Mud, moshing and music: a guide to this year’s festivals

So it’s that time of year again. Festival season approaches and the good life of summer festivals calls. Well, perhaps we’re being a little premature here, with essays seemingly as long as the ever increasing nights, and with deadline after deadline, we’re all in this weird purgatory, having one eye on the summer and the fun that awaits, and the other on the impending doom of exam season. So let’s just focus that eye for a second and assume that we’re not going to drown in the dark, despairing depths of the academic quagmire, and focus on the glorious freedom of summer.

For a good few of us the summer and the escape from exams is epitomised by the promise of music festival escapades. Each year there seem to be more and more ways to throw ourselves into a gigantic field with a loosely assembled stages, and immerse ourselves in beerflowing summer festival fun. Whether it’s the glories of campsite antics, incredible music, or just a hell of a lot of substances; at festivals we get the chance to blow the memories of those stresses out of the water through sheer volume of music. So worry not; there is light at the end of the tunnel, and there’s a massive stage looming large there too, and hopefully this guide will help you pick what you want from the innumerable festivals popping up.

The festival season kicks off in everyone’s favourite offshore county, the Isle of Wight. From the 10th to the 13th of June, the mostly sleepy Isle will be graced with a consistently excellent line-up. This year’s festival boasts impressive coups such as the return of the Strokes to British soil for the first time since 2006, as well as this year’s festival frequenters Jay-Z, Florence and the Machine, but perhaps most strikingly Paul McCartney, who headlines the final night. In a festival renowned for iconic moments such as infamous sets from Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan, it seems fitting that the Isle of Wight should have attracted icons from past and present, as well as a very solid line-up throughout the weekend, including the Hold Steady, Calvin Harris, Pink, Blondie and Vampire Weekend.

Alternatively, if the maxim “the heavier, the better” rings true, then Download may well be the best bet. For heavy rock fans Download is probably the best place to be, having procured rock legends such as AC/DC, Aerosmith, and the recently reformed Stone Temple Pilots, as well as newer acts like Rolo Tomassi, Fall Out Boy offshoot The Damned Things, and the Dillinger Escape Plan. Heavy rock fan or not, Download could be just the thing if you wanted a weekend off. With the festival being positioned right in the middle of most of our exams this could well be the place to work out your frustrations. Screaming out the anti-establishment anthems of Christmas heroes Rage Against the Machine in Donnington Park is thought to be a recommended course of cathartic therapy by more left-field psychiatrists. Apparently something similar worked for John Lennon.

Then comes the big one for most: the Glastonbury Festival, now in its 40th year. Glastonbury has managed to get itself a cracker of a line-up. The headliners are safe bets, all three of which are seasoned stunners live. No matter what you think of U2, they are professionals at playing to hundreds of thousands of people, and the mere fact that this is their only festival date is testament to the draw which Glastonbury is to bands. Muse have much to prove after a mixed last album, and will be sure to go all out. As for Stevie Wonder, I dare you to come away without a smiling face after a headlining set from the R&B star. All three headliners are legends of their own ages and are sure to put on a spectacular show, but what really stands out overall is quality. The lineup boasts everyone from rare performers like George Clinton’s 70s funk legends Parliament- Funkadelic; last year’s critical darlings, the XX, Grizzly Bear, and the Dirty Projectors; to this year’s in, The National. There aren’t many festivals where you can expect to be entertained by Groove Armada, Snoop Dogg, Broken Bells, Shakira and Ray Davies. But if variety is the spice then Glastonbury has to have one of the biggest kicks about, and if not the space of the bands then the Somerset cider and the unique atmosphere should do it.

Hard Rock Calling is not a traditional camping festival, and so if you’re after an adventure, this probably isn’t the one for you, but between the 25th and 27th of June it features many of the big draws from the other festivals, in Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, and Pearl Jam. Former festival shy childs Pearl Jam bring Wolfmother, Ben Harper and the Gaslight Anthem to the Friday. Stevie Wonder too brings a very able supporting cast in Jamairoquai, James Morrison and Corrine Bailey Ray. Paul McCartney is yet to announce his support but with rumours of the National and the promise of just a sunny London day in Hyde Park with Paul McCartney the Sunday cannot fail to be wonderful.

Further afield one could head up to Kinross for T in the Park’s stellar lineup in early July, engaging in the tartan fun. If you make the journey then you’ve got yourself Eminem’s only British festival date, as well as Muse, Kasabian, Paulo Nutini, Jay-Z, John Mayer, the Drums, David Guetta, and one of the Prodigy’s only festival appearances this summer. Whatever tastes one might have, there is little doubt you’ll be able to find something to fulfil at T this year. That and the prospective glory of a hung over Scottish morning or two, how could you say no?

Or if you fancy staying that bit closer, then you’ve got two contrasting festivals in early July. The O2 Wireless in Hyde Park is in the first weekend of July, and has a different kind of line up to most of the festivals, and a real steal in Lily Allen who has agreed; at the behest of Jay-Z to come out from her minor self-proclaimed solitude enacted due to claims that the music business was too much for her. But for Jay she’s going to play for LDN, so if Lily Allen, Jay-Z, the Friendly Fires or Chase and Status are on your festival hit-list this summer then you can’t argue with what is a more interesting and adventurous line-up than most this summer. On other days there is the alt-electronic Saturday on what is supposedly LCD Soundsystem’s last tour, James Murphy brings with him other electronic adventurers: DJ Shadow, UNKLE, and 2manydjs. The Friday of the festival is perhaps the most mainstream with Pink, the Ting Tings, and the Gossip all promising to entertain.

The more sedate Latitude contrasts: held between the 15th and 18th of July, decidedly middle-class and indie. If alternative pretensions are your thing, and heaven knows I wish I were going, then Latitude is your festival. Not just music, Latitude has a great literary arena, featuring readings from American Psycho writer Bet Easton Ellis, Hanif Kureishi, and Sebastian Faulks; aswell as an excellent comedy stage featuring Warwick favourite Russell Kane, but also Ardal O’Hanlon, and Emo Phillips. The music isn’t half bad either. Florence and the Machine’s meteoric rise is evidenced as she headlines her first festival. Her spectacular live act should only improve as it seeks to make a triumphant mark and prove to be genuine headline material in what should be one of the highlights of her already exciting Cosmic Love tour. The rest of the weekend has the wonderful new solo project from Jonsi of Sigur Ros repute, as well as recent Arts Centre champions Grizzly Bear, and the return of the always delightful Belle and Sebastian. It’s all great, but not exactly wild.

It all goes a bit quiet until late August after Latitude apart from the local Stratford dance festival, Global Gathering, which runs on the last weekend of July and features big name DJs like Armin van Buuren, Carl Cox, Paul Oakenfeld, as well as mainstream headliners Faithless and Dizzee Rascal. So if you fancy something a bit more lively than Latitude, and a bit less tight jeans and guitars than elsewhere, Global Gathering offers a welcome relief. V Festival, however, kicks off bringing back tight jeans and guitars by the bucket-load to Staffordshire and Essex in the form of last year’s phenomenon, the Kings of Leon. Their live show always delivers, and the entire weekend boasts a line-up with little to disappoint: Kasabian headline the other day, and throughout the weekend you can find yourself entertained by the mighty Prodigy live show, a greatest hits set from the Stereophonics, Madness, the Kooks, White Lies, the Eels, Cheryl Cole and the Sugababes. V’s lineup is a bit more accommodating, and offers more of a party atmosphere than its forerunner at Latitude, and a bit less angst than the festival that follows on the Bank Holiday weekend, Reading and Leeds.

The notoriously riotous former Carling Weekend, Reading and Leeds has some real draws and exclusives in the form of the probable blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Libertines re-union shows, and speaking of blinks and re-unions, Blink 182 are there to close the festival on the Sunday in Reading, backed up ably by nerd-rock heroes Weezer and Paramore. The festival offers nothing if not variety. Guns and Roses headline what can only be defined as a rock day featuring the always incredible Queens of the Stone Age. These two rock phenomenons are joined by Lostprophets, Biffy Clyro, and on the other stage the criminally under-rated Phoenix; LCD Soundsystem, and Delphic all play. Arcade Fire have the indie day, and are joined by the Libertines, Modest Mouse, the Mystery Jets, and Dizzee Rascal. Reading and Leeds are always great, messy fun; one of the truest festivals around, and when the likes of the Klaxons, Band of Horses, Yeasayer, and the Big Pink are deemed only worthy for the second stage you know you’ve got yourself a pretty good festival.

Offering a somewhat fresher weekend than the indie heavy Reading and Leeds, you could spend your August Bank Holiday in Creamfields, Britain’s premier dance festival. Creamfields boasts an impressive amount of exclusives in the shape of headliners, Tiesto, Deadmau5, and Paul van Dyk; who are joined by a line-up of some of the very biggest names in mainstream dance music, with sets from Sebastian Leger, Audio Bullys, Ferry Corstein, as well as Drum and Bass favourites High Contrast, and Dubstep pioneers Benga and Rusko, it’s clear that Creamfields boasts quality.

If Download was the festival to get your fill of 80s rock legends then End of the Road down in Dorset is kind of the equivalent for 90s indie. On the 10th, 11th, and 12th of September, Modest Mouse, Yo La Tengo and Wilco will be there to unleash their unique brands of meticulously constructed guitar squalls and post-modern pop. If you like acoustic guitars, or just generally alternative music, End of the Road delivers. Iron and Wine and the Mountain Goats play their only festival dates, and the rest of the line-up isn’t half bad either, Low Anthem, the New Pornographers, Caribou, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and Wolf Parade, bear the flag for the newcomers outside of the indie godhead headliners.