Guest Blogger Nick Rowan previews Beacons Festival 2012, coming up in August.
Last week I received a message from the Beacons Twitter account (@beaconsfest) in reference to a particular Latitude Festival stage stating simply, “No lake at Beacons (this year)”. Politely ignoring the fact that it seems to have rained almost continually since that proclamation, let’s not forget that last year was a very different story.
2011 was to have been the inaugural year of Beacons Fest, sited in idyllic countryside on the outskirts of Skipton. Having assembled an impressive line-up that included Jamie XX, Willy Mason and Tom Vek, the festival was cancelled just days before due to ‘severe adverse weather’. In a report filed by the BBC website at the time, festival director and Nation of Shopkeepers head honcho Ash Kollakowski was quoted as saying: “We are devastated, I’ve been working on this for a year and this is just a nightmare.”
Having sensibly recognised that there was no guarantee that such ‘adverse’ conditions would not reoccur, the decision was taken to relocate the site. The event will still take place in Skipton, but now positioned in the markedly more robust surroundings of the Funkirk Estate and if anything, the line-up is even more impressive this time around.
It’s perhaps too early for Beacons Fest to have established a specific identity or ethos, but the roster of artists appearing could seem, at least at first look, almost scattergun.
The marquee names have changed from last time – this year’s headliners include Toots & The Maytals, Leeds émigrés Wild Beasts, Roots Manuva, Patrick Wolf, Mount Kimbie, Maya Jane Coles and The Felice Brothers. In the pre-iPod era, an assorted collection of indie, rap, reggae, dance and country-tinged rock’n’roll would have been seen as eclectic (read: confused). Whereas now, music is defined by the jump cut – whether that is shuffle on iTunes, the selection criteria for Jools Holland’s TV show or using YouTube and Spotify as a jukebox. It seems that we have blurred the boundaries and sub-cultures of music like never before.
In such a climate, Beacons makes guitar-centric festivals such as this year’s retrospective at Bramham Park (headlined by bright young things The Foo Fighters, The Cure and Kasabian) seem positively anachronistic. Like at V Festival, where The Stone Roses top the bill, bands at Leeds Fest are routinely resurrected from their shallow graves, dusted down and welcomed back as conquering heroes.
So maybe this can be their ideology. The heart of Beacons Festival appears to be in its identification and promotion of non-mainstream talent. Although the likes of Ghostpoet and Wild Beasts have been nominated for the Mercury Prize in the past, in an industry dominated by behemoths like Coldplay and Muse they’re still instantly recognisable as the underdogs. (Note that advance press on the forthcoming debut albums by Jessie Ware, Factory Floor and Savages suggest they may have some company soon). With the New Musical Express more-and-more enveloped in the world of nostalgia, it’s actually been left to free monthly publications like The Stool Pigeon (www.thestoolpigeon.co.uk) and Loud & Quiet (www.loudandquiet.com) to document what is coming through.
The organisers have also programmed a high percentage of acts based in Leeds and Manchester – two scenes that appear to be undergoing a cyclical resurgence. From this side of the Pennines, the acts include Hookworms, Eagulls, That Fucking Tank, Double Muscle, Blacklisters, Runners, Nope, Post War Glamour Girls, Juffage, Wot Gorilla, Louise Distras, Hawk Eyes and Stalking Horse.
Slightly ahead in terms of national exposure, those from the dark side of the hills include the much-heralded Pins, Stay+, Star Slinger, XXXY and from slightly farther-afield, Liverpool’s Outfit. In an appreciative nod to one of the mainstay promoters in Manchester, the switched on Now Wave duo will also be making an appearance as DJs.
It’s difficult not to reduce previews such as this to little more than a list of acts but probably the most magical element of this year’s Beacons incarnation is that some of the hottest acts from North America (Cloud Nothings, Japandroids, Junior Boys, Willis Earl Beal, Cass McCombs) as well as sizeable names from the UK (Veronica Falls, Gross Magic, Mazes, Still Corners, Errors, Andrew Weatherall) will line-up alongside neon tube art installations and documentary screenings orchestrated by Sheffield Docfest. The finishing touch is provided by the festival’s link-ups with local food & drink specialists such as The Cumberland and Westmorland Sausage Company, The Green Machine and Purely Wood Fired Pizzas.
It would appear that they have pretty much everything. Everything but the lake.
Weekend tickets are available from the usual outlets at £84.50 + booking fee.
Nick Rowan 18.07.12