MONTREUX Jazz Festival (montreuxjazz.com) has always sounded like one of those events everyone should really get to at some point in their lives, whether for the excellent music programme, the extraordinary setting, or for the gigantic statue of Freddie Mercury that adorns the city’s beautiful Lake Geneva promenade. Music-wise the festival, which this year celebrates its 50th annual edition, is as impressive as ever, with Nicolas Jaar, Joneses Grace AND Tom, and Yello among the dozens of names playing over 16 days from June 30 to July 15.
The people previously behind the frequently amazing Interval events in Romania are now involved with the huge Cluj-Napoca event Untold. They’ve also had a major hand in programming the first edition of a new festival named Neversea (neversea.com), which goes down in the city of Constanta on the Black Sea coast from July 7-10. Intriguing names pepper the four stages alongside big guns such as Nina Kraviz and Sven Vath, but it’s the Summerhouse stage — which will welcome the likes of Hunee, Dekmantel Soundsystem, DJ Sprinkles and Young Marco — that The National really has its eye on.
Sitting somewhere between these two (in terms of bar prices at least) will be Farr Festival (farrfestival.co.uk), which takes place in Bygrave Woods in Hertfordshire from July 13-16. The National visited last year and found a fantastic lineup, an easily traversable and atmospheric site and a friendly, knowledgeable crowd. Electronic music dominates throughout, with Avalon Emerson, Mr G, Axel Boman and Kornél Kovács among the star turns, and curatorial duties for several of the stages are handed over to some of the UK’s best club nights and promoters.
It’s already pretty much impossible to have a bad time on holiday in Italy, and when you throw music from the likes of Regis, Mike Servito and dissolute Glasgow pin-up Jackmaster into the mix unhappiness becomes an even taller order. Polifonic (polifonic.it), which runs in the absurdly picturesque coastal setting of Monopoli in south-eastern Italy between July 7 and 10, offers all this and more should any of the more miserable among you fancy taking on the challenge.
Finally, something wonderfully different can be found in a yet-to-be-revealed location between Dresden and Leipzig in eastern Germany between July 28 and 30 in the shape of Camp Cosmic (campcosmic.com). Created by Albion Venables as a birthday party for some friends in his native Sweden, Camp Cosmic eventually turned into an official festival in 2011 and made the move to Germany some years later. Berlin-based Italian Eva Geist, a recent National feature subject and general favourite around these parts, plays both in her Eva Geist guise and with Laura ODL in her fuzzed-out synth exploration project As Longitude. Ece Ozel, Bon Chance, Sacha Mambo, Andre Pahl and DJ soFa also number among the guests at a festival that should be the ultimate antidote to everything overcrowded and beer-sponsored on the circuit this summer.
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