Tag Archives: season

Articles, Music

Festival Season 2016: Who’s playing where this summer?

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With the UK music festival season rapidly approaching, there are now more choices than ever before for the weekend raver. Dom Kureen takes a look at some of the most notable events and how they’re shaping up so far.

June

The London African Gospel Choir will be headlining at MondoMix Photo by Adam Gasson / Commonwealth Secretariat
The London African Gospel Choir will be headlining at MondoMix
Photo by Adam Gasson / Commonwealth Secretariat

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Mondomix

Venue: Calbourne Water Mill, Isle of Wight
Dates: 3-5 June
Weekend camping price: £55

Headline acts
London African Gospel Choir, 7suns, Arhai, Soothsayers

Mondomix website

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Isle of Wight Festival

Venue: Seaclose Park, Isle of Wight
Dates: 9-12 June
Weekend camping price: £208.20

Headline acts
The Who, Queen + Adam Lambert, Stereophonics, Faithless

Isle of Wight Festival website
Kureen 2014 Isle of Wight Festival review 

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Download Festival

Venue: Donington Park, Leicestershire
Dates: 10-12 June
Weekend camping price: £195

Headline acts
Rammstein, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Korn, Nightwish

Download website

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Glastonbury Festival

Venue: Worthy Farm, Pilton.
Dates: 22-26 June
Weekend camping price: £228

Headline acts
Adele, Coldplay, Muse, LCD Soundsystem

Glastonbury website
Kureen 2014 Glastonbury review

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Blissfields

Venue: Woodmancott, Hampshire
Dates: 30 June – 2 July
Weekend camping price: £95+

Headline acts
Dizzee Rascal, Everything, Everything, Roni Size

Blissfields website

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July

Fatboy Slim spearheads a sparkling Camp Bestival lineup in August
Fatboy Slim spearheads a sparkling Camp Bestival lineup in August

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Love Supreme jazz festival

Venue: Glynde, East Sussex.
Dates: 1-3 July
Weekend camping price: £145

Headline acts
Grace Jones, Burt Bacharach, Lianne le havas

Love Supreme website

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British Summer Time

Venue: Hyde Park, London
Dates: 2nd, 3rd, 9th July
Weekend camping price: £184

Headline acts
Florence & the Machine, Mumford & Sons, Take That

BST Website

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Cornbury

Venue: Great Tew, Oxfordshire
Dates: 8-10 July
Weekend camping price: £200

Headline acts
Jamie Cullum, Bryan Ferry, James Morrison

Cornbury website

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T in the Park

Venue: Auchterader, Perthshire, Scotland
Dates: 8-10 July
Weekend camping price: £205

Headline acts
Stone Roses, Disclosure, The 1975

T in the Park website

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Latitude 

Venue: Beccles, Suffolk
Dates: 14-17 July
Weekend camping price: £192.50

Headline acts
The Maccabees, New Order, the National

Latitude website

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Secret Garden Party

Venue: Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
Dates: 21-24 July
Weekend camping price: £180

Headline acts
Primal Scream, Caribou, Lissie

SGP website 

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Leefest

Venue: Secret location near Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Dates: 28-30 July
Weekend camping price: £89+

Headline acts
Lianna la Havas, Roots Manuva, Little Simz

Leefest website

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Camp Bestival

Venue: Lulworth, Dorset
Dates: 28-31 July
Weekend camping price: £197.50

Headline acts
Fatboy Slim, Tears for Fears, Jess Glynne

Camp Bestival website

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WOMAD

Venue: Malmesbury, Wiltshire
Dates: 28-31 July
Weekend camping price: £175+

Headline acts
Sidestepper, This is the Kit, Tettish

WOMAD website

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August

The Flaming Lips will grace Wilderness festival in August
The Flaming Lips will grace Wilderness festival in August

Wilderness

Venue: Great Tew, Oxfordshire
Dates: 4-7 August
Weekend camping price: £164

Headline acts
Robert Plant, the Flaming Lips, Crystal Fighters

Wilderness website

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BoomTown Fair

Venue: Ovington, Hampshire
Dates: 11-14 August
Weekend camping price: £170

Headline acts
Madness, Damian Marley, Leftfield

BoomTown Fair website

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Green Man

Venue: Crickhowell, Powys, Wales
Dates: 18-21 August
Weekend camping price: £175

Headline acts
James Blake, Belle & Sebastian, Wild Beasts

Green Man website

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V Festival

Venue: Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire + Chelmsford, Essex
Dates: 20-21 August
Weekend camping price: £189

Headline acts
Rihanna, Sia, Justin Bieber

V Website

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Creamfields

Venue: Daresbury, Cheshire
Dates: 25-28 August
Weekend camping price: £200

Headline acts
Fatboy Slim, Tiesto, Above & Beyond

Creamfields website

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Shambala 

Venue: Secret location nr Market Harbourough, Northamptonshire
Dates: 25-28 August
Weekend camping price: £109+

Headline acts
Sister Sledge, TBC

Shambala website 

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Reading/Leeds 

Venues: Reading, Berkshire + Wothersome, West Yorkshire
Dates: 26-28 August
Weekend camping price: £205

Headline acts
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foals, Disclosure

Reading/Leeds website

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Victorious

Venue: Southsea, Hampshire
Dates: 27-28 August
Weekend price: £50+

Headline acts
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Manic Street Preachers, Will Young

Victorious website

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September

Robert Smith of The Cure: Great hair, better eye-liner
Robert Smith of The Cure: Great hair, better eye-liner

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No.6

Venue: Portmeirion, Gwynedd, Wales
Dates: 1-4 September
Weekend camping price: £195

Headline acts
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Hot Chip, Bastille

No.6 website

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Bestival

Venue: Robin Hill park, Downhill, Isle of Wight
Dates: 8-11 September
Weekend camping price: £218

Headline acts
The Cure, Major Lazer, Hot Chip

Bestival website

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Let us know if you’re going to any festivals this summer, and who you’re looking forward to seeing in the comment section below!

Written by Dom Kureen

As a young rapscallion stranded on an Island, my time is split between writing, performing spoken word, wrestling alligators and delivering uplifting pep talks to hairdressers before they prune me. I meditate and wash daily when possible.

Articles, Music

Festival season 2015: Who’s playing where this summer?

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With the UK music festival season rapidly approaching, there are now more choices than ever before for the weekend raver. Dom Kureen takes a look at some of the most notable events and how they’re shaping up so far.

–

June

Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac will kick off festival season on the Isle of Wight.

 

Isle of Wight Festival

Venue: Seaclose Park, Isle of Wight
Dates: 11-14 June
Weekend camping price: £208

Headline acts
Fleetwood Mac, Blur, The Black Keys, The Prodigy, Max.Lyrical.

Isle of Wight Festival website
Kureen 2014 Isle of Wight Festival review 

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Download Festival

Venue: Donington Park, Leicestershire
Dates: 12-14 June
Weekend camping price: £215

Headline acts
Muse, Slipknot, Kiss, Faith No More, Motley Crue

Download website

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Glastonbury Festival

Venue: Worthy Farm, Pilton.
Dates: 24-28 June
Weekend camping price: £225

Headline acts
Kanye West, Lionel Richie, Foo Fighters

Glastonbury website
Kureen 2014 Glastonbury review

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Wireless 10

Venue: Finsbury Park, London
Date: 28 June
Day ticket price: £76.45

Headline acts
Drake, Rita Ora, Chance the Rapper, Katy B, Public Enemy

Wireless 10 website

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July

Drake
Drake goes Wireless in July

Wireless Festival

Venue: Finsbury Park, London.
Dates: 3-5 July
Weekend camping price: £209.50

Headline acts
Drake, Jesse J, Avicii, Mary J Blige, David Guetta

Wireless Festival website

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T2015

Venue: Strathallan castle, Perthshire, Scotland
Dates: 10-12 July
Weekend camping price: £194

Headline acts
Kasabian, Sam Smith, The Libertines, Kasabian, The Prodigy

T2015 website

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Latitude Festival

Venue: Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk
Dates: 16-19 July
Weekend camping price: £200.50

Headline acts
Portishead, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Alt-J, Alan Davies, Jon Richardson 

Latitude website

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Love Box

Venue: Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets, London.
Dates: 17-18 July
Weekend camping price: £93.50

Headline acts
Snoop Dogg, Rudimental, Bonobo, Jessie Ware, Cypress Hill

Love Box website

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Secret Garden Party

Venue: Mill Hill Field, Abbots Ripton
Dates: 23-26 July
Weekend camping price: £190.50

Headline acts
Jungle, Public Service Broadcasting, Palma Violets, Menace Beach

Secret Garden Party website

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August

Sam Smith
Sam Smith: Far too clean looking for the festival crowd

 

Boomtown Fair

Venue: Matterley Estate, Winchester, Hampshire
Dates: August 13-16
Weekend camping price: £155

Headline acts
Stephen Marley, Gogol Bordello, Flogging Molly

Boomtown Fair website

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V Festival

Venues: Weston Park, Staffordshire / Hylands Park, Chelmsford
Dates: August 22-23
Weekend camping price: £189

Headline acts
Calvin Harris, Stereophonics, Sam Smith, Tom Jones

V Festival website

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Reading and Leeds Festival

Venues: Richfield Avenue, Reading / Braham Park, Leeds
Dates: August 28-30
Weekend camping price: £205

Headline acts
Mumford and Sons, The Libertines, Limp Bizkit, Metallica

Reading Festival website
Leeds Festival website

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Creamfields

Venue: Alex James’s Farm, Kingham, The Cotswolds
Dates: August 28-30
Weekend camping price: £154.50

Headline acts
Paloma Faith, Grandmaster Flash, Groove Armada

Creamfields website

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September

Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers sent in the clowns last summer

 

Festival No.6

Venue: Portmeirion, Wales
Dates: September 3-6
Weekend camping price: £170

Headline acts
Grace Jones, Belle & Sebastian, Ghost Poet

Festival No.6 website

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Bestival

Venue: Robin Hill, Isle of Wight
Dates: September 10-13
Weekend camping price: £195

Headline acts
Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Duran Duran

Bestival website
Kureen 2014: 10 local acts you won’t want to miss

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OnBlackheath

Venue: Blackheath, London
Dates: September 12-13
Weekend price: £89

Headline acts
Manic Street Preachers, Elbow, Madness

OnBlackheath website

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Let us know which festival catches your eye, in the meantime here’s ‘Never going back again’ from the legendary Fleetwood Mac.

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Dom Kureen

As a young rapscallion stranded on an Island, my time is split between writing, performing spoken word, wrestling alligators and delivering uplifting pep talks to hairdressers before they prune me. I meditate and wash daily when possible.

Literature, Reviews

Book Review: The Killing Season by Mason Cross

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Literature aficionado, Charlotte Tobitt, gives her two cents on ‘The Killing Season,’ author Mason Cross’ first full length novel.

Killing Season: Mason Cross

American crime novels are widely regarded as the literary cliché of the decade: Gritty tone, reluctant hero who’s just outside the law, stuffy FBI agents ad nauseam, but that doesn’t mean that every single one should be tainted with that same stigma.

Mason Cross’ The Killing Season is a crime novel with a refreshing voice. It follows Carter Blake – not his real name, though that doesn’t seem very significant – who is a certain type of bounty hunter and has been drafted in by the FBI to help capture an escaped (or suspiciously released? Oooh…) death row prisoner, Caleb Wardell, aka. The Chicago Sniper.

Cross, a Glaswegian author who works in the voluntary sector, writes well. The prose is snappy but emotive; it follows conventions and, crucially, is mostly unpredictable.

A slow burner, once the killings begin and the puzzle of Wardell needs to be unravelled it is likely to unexpectedly hook the reader out of the blue – as any book with a decisive pace must.

Hong KongThe two leads, Blake and his most sympathetic FBI ally, single mother Elaine Banner, share a sizzling chemistry that never quite crosses the line into predictable formula; their relationship is not clear-cut and their ambivalent attitude towards a romantic liaison is one of the big differences from the usual thriller side-plot.

Banner’s maternal instincts make her particularly relatable and, unusually, even turn out to have a functioning purpose rather than acting merely as a sob story sub-plot.

It is fascinating to be able to see inside the killer’s mind. His toying with one particular journalist, the alternately random and methodical murders and his confident taunting of anyone he comes into contact with.

No one can resist a glimpse into the mind of a madman, even an imagined one, for a morbid look at the human condition – Wardell does not disappoint. He is an unforgiving, unforgivable person who likes to play God.

For his debut novel, Cross efficiently manages to subvert most stereotypes that plague this genre. Some turns of phrase and ideas could be developed further, but considering this is supposed to be the first in a Carter Blake series, it will certainly be interesting to see where he can go next, just as long as the market isn’t totally saturated by then.  

 

Written by Charlotte Tobitt

A recent music graduate, Charlotte is set to complete a Masters in Journalism this summer. She can usually be found either writing, playing the clarinet or waving a baton around. Check out her website to read more of her articles!