Mercury Prize-nominated FKA twigs is one of a slew of acts just confirmed for Field Day festival in Victoria Park on 6–7 June.
The alternative R&B singer’s performance is set to be a London festival exclusive. She will be joined on the Field Day Saturday line-up by hip-hop duo Run the Jewels, Radiohead drummer Philip Selway, Norwegian producer Todd Terje and father and son pairing Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté.
Last week it was announced that Mac DeMarco, the poster boy for Canadian slacker rock, will be part of the Field Day Sunday line-up, alongside the likes of Patti Smith and Ride. A fuller picture of Sunday line-up has now been revealed, with post-punk outfit Savages, psychedelic five-piece Hookworms and indie rockers Viet Cong all due to perform.
Complementing the live music will be DJ sets from the likes of Awesome Tapes from Africa, Barcelona producer John Talabot and DJ Floating Points.
All these acts and more will feature on Field Day Radio, with Field Day supremo Tom Baker hosting a series of shows over the next couple of months to whet the whistle of festival-goers. The first episode is available here.
Field Day headliner: Caribou. Photograph: Thomas Neukum
Some of the main acts for Field Day have been announced, with Ride and Caribou headlining and punk legend Patti Smith also confirmed for the weekend festival, which will be held in Victoria Park on 6–7 June next year.
Patti Smith, the 63-year-old ‘godmother of punk’, shot to fame with her 1975 debut album Horses, which she plans to perform in full on the main stage on the Sunday to mark 40 years since its release.
Smith will be joined by Ride, the cult shoegaze act who will be returning after a 20 year hiatus to headline Field Day Sunday, while electronic maestro Caribou, fresh from releasing the critically acclaimed album Our Love, is to headline the main stage on the Saturday night.
The ninth edition of Field Day sees a festival debut for composer and avant-garde violinist Owen Pallet, a return for ambient Brooklyn four-piece DIIV, while Real Estate guitarist Matt Mondanile will be appearing with his side project Ducktails.
World music, as ever, will form a significant part of the line-up, with Ethiopian keyboardist Hailu Mergia set to be one of the highlights. Meanwhile, Russian techno DJ Nina Kraviz will be headlining the Bugged Out tent with her signature blend of acid infused house and techno.
There will be ample respite from the music at the Village Mentality area on the Village Green, including side stalls inspired by country pastimes fete games such as sack racing, tug of war, tea bag tossing, a winkle-picking competition and, for the brave/foolhardy, a return of 2014’s nettle-eating competition.
Field Day is gearing up to kick off the summer festival season in style, with an impressive array of established artists, as well as the cream of new talent, signed up to play at the weekend festival on 7-8 June in Victoria Park.
This year’s Field Day is to be spread over two days, with the inaugural Field Day Sunday featuring a headline set from Pixies, who are set to play their only London show of the year.
Other main acts confirmed for Sunday 8 June are psychedelic-adventurers The Horrors as well as act of the moment Future Islands, who in April wowed the US with an astonishing performance on David Letterman.
The line-up for the Saturday looks strong, boasting the icons such as 80s Swedish artist Neneh Cherry and the legendary Thurston Moore, formerly of Sonic Youth, who now resides in East London.
Headlining the main stage on the Saturday are melancholic electronica outfit Metronomy, who will no doubt be playing songs off their critically-praised new album Love Letters. Other acts joining them on the main stage will be Mercury Prize nominee Jon Hopkins and Seun Kuti, the son of Afrobeat creator Fela Kuti.
Although larger than in previous years, Field Day still has a village fete-style aesthetic and will be providing ample entertainment for those looking for respite from the music in their Village Mentality area.
Expect traditional side stalls inspired by country pastimes and fete games, from classic tug of war, sack races and egg and spoon races to more unexpected and fantastic ones like tea bag tossing and even winkle-picking contest.
Tom Baker of live music promoters Eat Your Own Ears
The health of London’s live music scene is mainly a reflection of the calibre and variety of its artists but those who facilitate that experience deserve some credit too.
Tom Baker is the mastermind behind Eat Your Own Ears, a company he founded in 2001 that has become a major force in promoting live music.
After starting the company in 2001, he help the likes of Fourtet, Hot Chip and Florence and the Machine in their early years, and in 2007 found Field Day, the annual music festival that sees 30,000 people trek to Victoria Park each year.
His secret, it seems, is to take your chances when they come. After graduating in arts management, he moved to London to work at the Scala in Kings Cross. It was one day while flyering that fortune struck.
“A friend who worked at 93 Feet East on Brick Lane asked me if I’d thought about doing my own night,” he explains. “He offered me the venue and said he’d help if I came up with some ideas.”
The next step involved putting his university research into action. Tom’s dissertation had been on independent versus major record labels, which gave him the idea to approach labels like Domino, Rough Trade and Warp with the idea of putting on nights where a new artist would be presented alongside the label’s more established artists.
And this link to artists and labels remains, even though the company is much bigger.
“It’s about the music we like and are passionate about and about working with artists we’ve worked with over time and finding and developing new ones,” he says.
Such an attitude would stand any potential festival organiser in good stead, but the roots of Field Day are somewhat more idealistic.
“It was inspired by an event called Return of the Rural,” he says. “Me, my brother and partner are all from Somerset, and at the time of Foot and Mouth we thought we’d put together an event that celebrates the countryside. We did it in the 291 Gallery in Hackney and it was a mixture of dance music, live bands and a ceilidh band.”
Anyone who’s experienced Field Day will recognise the village fête in an urban setting vibe. The festival has grown year-on-year, and in 2014 will become a two-day event.
“The Saturday will be the full onslaught with multiple stages and a mixture of dance music and live bands, new bands and world music, and the Sunday will be a scaled down version that’s accessible for people who have to go to work the next day,” he says.
It promises to be a special year, with Pixies to headline the first ever Field Day Sunday and melancholic electronica masters Meteronomy confirmed as Saturday’s main act.
Baker adds: “We’ve taken our time to take it to a second day until we felt comfortable we could do it and until we were sure we’d found the right act to launch it with.”
