Rejoice! It’s coming back! It’s happening again! Visions Festival is returning to London Fields for a second round of fun and frolics.
It was easily the best new festival in London last year, with an elegantly curated line up that included everything from Chk Chk Chk’s Brooklyn funky disco fever to the rock power of Ohio’s Cloud Nothings and retro sampling of London’s Public Service Broadcasting. It had a fresh progressive DIY feel without the excessive self importance of hipster cool. Whilst msold out, it didn’t feel overcrowded and turned into the type of relaxed and warm-feeling community night out many people felt was impossible in London. Those sceptics were proved wrong. Very wrong.
To be fair, the festival’s success didn’t come as a big surprise: the people behind Visions are none other than Rockfeedback, Sexbeat and Bird On The Wire, who just happen to be among the most consistently brilliant promoters in town.
This year once again the scope and quality of the line up makes some of the more mature (and much more expensive!) events look desperately poor. Visions Festival has got pretty much got everything and then some: you can party hard with Andrew WK, immerse yourself in the messy sleazy malice of The Fat White Family, take a step into the curious world of Dutch psychodelic flower child Jacco Gardner or float in the delicate pain and intensity of Polica’s tortured synth pop. It’s all there for your aural delectation.
And there’s plenty of one-off or rare performances from the likes of Seattle’s Perfume Genuis, New Zealand blog-hypes Yumi Zouma and London’s Deptfort Goth, who will play his first full performance since the sell-out Union Chapel show at the end of last year.
In keeping with its DIY ethos and collaborative spirit, the event includes exhibitions from local artists, a record fair organised by the North London legends Flashback Records, a showing from London-based collective Skull Paradise, a Tattoo Art show and a special Comic Book Fair by Breakdown.
And the icing on the cake is the fact tickets will only set you back £25, which in my book is a colossal bargain. So what’s not to like? Get excited, get happy, get ready and bag yourself a ticket to Visions before they inevitably sell out. You have been warned!
The line-up so far:
Polica / Andrew WK / Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats / Perfume Genius / Baths / The Fat White Family / Eagulls / Deptford Goth / Trust / Eleanor Friedberger / The Range / Jacco Gardner / Young Fathers / Perfect Pussy / Lower / Sean Nicholas Savage / Josef Salvat / Yumi Zouma / Kiran Leonard / Arabrot / Rainer / Skull Paradise Exhibition / Tattoo Art Show / Flashback Records Record Fair / Netil Food Market / Breakdown Press Comic Fair
Locations:
Oval Space, 32 The Oval London Borough of Tower Hamlets, E2 9DT
The Laundry, 2-18 Warburton Road London E8 3FN
Hackney New Empowering Church, 1a Westgate St, E8 3RL
London Fields Brewhouse, 365-366 Warburton St, London E8 3RR
One wristband accesses all venues. Tickets from www.visionsfestival.com.
