festivals
Wilderness Festival 2025 review - seriously delirious escapismThursday, 07 August 2025
Wilderness is the kind of festival where you can overhear a conversation about the philosophical implications of rewilding whilst queuing for Veuve Clicquot, or watch a man dressed as a vicar strip naked mid-cricket match without anyone blinking. It... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Pärnu Music Festival 2025 - Arvo Pärt at 90 flanked by lightness and warmthTuesday, 29 July 2025
Life-changing? That's how the Pärnu Music Festival felt on my first visit in 2015, alongside the discovery of Estonia as a pillar of the European Union ideal. It’s also how Palestinian Lamar Elias, a student on the annual conducting course,... Read more... |
The Human League/Marc Almond/Toyah, Brighton Beach review - affable 1980s-themed seaside packageThursday, 24 July 2025
Today gradually blossoms from unpromising beginnings. LouderUK’s On The Beach event series takes place throughout the summer and runs the gamut from indie pop-rock, such as Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party, to dance events featuring DJs such as Bonobo... Read more... |
The Estonian Song and Dance Celebration 2025 review - the mass expression of freedomThursday, 10 July 2025
The branch of the fast-food chain Hesburger in downtown Tallinn shopping centre Solaris is busy. Nothing unusual as it’s located by the entrance to a multi-screen cinema. Double cheeseburgers and fries are going over the counter. Less typically, two... Read more... |
Album: Barry Can't Swim - LonerSaturday, 05 July 2025
Despite being Mercury nominated, Bazza’s hardly a household name. Nevertheless, his debut album When Will We Land was highly praised by those in the know. I am definitely not in the know and am more or less a stranger to electro stuff – it... Read more... |
Glastonbury Festival 2025: Five Somerset summer days of music, controversy and beautiful mayhemFriday, 04 July 2025
MONDAY 30th JUNE 2025“I think you’d better drive,” says Finetime, his face sallow, skull-sockets underscored by dark brown rings. He looks peaky.“Why?” I enquire. Sweat nodules down my face, my body, everywhere. So saline-intense it leaves powdery... Read more... |
Album: HAIM - I QuitThursday, 19 June 2025
Haim’s profile just grows and grows. Since their last album, youngest sibling Alana’s starring role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s whimsical Seventies L.A. nostalgia-fest, Licorice Pizza, has done them no harm. I Quit is, the band says, thus titled... Read more... |
Hidden Door Festival 2025 review - the transformative Edinburgh event's most site-specific festival yetWednesday, 18 June 2025
"When I was your age, I worked in a corrugated cardboard factory!" is a phrase my father was fond of telling me as a teenager, presumably in an attempt to extol the virtues of a good Presbyterian work ethic.I wonder what he’d have made of his first... Read more... |
The Great Escape Festival 2025, Brighton review - a feast of music from across the worldTuesday, 20 May 2025
Photographer Finetime and I have our first pints outside Dalton’s, a bar on Brighton seafront, at almost exactly midday. They are Beavertown Neck Oil IPA at 4.3%. The sun is out, glinting off the sea. Feels like the calm before the storm.Quarter of... Read more... |
The Great Escape Festival 2025, Brighton review - a dip into ThursdayFriday, 16 May 2025
As every social space in Brighton once again transforms into a mire of self-important music biz sorts loudly bellowing about “waterfalling on Spotify”, it’s also a great time for those who relish gigs by new talent from all over the world. For three... Read more... |
Tallinn Music Week 2025 review - Estonia’s capital accommodates all flavours of musicWednesday, 09 April 2025
Langenu are a black metal band. On stage at Estonia’s Tallinn Music Week, they are fearsome. Blood-vessel-burstingly intense. Tempering their force with twists into progressive, psychedelic-adjacent territory, they are a band any rock fan would dig.... Read more... |
Fat Dog, Chalk, Brighton review - a frenetic techno-rock juggernautSaturday, 15 February 2025
Ro first saw Fat Dog, before anyone had heard of them, at the Windmill in Brixton in front of a crowd of about 25 people. Their manic energy blew her head off. Vanessa and Al K first caught Fat Dog at the Rockaway Beach Weekender in Bognor Regis... Read more... |
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