Will this year be your first time at a festival?
Want to look like a pro and know what everyone else does? Read on to discover what every seasoned festival-goer does.
The shop before you go
Millets
A one-stop shop for every fan of the outdoors, a branch of Millets usually has numerous tents in various shapes and sizes, sleeping bags, mallets (to hammer your pegs into that rock-hard ground), gas stoves… pre-festival is the time to be organised, you can be silly when you get to the site.
The transport
Liftshare.org
We’re always going to try and persuade you that travelling by public transport, be it coach or train, is better. How many of you listen to us is another matter. If you can’t bear to ‘rough it’ with everyone else, then see if you can catch a lift and fill someone’s car. Liftshare website is here.
The shop when you’re there
Joe’s Bananas
Any festival stalwart will mention Joe’s Bananas when asked about the stalls at any of the major festivals. Always there and always friendly, they’re great to run to when you’ve forgotten something. And also for a fab fake fur coat for a fiver. If that doesn’t keep you warm, nothing will.
The wellies
Hunter
Yes, they may be a little bit more pricey than the colourful swirly ones from Office, but every welly connoisseur knows – and appreciates – how amazing these boots are. Available in all kinds of different shades, they’ll last you forever. And that’s saying something in the Glastonbury mud.
The drink
Pear cider
The ONLY drink to seek out at the festivals – tasty, refreshing, and fun. People who drink this sit around with massive summery grins spread across their face. And the strawberry cider is worth checking out as well. Forget Magners – look for the Brothers tents.
The food
‘Energy balls’
Any hippie stall that sells strange-looking lumps rolled in coconut are worth ago in a fun attempt for a boost in energy. Usually taste disgusting and have no effect whatsoever.
YOUR NEW FESTIVAL FAVOURITES
It’s time to find out who’ll be floating your boat this summer at the fests…Ah, it’s that time of year again… festival season is once again upon us. Whether you’re a fan of the big blockbusters such as V and Leeds and Reading, or the ‘boutique’ events like Green Man or Standon Calling, one of the joys of heading to get covered in mud for a few days is to discover a few nouveau nuggets of pure musical genius.
Staging dozens of bands, big and small, in a matter of days means that festivals are the ideal chance to check out new bands that you’ve failed to catch yet.
We’ve scanned the current crop of talent that have appeared in recent times, regardless of genre, in order to give you the most comprehensive guide to the acts gracing our shores and stages this summer.
Keep a space or two free in your busy summer schedules to go and find out what they’re all about.
Operator Please!
So young they should still be in nappies, Australian indie punk pop screamers Operator Please! decided to start a band to beat the cool kids in their school at their own game, by winning their school’s annual Battle of the Bands contest. Victory secured, OP! then signed to EMI records and proceeded to conquer the indie scene in all corners of the globe. Thumping bass lines, scratchy, furious guitar riffs and Amandah’s catchy honey vocals combine to create infectious nuggets that can’t help but get you moving, and they’ll certainly be sending the crowds into a frenzy at Wakestock, Glastonbury, Summer Sundae and Splendour in the Grass this year.
Ladyhawke
Wistful 80s pop melodies and synths provide the perfect backdrop to Ladyhawke’s simple voice.
Ladyhawke, aka Pip Brown, has already gained a celebrity following in the form of Courtney Love and Peaches, who invited her for a week of recording in Berlin. The New Zealander cites Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks as an influence, and it’s clear to hear their legacy in tracks such as Back of the Van and Manipulating Woman.
Having released single ‘Paris is Burning’ on ultra-hip label Modular Records, Pip is busy doing the rounds at the festivals this summer. Check her out at Camp Bestival, Glastonbury, Lovebox and Bestival.
Black Tide
Metal heads, pay attention. Teen rockers Black Tide are ‘One of the most exciting metal bands around’, according to Andy Copping, Vice President of music for rocker’s paradise Download Festival.
Channelling Metallica and Megadeath, with hints of Guns n Roses for good measure, this fresh-faced four-piece produce 80s-style metal hits without the irony that can all too often accompany the genre.
If you want to check them out, Black Tide are embarking on a tour of the major European rock festivals this summer, taking in Rock Am Ring, Novarock, Gods of Metal, and, of course, Download.
Lightspeed Champion
Former Test Icicle Dev Hynes’ latest incarnation, Lightspeed Champion, keeps good company, having collaborated with Alex Turner and Faris Rotter. He’s also supported Patrick Wolf and Good Shoes, and recruited Emmy the Great as a guest vocalist.
Don’t expect the extreme sonic noise of Dev’s former band, however – gentle acoustic pop songs are more up Lightspeed Champion’s street. Debut album ‘Falling off the Lavender Bridge’ centres around sleeping and dreaming, perfect music to be set to the backdrop of beautiful summer days and sunsets at the festivals.
Check him out at Glastonbury, Wakestock, Oxygen, T in the Park, Wireless, Lovebox, Reading and Leeds, Green Man Festival… need we go on?
The Last Shadow Puppets
Much has been said about Alex Turner’s side project with the Rascals’ Miles Kane – the retro sound inspired by Scott Walker, the Spaghetti Western strings, the stylised, modern lyrics typical of Turner’s previous work…
While they’re not a band that need ‘discovering’ per se, as the duo have failed to play a live UK performance as yet, their newly announced co-headlining slot with The Cribs at the Reading and Leeds Festivals is big news.
Go don that Stetson and watch two men who could have been separated at birth swashbuckle the crowds on the NME / Radio 1 stage.
Wild Beasts
Wild Beasts are Smaart Graduate’s favourite new British band, and we want to spread the word.
Named by NME last year as one of ten bands tipped for the top, this four piece, signed to Domino Records, offer an exciting prospect for the British indie scene.
Current single ‘Devil’s Crayon’ is an expansive jewel of a song that evokes sweeping landscapes and gorgeous melodies set to the jauntiest percussive line this side of a marimba band.
Debut album ‘Limbo, Panto’, out mid-June, precedes their appearance for Domino Record’s night at Green Man Festival in the Brecon Beacons.
Fleet Foxes
They might look like the Kings of Leon’s older brothers, but these five males certainly don’t sound like them.
Fleet Foxes do sleepy, trippy folk - they evoke gospel, bluegrass and folk from the South America of yesteryear, crossed with discordant West coast harmonies – a Beach Boys gone wrong, but in a right way.
Hailing from near Washington, the fivesome describe their music as ‘Baroque harmonic pop jams’.
Their blissed out vocal harmonies are the ideal soundtrack to a sunset, so check them out at Bestival for the perfect introduction to Britain’s new favourite band.
Santogold
The UK media have been going mad for Santogold, and it’s easy to see why. Beautiful and powerful in both body and voice, Santogold, real name Santi White, is a charismatic soon-to-be international pop star of the same ilk as M.I.A. and Gwen Stefani.
Single LES Artistes has been dominating our airwaves with its hip yet catchy chorus, while trademark song ‘The Creator’, combining tribal beats with heavy as you like synthesisers hit the UK as the soundtrack to a Shockwaves advert earlier this year.
Counting Mark Ronson and Lily Allen amongst her previous collaborators, this girl boasts some serious pop royalty.
HOW NOT TO BE A FESTIVAL CLICHE
We hate to spoil your weekend fun, but do you really want to be like every other babbling idiot there? Smaart Graduate gives you our guide to having a sophisticated, clichÈ-free weekend…
Don’t wear a silly hat
It is in keeping with festival tradition that, every year, one hat will be adopted by the masses. In 2003 it was Gandalf-like wizard shaped hat made from coconut leaves, in 2005 vaguely military-esque headgear. Take it from us: save your money and avoid like the plague.
Don’t play in the mud
Yes, it’s rained, and yes, the site looks like the second Somme. But that doesn’t mean that you should take a running jump into the nearest pool of mud. While it will be fun for the first half hour, once you’ve finished you’ll realise you look like Swampy’s less attractive younger sibling and you won’t be warm or dry for the rest of the weekend.
Don’t get your chest out for the lads
Whiling away the time before the next band comes on can be tedious. Girls - if you happen to be perched on a gentleman’s shoulders, and hence in full view of the crowd, and said crowd starts to chant for you to disrobe, don’t listen to them. Your breasts will end up on the screen in full view of everyone for 10 seconds of fame, and then you’ll feel like a prize idiot.
Don’t throw liquid over the crowd
Whether it’s beer or urine, it’s just not clever. Or pleasant. Not only will you make someone really cold at night, as well as grossing them out, but with a lack of adequate washing facilities, you may be forcing them to live with your bodily fluids in their hair for a whole weekend. Yuck.
Don’t wee everywhere
This one’s especially for you, boys. We know you’ve been graced with equipment which means you can whip it out and relieve yourself wherever takes your fancy, but think about it for a second – everyone urinating on the ground in one concentrated area isn’t going to do the local environment any favours, is it? Follow the girls and use the facilities provided.
Don’t pass out in the open
There’s always someone who overdoes it slightly, passes out in the middle of a field, and wakes up the next day to find their face burnt to a crisp while they’ve been out of it. No doubt there’ll have been a magazine photographer on hand to take an embarrassing picture or two. Don’t get so hammered you can’t make it back to your tent! It’s so much more comfortable to wake up in your sleeping bag than a pasture.