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Alternative UK Rock Festival GuideA Look at Some of the UK's Less Well Known Rock & Indie Festivals
A look at some of the UK's smaller music festivals, from Guilfest to the Wickerman and Wychwood Festivals to the Bulldog Bash and Rip Curl Boardmasters Unleashed.
Tickets for Glastonbury sold out in a picosecond? Looking for an event attended by slightly less than the population of a small to medium city? Try this brief guide to some of the more overlooked dates on the UK festival circuit. Guilfest 2008: Line-up and DetailsWhat: A decidedly family-friendly festival (Guilfest won the Best Family Festival at the UK Festival Awards in 2006), this event boasts an extensive KidZone and mixes comedy, theatre and children's entertainment with rock, pop and alternative music for a truly eclectic line-up. When: 4th-6th July Where: Stoke Park, Guildford Headliners: The Levellers, Blondie, Australian Pink Floyd Show Best of the rest: Kula Shaker, Cerys Matthews, Freak Power, From The Jam, Bowling For Soup, Dodgy, The Damned, Dreadzone The Wychwood Music Festival: Line-up and DetailsWhat: Described by Time Out magazine as 'an excellent hybrid of the Big Chill, WOMAD and The Cambridge Folk Festival', the Wychwood is a chilled festival which also features a decent comedy line-up, including stand-up and the Whose Line Is It Anyway? improv show. When: 30th May-1st June Where: Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire Headliners: The Proclaimers, The Divine Comedy, The Imagined Village featuring Billy Bragg Best of the rest: Robyn Hitchcock & The Psychedelic Trams, Dreadzone, John Hegley, The Epstein, The Blockheads, Palladium, Transglobal Underground Wickerman Festival: Line-up and DetailsWhat: Like a mini-Glastonbury in its scope and eclecticism, this rapidly growing Scottish festival is set near many of the locations used in the classic 1973 British horror film The Wicker Man and culminates with the burning of its own thirty foot high wicker man on the Saturday – though without a screaming Edward Woodward inside. When: 25th-26th July Where: East Kirkcarswell, near Dundrennan, Southwest Scotland Headliners: Gary Numan, others to be confirmed Best of the rest: Dodgy, Dub Pistols, Sonic Boom Six, Alabama 3, The Cuban Brothers, Hugh Cornwell, Miles Hunt, Dream Machine The Bulldog Bash: Line-up and DetailsWhat: Run for bikers by bikers (the Hell's Angels-run security consistently ensures the event is both safe and far more trouble-free than other events of its size), The Bulldog Bash is about more than just bands. Yep, there'll be grizzly rock acts aplenty but they'll be competing for attention with drag racing, stunts, custom bikes and decidedly un-PC attractions like the topless bike wash and wet T-shirt competitions. When: 7th-10th August 2008 Where: Shakespeare County Raceway, near Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire Headliners: None confirmed as yet. Best of the rest: See above and watch this space. The Rip Curl Boardmasters Unleashed Festival: Line-up and DetailsWhat: Running from 4th-10th August, Rip Curl Boardmasters is Europe's biggest combined surf, skate and music festival, incorporating the 2-day Unleashed music festival sandwiched in amongst the boarding action. When: 8th-9th August Where: Watergate Bay, Newquay Headliners: Groove Armada, The Pigeon Detectives Best of the rest: Audio Bullys, Morcheeba, Natty, The Black Seeds, The Futureheads, Reverend and the Makers, The Young Knives Click here for updated 2009 line-ups and details.
The copyright of the article Alternative UK Rock Festival Guide in Rock Music is owned by Paul Travers. Permission to republish Alternative UK Rock Festival Guide in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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