SUMMER SUMMER FESTIVALS FESTIVALS
P H O T O :
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B R A N S W E E N E Y
Super Furry Animals
P H O T O :
M A R K J A M E S
Riverside Festival
TOWN City-based music festivals aren’t a new thing, but they’re unique enough that organisers are still exploring diverse ways of presenting events in an urban setting. David Pollock speaks to promoters who are helping breathe festival life into a metropolis near you
for us? The tickets are really cheap as well, which i ts with the East End: we don’t want to go in there and gentrify the place. It’s aimed at families and people in that area who can’t afford to l y to Barcelona for a weekend at Primavera, and at showcasing some of the excellent infrastructure that’s already there: places like the African-Caribbean Centre. It’s about breaking down the barriers for people who maybe don’t realise they can just wander in there.’
Frankly, it sounds great, but just because one event has taken such care to thread itself into the fabric of the area it serves, doesn’t mean that other events won’t be representing Glasgow in other ways. Riverside Festival showcases Glasgow’s pulling power with icons like Sven Väth and Fatboy Slim, and popular younger names like Ben Klock, Joris Voorn and local boy Jackmaster.
‘The challenges are the same as any festival, it’s just that the licensing issues are different in a city,’ says Dave Clarke of Slam Events, who run the Riverside via their Pressure night alongside Electric Frog. ‘But we’re lucky that Glasgow Life are very supportive of what we do and so are the police. It’s not a place we expect trouble and I think part of that is because it’s a daytime party, following in the footsteps of smaller events like Sunday Circus and Platform 18. We don’t have the problem of people being camped onsite and going for it all the time.’ Of all Glasgow’s summer city events, Stag & Dagger is the one which has stood the test of time, even outlasting its parent branches in London
and Leeds. ‘That’s something we’re really quite proud of,’ says Calum Cunneen of promoters PCL. ‘It’s not about being a huge money-maker for us, it just works well in shedding light on smaller spaces in the city and bringing in artists on the way up for early dates in Scotland before anyone’s heard of them.’ This year’s Stag features Band of Skulls, Deaf Havana and Emma Pollock’s welcome resurgence, while Cunneen points to past early- career appearances by Ed Sheeran, Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett and Cati sh & the Bottlemen as proof of Stag & Dagger’s track record. ‘Part of the point is reminding people that venues like these exist,’ he says, ‘and that they put on shows all year round in the heart of Glasgow. We’ve consistently built since Stag started, but the more festivals like this arrive in a city, the harder you have to work to sustain people’s attention.’
Stag & Dagger, various venues, Glasgow, Sun 1 May; The First Big Weekend, Hug & Pint, Glasgow, Sat 7 May; Restless Natives, various venues, Glasgow, Mon 9–Sun 15 May; Hidden Door, Old Bus Depot, Edinburgh, Fri 27 May–Sat 4 Jun; The Riverside Festival, Riverside Museum, Glasgow, Sat 28 & Sun 29 May; Summer Nights, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow, Thu 4–Sun 14 Aug; Glasgow Summer Sessions, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, Sat 27 Aug.
7 Apr–2 Jun 2016 THE LIST 19