The Field Day festival takes place this Saturday, and surprisingly there are still a few tickets left for those wanting in on the action. Held in Victoria Park, near Mile End, it’s a festival positively brimming with new and emerging musical talent, spanning indie, folk, electronica, hip hop, dance and many other worldly sounds. Tickets are £32.15 including all the add-ons.
Field Day has something of a chequered history, perhaps explaining why it hasn’t filled with weeks to spare. Its debut in 2007 was marred by a lack of space, bar service and toilet facilities, leaving everyone rather grumpy. Last year’s sequel was much better logistically, but suffered inclement weather: tropical downpours of the sort all too familiar recently. As Glastonbury has shown, revellers can take a long while to forget the wet; Glasto 2008 only filled at the last minute after the 2007 wash-out. Even so, I found last year’s Field Day a lot of fun, and would really recommend it – the folk are friendly, the village fete-atmosphere endearing, and the line-up exceptional. My only criticism last time round was that the timings seemed to be a tad off, affected by some last-minute cancellations, so it was tough to schedule in all the acts you wanted.
This year there’s a brand new Guardian Tea Room Tent and a new art area with drag queens. Additional joys include an onion-peeling contest and London’s best brownies… but you want the line-up don’t you? Here it is, shamelessly plundered from the recent Field Day email, with big names emboldened:
Eat Your Own Ears DJs / Errors / Fennesz / Final Fantasy / First Aid Kit / Gaggle / Jon Hopkins / Mogwai (Only English Summer Festival Show) / Santigold / Skream / The Horrors / The Temper Trap / Allez Allez / Crispin Dior (AITBF) / Devil Made Me Do It / Four Tet / King Charles / Micachu And The Shapes / Mystery Jets / Plugs / S.C.U.M. / Sian Alice Group / Stopmakingme (AITBF) / The Big Pink / The Invisible / Wild Beasts / Fanfarlo / James Yorkston / Juana Molina / Malcolm Middleton / Mumford And Sons / The Thing / Toumani Diabate / Wet Paint / Woodpigeon / Aeroplane DJs / Audion (Live) / Delphic (Live) / Erol Alkan / Fake Blood / JD Twitch (Optimo) / Little Boots (Live) / Wild Geese / Casper C (AITBF/Bloggers Delight) / Drums Of Death (Live) / Greco-Roman Soundsystem / No Pain In Pop DJs / Rusko (DJ Set) / Skull Juice (Bloggers Delight) / The XX / Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs / Work It.
What more persuasion do you need. Tickets here.
I’ll blog on some suggested acts to check out later this week.
PS: The Official Field Day After-Party is at the Old Blue Last, featuring two electronica tips for 2010: the fractious finery that is Gold Panda and the very mellow whimsy of worriedaboutsatan – details here.