Well, there it is. I said at the beginning that I was going to take a close-ish look at the first StrangeForms, and then just wing it from there, and that’s what I’ve done. . . I think you should seriously consider spending a relatively small number of your Earth Pounds on a ticket, or tickets, for StrangeForms 2025.

STRANGEFORMS FEST will be 10 this spring. That, I think, deserves some kind of retrospective thingy. A look back, if you will. I have no idea whether or not anybody else is going to do it but somebody has to, even if that somebody is me. So, yeah, here it is.

For its birthday year (not yet a teenager) Rockaway Beach cemented so many of the things that has made it one of my annual unmissables, and pushed it forward into exciting new places. It’s mix of nostalgia and zeitgeist-catching new acts has earned its place in the upper echelons of music festivals, and may it stay there for many years to come.

Sunday at Supersonic: stages full of smoke and a long soak in folk. . . with a bouzouki and balloons to finish.

The day begins with the disappointing news that Atlanta hardcore team Upchuck. . . aren’t going to make it, tipping today’s line-up even further in favour of duos. Quite a selection today, all making a heck of a racket with just two people. The rise of the duo intrigues me; are the reasons technological, logistical, financial or even cultural?

Friday includes the sitting room of a haunted cottage, the incantations of Welsh witches, fluoro-badgers in hoodies roaming the streets, noise-rock anime super heroes, and samosas for starters.

David Bowes was at Glasgow’s recent Core. Festival and gives his overview of the bands he watched during the long weekend.

Well now, this year’s Supersonic Festival will be sat in your lap and licking your face before you can learn to pronounce Bríghde Chaimbeul’s name. Still a handful of tickets left if you’re lucky; if you’re already set then it’s time to start circling stuff on the running order and wondering who owns a bag so small you couldn’t fit an A4 book in it.

ArcTanGent 2024 once again proved why it’s a beloved staple in the festival calendar, managing to blend the experimental with the established and offering a platform for a diverse array of artists – from the thunderous and chaotic to the ethereal and introspective. Despite the inevitable rain and the occasional clash of must-see acts, the spirit of discovery and the shared love for the eclectic made for an amazing experience in the Somerset countryside.

Day 3 of Glasgow’s Core. Festival was another big success with a much more metal-focused line-up.

A look at day 2 of Glasgow’s Core. Festival with Part Chimp, Mclusky, Employed To Serve, Holy Mountain, Machukha and more.

Our editor Sander van den Driesche is at Core. in Glasgow this weekend, and on the first day he saw some impressive sets from Show Me The Body and more.

Following on from last year’s successful launch, Core. Festival has returned to make Glasgow Great Again. David Bowes looks at the line-up of next weekend’s second edition.

An impression of the 3rd day at Bear Stone Festival, including more hot weather, AcidSitter, Nemeček, 1000mods, Colour Haze, Kadavar and more.

Here are some highlights of Bear Stone Festival’s second day, including Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, High on Fire and many more.

Day 1 impressions at Bear Stone Festival, including A Gram Trip, Jantar, Entropist and Slowtorch.

Hidden in the Croatian outback Bear Stone Festival is about to take place for the 3rd time. With a focus on the stoner, doom and psychedelic rock genres, Sander van den Driesche has a look at this year’s line-up.

Portals has exactly the atmosphere that I always want from a music festival: of walking through, well, a portal and into a nerdy utopia where everyone “gets” you. Every interaction throughout the weekend – between other fans, venue staff, security, volunteers, vendors, musicians, photographers – was friendly, warm and convivial. So at the start and the end of the day, it’s the people who make the atmosphere..

As summer rapidly approaches with the arrival of the second bank holiday in May, the sunshine blazes down on Leicester, a city that has once again got a positive vibe about it. With the city’s football team having just been promoted to the Premier Leag …

It’s true that the burning bowl at the core of Desertfest’s pipe will always be a fuggy mélange of stoner, psych, doom, drone, and all that good stuff.  But – having been lucky enough to attend Desertfest almost every year since its inauguration in 2012 -– I’ve seen it move on from predictable flavours to a more diverse, heady smoke. . . We all got gloriously high on the pungent sounds and the phenomenal atmosphere of Desertfest 2024.  

Our metal editor Sander van den Driesche went to Roadburn Festival last April, and was happy to report that after last year’s experimental line-up this year’s festival had a great balance between traditional heaviness and more experimental artists.