Summer starts now... FRUKT's 2023 Hot Festival Tips!
The final May bank holiday weekend is always something of a starting gun for the festival season proper to kick off. This year there are some great events on in the coming days before it really starts packing out come June with the arrival of major headline-grabbers like Primavera and Glastonbury. As FRUKT gets ready for another busy summer, here are five amazing looking UK festivals coming soon that we're buzzing for!
Wide Awake (London) – Sat 27 May
A brilliantly put together festival in Brixton, South London with a fantastic line-up and a great mix of local beers, and all for a very reasonably priced ticket to boot. This year’s acts includes Daniel Avery’s only live show of the summer in the capital, Caroline Polachek’s technicolour pop extravaganza, masked hyperpop enigmas Two Shell and the untouchable Osees. The bill is jam-packed full with fantastic emerging talent too – rock up early and get stuck in!
Gottwood (Wales) – Thu 8 June - Sun 11 June
Gottwood is a beautiful small-scale dance music festival deep in the Welsh woods that Mixmag called, "One of the top ten most breathtaking festival locations in the world!" Aside from the natural beauty, it features line-ups always programmed with a deep love of cutting edge electronic music and the four-day shindig features the likes of SHERELLE and DJ Boring. With lovely sunsets and a super-friendly crowd partying to big soundsystems, it’s going to be very special!
Houghton (Norfolk) – Thu 10 August – Sun 13 Aug
A festival that’s been battered by high winds and other blasts of bad luck over the years, Houghton remains a huge draw and one of the best electronic-focussed parties of the summer. Returning this August with its trademark immense line-up including Midland, Ben UFO and Helena Hauff, the Norfolk weekender really stands out with its beautiful stages and soundsystems crafted with a huge passion and respect for the scene.
Connect Festival (Edinburgh) – Fri 25 Aug – Sun 27 Aug
Last year’s inaugural Connect launched with some great names and it returns with another party weekend of major blockbusters and rising Scottish talent. Alongside the familiar headliners like Fred Again and Loyle Carner are local DJ stars such as Optimo and Éclair Fifi as well as buzzy new acts like Terra Kin, who recently performed for ibis MUSIC in London.
Manchester Psych Fest (Manchester, d’oh!) – Sat 2 Sep
A festival that needs no explanation, this is absolutely the place to go if you like your guitars feeding back and your synths run through an army of distortion pedals. And while there are plenty of fantastic scuzzy guitar acts like The Murder Capital and Bodega, there's also brilliant electronic acts in the mix such as Ela Minus and L’éclair, as well as some top quality festival party fun like Flamingods and Kokoko. A proper all-dayer although this one's indoors across Manchester venues and not out in the woods.
