusher, Richie Hawtin, UNKLE, Dreadzone, Plump DJs, Four Tet, Green Nuns of the Revolution, Eat Static, Krafty Kuts, Freq Nasty, Derrick May, Venetian Snares, The Black Dog and more
Our View: With a new roots tent added to the already diverse range of genres, Glade 2007 is set to be another superb event. The effort that goes into the visuals is almost worth the ticket price alone, with monster-sized luminescent sculptures and grids of huge flags dotting the landscape. This is a querky event with an organic feel and  atmosphere and no corporate sponsorship slapping you between the eyes from every angle. If you like your dance music with a left-of-centre twist that you just won't hear on prime time radio, this is for you.
www.gladefestival.com
Matt Partridge

LodeStar
Lode, Cambridgeshire
Dates: 31 August - 2 September
Attendance: 35,000
History: This is the first!
Line up: Alberta Cross, Badly Drawn Boy, Envelopes, Foals, Friendly Fires, Ghosts, Hush The Many (Heed The Few), iLiKETRAiNS, Idlewild, Luke Toms, Palladium, Polytechnic, Terra Naomi, The Answering Machine, The Bees, The Hot Puppies, The Pigeon Detectives, The Rakes, The Shadow Project, The Strange Death Of Liveral England, The Whip, We Are Performance
Our view: The current bouyancy of the live music scene presents a wonderful opportunity for your musically minded farmer fed up with living off EU tomato subsidies and layaside grants. Doug Durrant is one such farmer and he's used his Cambridgeshire farm to launch his own festival. It's no amateur undertaking though - a launch capacity of 35,000 in an ever expanding festivals market is ambitious indeed, so it's as well Durrant has lined up some cracking, if mainstream names to back up his bluster. Badly Drawn Boy is also playing, but everyone should be allowed one mistake. We're like an Australian soap at New Noise - all about second chances. If you're fed up with the Readings and the Vs, this is definitely worth a crack.
www.lodestarfestival.com
Christine Crowther

Loop
Brighton, UK
Date: 18 August
Attendance: 5,000
History: The all new Loop is a one-day music and digital arts festival spread across four performance areas in the heart of the Brighton. It is the first outdoor music event in Brighton for over a decade.
Line Up: Fujiya Miyagi, Go! Team, The Aliens, Husky Rescue, Bonobo, Foals, Mira Calix, Clark, The Bays, Ultre, David E Sugar, Metronomy, Icarus and Transformer.
Our view: Brighton has become home to a bevvy of knob twiddlers, and not in the sense you think we mean. Norman Cook may be the best known electro-head to grace the shore line, but a whole host of prominent names from the intelligent end of the dance scene now boast an allegiance to the South Coast's London-away-from-London. A few of them have got together to put on Loop, a two part festival that, alongside The Great Escape, looks set to further develop the city's image as one of the UK's major live music hubs. Once the daytime live acts, featuring such tasty leftfield morsels as Bonobo and Metronomy, have done their thing, the fun will reconvene in three of Brighton's established venues - Audio, Concorde 2 and the Ocean Rooms. The only potential downside is that, with the line-up holed up at the darker end of the dance spectrum, if the weather's bad, the music may not be sufficient to lift the spirits. Otherwise though, count us in.
www.loopbrighton.com
Jon Fletcher
Numusic
Stavanger, Norway
Dates: 5-8 September
Attendance: Unknown
History: Scandinavia's leading club-based festival, dedicated to the advancement of new, alternative & electronic music. The festival features record label showcases, over 70 club and DJ events, plus live concerts and workshops. Now in its 8th year, the festival takes place in venues around the city but is centred on a 19th century converted brewery on the shore of a fjord.
Line up: Jean Jaques Perrey, The Bug, Clark, Pole, Tood Terje, About, Nderground Resistance, Cluster, 120 Days, Altern8, DJ scotch Egg, Trencher, Mental Overdrive, Sex in Dallas Feat Billadoll, Kill, Coldcut’s Journey;s by VJ, Daedelus, Hudson Mohawke, Dat Politics, Felix Kubin plus a hell of a lot more than that.
Our view: Set against the idyllic backdrop of Norway’s west coast, this is really the only festival to go to if you’re serious about your electro. This year’s theme is 'back to basics' and features a diverse range of artists who are not afraid to strip things back to their basic elements. Take ground breaking old school rave outfit Altern8, who inject a solid dose of soul into the current trend for all things new rave - or legendary French composer Jean Jacques Perrey, sure to produce a scintillating set of pop and classic electro. One thing is for sure - the Norwegians know how to party and party hard. Be warned though - a nice cold pint of lager could set you back a cool £7, so take plenty of pocket money.
www.numusic.no
Jeremy Hodges

Secret Garden Party
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
Dates: 26-29 July
Attendance: 6,000
History: Founded in 2004 by a group of like-minded individuals and with an initial crowd of just 2,000, Secret Garden Party has gone from strength to strength. As its name suggests, the event is billed as a great big party, not a festival, or at least, not as we know it. Let’s face it, when the chief organiser is known as ‘The King’, you're not in Kansas any more. With hand-picked acts and a beautiful lake location (you can even swim in it!) SGP has this year added new stages and attractions, including interactive art projects. Attendance has tripled in the three years it has been operating, but the ethos remains - you are likely to see a number of eco-friendly acts sprinkled among the better known artists. There are also seven different camping areas, including ‘The Feast of Fools’ and ‘Centre Camp'. Oh, and don't forget the dressing up.
Line Up: Alabama 3, Echo And The Bunnymen, Noisettes, Little Barrie, Frank Turner, Hot Puppies, Candie Payne, Kitty Daisy & Lewis, Drive By Argument, New Young Pony Club, Sunshine Underground, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, I’m From Barcelona, Does It Offend You Yeah?, Fujiyu & Miyagi, Rhinocerose, Moonbabies, Girlesque, Artangel and many more.
Our View: No overcrowding and strictly no big corporate sponsors, combined with organisers who think that it is reasonable to let everyone know the bar prices before they arrive makes for "a festival for creative expression and thoughtful anarchy". This year's festival is titled ‘Brave New World’ and was inspired by a trip the organisers took to the Burning Man festival in Nevada. "Naked" desert fun in the middle of the Cambridgeshire countryside? Well pass the wellies why don't you - and remember, it’s supposed to be a secret.
www.secretgardenparty.com
Lisa Holmes

Tapestry
Margam Park, Port Talbot, Wales, SA13 2TH
Dates: 10-11 August
Attendance: 2,000
History: After years among the cowboys if Cornwall, last year Tapestry Goes West went galloping off to pastures medieval in Wales. This year it's more of the same, with the two-day festival returning to South Wales. Tapestry 2007 continues where last year left off - an eclectic mix of bands, a medieval village, mead aplenty and jousting from Europe's premier team of brave horsemen, The Knights of Arkley. It's different, if nothing else.
Line Up: Alan Tyler, The Cherrybombers, The Children, Chrome Hoof, Circulus, The Clientele, The Dirty Feel, The Dexateens, Diagonal, The Duke Spirit, Duotard , Hot Breath Karaoke, Hot Puppies, Leafhound, Los Chicos, Mystery Meat, Pete Molinari, Pink Grease, Piney Gir, The Poppies, Radio Luxembourg, Redlands Palomino Company, The Rubbishmen, Sannidei, The Swankers Threatmantics, Tokyo Dragons, The Wolf People
Our view: The line-up can be hit and miss, but if medieval fancy dress is your thing, grab your lance - this is a festival that has fans going back year after year.
www.myspace.com/tapestrygoeswest
Sean Newsham

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