SUMMER FESTS
FROM
KELBURN TO COACHELLA Whether you’re fl ash with cash or counting the pennies, there’s a festival for you somewhere in this world. Charlotte Runcie sums up the best festivals for every budget
wBUDGET Prides
WICKERMAN East Kirkcarswell, near Dundrennan, Fri 24 & Sat 25 Jul, weekend tickets around £110. The highest quality lineup you’re likely to get for your money in 2015: Tom Odell! The Waterboys! Errors! John Cooper Clarke! Even Squeeze and Lulu are making the trip to Dundrennan! There’s the burning of a giant wicker man on the Saturday night, of course, just to freak you out. Try not to think about the ending of the film while you’re jiving away to Lulu’s greatest hits.
KELBURN GARDEN PARTY Kelburn Castle, near Largs, Fri 3–Sat 5 Jul, weekend tickets £89–£99. Taking over the grounds and glen of a 13th-century castle famously covered in graffiti for an international art project, Kelburn Garden Party is an independent-spirited festival, defiantly free from corporate interference. The lineup represents a range of local music, so expect your mind to be blown by a mix of jazz, dubstep, alt.country and gypsy folk. Proper tea and coffee are on hand to help you regain your senses afterwards.
HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN / HAY FESTIVAL Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Thu 21–Sun 31 May, individual ticket prices vary. The Hay Festival transforms the Welsh borders town of Hay-on- Wye into a star-studded, genteel riot of ideas. This year you can catch Stephen Fry, Germaine Greer, Kazuo Ishiguro and Jacqueline Wilson talking all things books. How the Light Gets In is Hay’s upstart neighbour, a ‘philosophy and music’ festival that takes place in the same town at the same time: like a Hay fringe. Visit both for a healthy mix of literary elites and up-and-comers. BELLADRUM TARTAN HEART Belladrum Estate, near Inverness; Thu 6–Sat 8 Aug, Tickets £110. With a family-friendly reputation (children under 12 go free), Tartan Heart is an inclusive little summer festival gem. Headliners are Kaiser Chiefs, the Proclaimers and Eddi Reader.
Grandmaster Flash
EDEN FESTIVAL Raehills Meadows, Dumfries, Thu 11–Sun 14 Jun, weekend tickets £99 or £115 on the gate. Performers include Grandmaster Flash and Ms Dynamite, but if you don’t fancy music of that particular vintage, there’s a kids’ arena, circus tent, drive-in cinema and ‘Indian wedding marquees filled with hammocks, bath tubs and chai cafes’. Why don’t Scottish weddings feature hammocks and bath tubs? That’s the real issue here.
2 Apr–5 Jun 2015 THE LIST 33