Electric Fields, Scotland’s premium "wee" music festival, at the stunning site of Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries and Galloway, kicks off this Thursday as it prepares to celebrate its fifth anniversary from August 30-September 1 with an enticing line up.
The bill includes the likes of big names Public Service Broadcasting, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Leftfield and James, the latter of whom will open the newly added third day of the festival on Thursday - though we’re arguably even more excited for the rest of the bill.
One of our favourite things about Electric Fields is the focus on Scottish musicians, artists and different art forms, and there’s no change to that statement this year.
Leading the Scottish contingent will be acclaimed Edinburgh hip-hop trio Young Fathers, who received five stars from JFC for their hometown performance at the Leith Theatre at Hidden Door Festival earlier in the year.
The extensive Scottish representation also includes Bellshill alt-rock veterans Teenage Fanclub, Idlewild, rapper Stanley Odd and a set from Loki the Scottish Rapper - aka Darren McGarvey - whose award-winning book Poverty Safari and the subsequent live show about the misrepresentation and misunderstanding of the working class in Scotland has garnished enormous critical claim and even put Loki up on BBC Question Time, where he was widely applauded.
Neu! Reekie! return to the festival to bring you more spoken word and genre-bending performances too. We chatted to Michael Pedersen, co-founder of Neu! Reekie!, at Electric Fields last year, and he gave an interesting insight into how they pick their acts for festivals.
“We're very particular," he told us. "So we've put on poets and artists that we know can go head to head with the musicians and who can win eardrums back from DJ-sounds spiralling into the back of our tent from elsewhere at the festival.
"We're sort of going to war with music today. Just between the hours of 13:00 and 18:00. Outside of that we're completely zen!
"But aye, we're booking people who we know can handle these audiences and these crowds and this fluidity of audience, and people who we know can bring people in and get them to stay. We're armed to the teeth in this fight for your affection."
This year Neu! Reekie! returns to compete again, with, amongst others, Glasgow favourites Victoria McNulty and Cat Hepburn, the enormous talents of Salena Godden and Colin McGuire, the inimitable "Tam O Shanter" with other Neu! Reekie! co-founder and publishing legend Kevin Williamson and the Kixx Collective, rapper Empress, the aforementioned Loki, and many more.
The festival was of course headlined by Frightened Rabbit last year, whose lead singer Scott Hutchison tragically died in May. Scott was due to play at the festival again in 2018, and in his place Electric Fields, after speaking with the rest of the band, will replace their Saturday night slot with what will no doubt be an emotional play of their debut album "Dance Music" in full, as a tribute to one of the greatest songwriters in Scottish music history.
Elsewhere on the line up are the hugely impressive Ghostpoet, outlandish feminist rock group Dream Wives, who also impressed us at Hidden Door, Ride, Ezra Furman, The Coral, The Horrors, Alexis Taylor (doing a DJ set) and of course, much, much more.
Click here to grab a ticket from the official website in the resale while it’s not too late
The bill includes the likes of big names Public Service Broadcasting, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Leftfield and James, the latter of whom will open the newly added third day of the festival on Thursday - though we’re arguably even more excited for the rest of the bill.
One of our favourite things about Electric Fields is the focus on Scottish musicians, artists and different art forms, and there’s no change to that statement this year.
Leading the Scottish contingent will be acclaimed Edinburgh hip-hop trio Young Fathers, who received five stars from JFC for their hometown performance at the Leith Theatre at Hidden Door Festival earlier in the year.
The extensive Scottish representation also includes Bellshill alt-rock veterans Teenage Fanclub, Idlewild, rapper Stanley Odd and a set from Loki the Scottish Rapper - aka Darren McGarvey - whose award-winning book Poverty Safari and the subsequent live show about the misrepresentation and misunderstanding of the working class in Scotland has garnished enormous critical claim and even put Loki up on BBC Question Time, where he was widely applauded.
Neu! Reekie! return to the festival to bring you more spoken word and genre-bending performances too. We chatted to Michael Pedersen, co-founder of Neu! Reekie!, at Electric Fields last year, and he gave an interesting insight into how they pick their acts for festivals.
“We're very particular," he told us. "So we've put on poets and artists that we know can go head to head with the musicians and who can win eardrums back from DJ-sounds spiralling into the back of our tent from elsewhere at the festival.
"We're sort of going to war with music today. Just between the hours of 13:00 and 18:00. Outside of that we're completely zen!
"But aye, we're booking people who we know can handle these audiences and these crowds and this fluidity of audience, and people who we know can bring people in and get them to stay. We're armed to the teeth in this fight for your affection."
This year Neu! Reekie! returns to compete again, with, amongst others, Glasgow favourites Victoria McNulty and Cat Hepburn, the enormous talents of Salena Godden and Colin McGuire, the inimitable "Tam O Shanter" with other Neu! Reekie! co-founder and publishing legend Kevin Williamson and the Kixx Collective, rapper Empress, the aforementioned Loki, and many more.
The festival was of course headlined by Frightened Rabbit last year, whose lead singer Scott Hutchison tragically died in May. Scott was due to play at the festival again in 2018, and in his place Electric Fields, after speaking with the rest of the band, will replace their Saturday night slot with what will no doubt be an emotional play of their debut album "Dance Music" in full, as a tribute to one of the greatest songwriters in Scottish music history.
Elsewhere on the line up are the hugely impressive Ghostpoet, outlandish feminist rock group Dream Wives, who also impressed us at Hidden Door, Ride, Ezra Furman, The Coral, The Horrors, Alexis Taylor (doing a DJ set) and of course, much, much more.
Click here to grab a ticket from the official website in the resale while it’s not too late
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