The UK's best day time festivals: Field Day, LoveBox, Wild Life and more
Forgotton are the days of losing your tent and sleeping exposed and alone in a pool of beer and mud. Day time festivals are the civilised way to party.
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Your support makes all the difference.If you've got infinite cash to spend on glamping your way through this summer's boutique festivals then hurrah for you! For the rest of us who are fed up with lost tents, leaky tents, broken tents, endless traipsing through designated zones to find our tents and the associated injuries brought on by contorting yourself into a pop-up tent that's only big enough to hold you or or your posessions but defiunitely not both, there is a simple, elegant and cost effective solution: day festivals. Trade trench foot, B.O. and pulled muscles for clean clothes, your own bed and an Uber home. Welcome to civilisation.
Wild Life Festival
11 & 12 June, Brighton City Airport
Brighton City Airport may not sound like the most bucolic of surroundings but for what this new festival lacks in greenery it makes up for with a banging lineup: Disclosure, Rudimental, James Bay and De La Soul will play the day away across five stages and there's a shuttle bus to ferry you to and from the local station.
Field Day
11 & 12 June, Victoria Park, London
For many, Field Day has become the launch pad for the festival season. The weekend when it falls is usually blessed with sunshine and it punches far above its weight in terms of the acts it manages to pull in. In the last three years it's increased the emphasis on food and Street Feast will be supplying the festival for the third year running with popular foodie favourites like White Men Can't Jerk, Anna Mae's and Rola Wala. PJ Harvey will be headlining this year alongside blissed-out surf-pop from Beach House and Field Day regulars Awesome Tapes from Africa.
Parklife
11 & 12 June, Heaton Park, Manchester
Ther focus at Parklife is the music, the music and nothing but the music, forget about all that namby pamby foodie, comfy Champagne tent nonsense, instead spend your time efficiently cramming as much amazing live music into your ears as physcially possible. There's a vast choice of bands spread across eight stages in Heaton Park. The two-day lineup includes The Chemical Brothers, Major Lazer, Jamie XX, Jess Glynne, DJ EZ, Years & Years, Circa Waves, Wolf Alice, Izzy Bizu, Stormzy... the list goes on.
Bestival at Goldsmiths
17 June, Goldsmiths, London
Rob da Bank, founder of Bestival, has brought a slice of his Isle of Wight festival down to sarf east London for a one-day festival of talks, films and music. Spread across the buildings and courtyard of Goldsmiths university you'll find talks on the duties of being an artist helmed by electronic music pioneer matthew Herbert, a screening of 10,000 Days on Earth, the acclaimed yet decidedly bizarre documentary following Nick Cave and night-time performances by GhostPoet and Rosie Lowe. It's all over by 11pm, meaning you might even avoid the surge fare on your Uber back hime.
gold.ac.uk/bestival-at-goldsmiths
Forest Live
17 June - 9 July, across the UK
Forest live brings a unique series of gigs to particularly verdant settings in seven arboretums and pinetums across the UK. You can meander through the forsest, have a picnic, rock out to UB40 and be home in time for tea. This year's lineup includes Guy Garvey, John Newman, Simply Red and Tom Jones. Feel virtuous in the knowledge that your ticket price is spent on protecting the woodlands and making them a habitable place for wildlife.
British Summer Time
1-10 July, Hyde Park
This series of summer time gigs has become one of the most popular places to head in the summer in London. The formula is simple: One big name band plays on each of the ten days, with lots of smaller bands with a similar vibe to bulk out the day. Chances are, if you love the headliners you'll discover one or two other support acts that you really dig too. The 2016 lineup kicks off with Massive Attack and ends with Stevie Wonder, with Carole King and Florence + The Machine sandwiched in the middle. Don't worry if you miss out on your chosen band when the tickets go on sale, There are often resales nearer the time.
LIMF: Liverpool International Music Festival
20-24 July, Liverpool (various venues)
The liverpool International Music Festival is a massive. jam-packed, city-wide celebration and the best bit about it is some of it is completely free. The Summer Jam festival-within-a-festival at Sefton Park is Europe's biggest (and may I venture the best) free music festival, and this year they've pulled in an absolutely stonking lineup including Sigma, Wretch32, Ms Dynamite and Maverick Sabre. Boom! Elsewhere and for a few more pounds, you can see homegrown talent in the form of the Wombats, The Lightening Seeds and Craig Charles.
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