31 festivals happening in May 2016

1) Swingamajig
May 1
Birmingham
Price: £25
It’s all old news at Swingamajig – and that’s a good thing. The vintage-inspired party rolls out all things 20th century, with old school music, dance, cabaret, walkabout, art installations and performance art. Attendees dress up to get down to swing music and beat boxing.
www.swingamajig.co.uk

2) Bristol Walk Fest
May 1-31
Bristol
Best possible event to run concurrently with Bristol Food Connections, the country’s biggest urban walking festival boasts over 150 step-by-step explorations in and around the city. Programme’s release online at the end of March defeats our press time, but will certainly include over 100 Ramblers’ Routes and a plethora of expert-led health walks.
www.bristolwalkingfestival.co.uk 

3) Brighton Festival
May 7-29
Brighton
Price: various, many free
Already enjoying a reputation of being a darn sight more interesting and genuinely arty than your usual, calendar-sprawling urban gathering, heightened still further in its 50th year by welcoming American avant ace, Laurie Anderson, as guest director. Thus, a programme including such intrigue as the UK premiere of the altogether moving-sounding Lou Reed Drones, wherein Anderson’s late husband’s guitars and amps are plugged into feedback loops in St Mark’s Chapel. Beth Orton, Tindersticks and Laura Mvula feature in the musical line-up, while there’s all manner of good looking theatre, art, classical music, film, and so forth. Anderson will screen her visually rich first feature in 30 years, Heart of a Dog, in which she reflects on Buddhist teachings and surveillance, as well as the deaths of Reed, her mother, and her dog. Given the film’s baffling breadth, it’s probably just as well that she’ll be holding a Q&A after the credits roll.
www.brightonfestival.org

4) Frome Blues Festival
May 8
Frome
Price: £24
Single-day celebration of predominantly rocking blues, headed by Martin Aston, co-founder of twin-lead guitar pioneers and Thin Lizzy inspirers, Wishbone Ash.
www.fromebluesfestival.co.uk

5) Bristol New Music
May 12-15
Various Venues
Price: various
Like your music weird and your art as high-brow as your hairline? You’re in luck. Cutting edge since its inception in 2014, the Bristol New Music mini-festival brings the new and innovative to iconic Bristol venues like Colston Hall, St George’s and the Lantern. Not for the faint of heart, the fest is known for its high concept instrumentalism and quirky sound installations. Play it safe? Not a chance.
www.colstonhall.org/shows/bristol-new-music-2016

6) Mayfest
May 12-22
Bristol
Price: various
Theatre folk talk about making their art more accessible to the masses has become as regularly deployed a cliché as “break a leg,” and about as likely to actually happen. Not so the splendid Mayfest, where all manner of properly exciting contemporary is quite literally taken onto the streets. Or even homes – last year’s Salt in the Sugar Jar saw Nikesh Shukla welcome all-comers into a Totterdown abode while cooking up/reflecting on his late mother’s curry recipes. Artistic Directors Matthew Austin and Kate Yedigaroff bring plenty more delights to the table this time around, including The Complete Deaths (four clowns enact all 74 onstage Shakespearean deaths), and Of Riders and Running Horses (radiant al fresco dance). And once the curtain has come down on Mayfest, it’ll be time for the Old Vic’s 250th birthday weekend extravaganza – see feature on page 36.
www.mayfestbristol.co.uk

7) Bristol Foodies Festival
May 13-15
The Downs, Bristol
Returning to its expanded new home on the Downs, the seventh Foodie Festival is expected to welcome over 20,000 taste explorers to a programme including drinks masterclasses, street and world food, live ents, a children’s cookery theatre, and speakers/cookery demonstrators including the Real Marigold Hotel’s Rosemary Schrager, and Michelin star-bringing Josh Eggleton and Simon Hulstone.
www.foodiesfestival.com/Bristol

8) Bristol Gin Festival
May 13-15
Bristol
Price: £7.50
Gin. It’s the new craft beer. Only more so. While there were plenty of small-scale ale merchants in place well before the micro-brewery revolution, the gin fad feels as though it’s come from a standing start. You’ll find over 100 gins to try, augmented by live music, food, talks from industry experts, and pen portraits by Hogarth. Possibly.
www.ginfestival.com

9) The Cursus Cider & Music Festival
May 13-15
Sixpenny Handley, Dorset
Price: £50 w/e
With last year’s inaugural event deemed a roaring success, the micro-fest returns with more of the same: 400-ticket capacity, 30 bands playing across a couple of marquees, offering plenty of de rigueur festival tuneage: ska-punk, garage rock, etc.
www.cursusfestival.com

10) Dart Music Festival
May 13-15
Dartmouth, Devon
Price: free
Lovely old town for a free fest, with over 100 performances across more than 20 pubs, churches, squares, even a Tudor fort. All musical styles served, from rock to classical, bhangra to shanties, jazz to choral.
www.dartmusicfestival.co.uk 

11) Soul Weekender
May 13-16
Butlins, Minehead, Somerset
Price: £62 w/e
A broad definition of soul, sure – Musical Youth? Really? – but there’s no arguing with the weekend’s headliner: the mighty Martha Reeves, responsible for such Motown gold as Heat Wave, Nowhere to Run, Dancing in the Street, and so forth.
www.bigweekends.com/your-break/147977

12) Salaam Shalom British Muslim & Jewish Art Exhibition
May 18-July 3
Various Venues
Price: Various
Due to the success of last year’s Shared Space exhibition, which ran for just three days last May, the Salaam Shalom charity is putting on their own Muslim and Jewish art festival. With a drive to promote peace and understanding between the two communities in the UK (if you’ve ever watched the news, you know that’s no easy task), Salaam Shalom has received a grant from the Arts Council to bring together local Jewish and Muslim artwork. Other pieces from Jewish and Muslim artists around the country will also be on display. Salaam Shalom will also put on panel discussions in partnership with the Bristol Festival of Ideas.
www.salaamshalom.org.uk

13) The Great Escape
May 19-21
Brighton
Price: £59.50 w/e
Part of Brighton Festival. It used to be said that this was where they herded piles of colourless indie acts into one quarantined area, leaving all the interesting bits unaffected. They had a point, too. Times have changed, though, as a line-up including the likes of Songhoy Blues, Ben Caplan and Fatoumata Diawara attests. More than 450 up and comers in all, playing across 30+ venues.
www.greatescapefestival.com 

14) Bath International Music Festival
May 20-29
Bath
Price: various, some free
Glastonbury is a mere stripling by comparison to this classical/jazz/world/folk assemblage, established in 1948. Opening night is the big one, with free events across the city including street theatre, processions and dance, while the UK premiere of sax ace Branford Marsalis’ In My Solitude should be quite something; created for sacred spaces, we figure it’ll never sound finer than soaring into the vaulted ceiling of Bath Abbey.
www.bathfestivals.org.uk/music 

15) Vegfest
May 21-22
Bristol
Price: £8 w/e
The return of Europe’s biggest vegan festival, with attendees invited to pick the figurative bones out of 180 non-animal-bothering stalls, loads of food, juice bars, cookery demos, and multifarious subjects for talks loosely grouped beneath a banner reading Benefits of the Vegan Philosophy. Far as music goes, Saturday night is set to become a culinary know-all’s house party, where proper-job Chicago hailer Marshall Jefferson tops a line-up including live sets from Alison Where Love Lives Limerick and Adamski, whose Killer smash introduced the world to Seal. Sunday is a reggae affair, with vegan reggae star Macka B rounding out a bill also including Andy Compton featuring Celestine and Sabrina Chyld.
www.bristol.vegfest.co.uk 

16) Bearded Theory
May 26-29
Catton Hall, Derbyshire
Price: £101.85 w/e
Tarot reading, shiatsu, ‘Earth Area’ and such like should tell you that the bongos-per-head ratio is higher than most at this determinedly family friendly affair. So kid-focused, in fact, that there’s even a festival school. Interesting musical line-up to augment all this, including Squeeze, Levellers, Killing Joke, Arrested Development and, most unlikely, Public Image Ltd.
www.beardedtheory.co.uk 

17) Hay Festival
May 26-June 5
Hay-on-Wye, Wales
Price: various
It was a 2001 appearee, Bill Clinton, who called this fest “The Woodstock of the Mind”. In fairness, the sanitation is altogether better than such a comparison may suggest, but you know what he means: the breadth of highly tuned brains is extraordinary. And, like that 1969 lakeside event, time has proven it to be a hugely influential affair. A gathering of top- line authors, comedians, filmmakers, politicians and musicians is hardly ten-a-penny, even today, but back when Hay Fest first convened in 1988, it was properly unique. Full programme was only released on Easter weekend, well past our press time, but early confirmed attendees suggest as high calibre a line-up as we’ve come to expect: Germaine Greer, Suzanne Vega, 2015 Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich, Booker winners Marlon James and Peter Carey, and – block up your chimney stacks! – star of The Birds, Tippi Hedren.
www.hayfestival.com 

18) HowTheLightGetsIn
May 26-June 5
Hay-on-Wye, Wales
Price: various
2010-founded sister event to Hay Fest, but very much a standalone event in its own right, not altogether unfairly claiming to the ‘the world’s largest philosophy and music festival’. If Hay is generally known for lectures, then HowTheLightGetsIn prides itself on being a more discursive affair. Thus, such slated events as Dreaming the Future – Mary Ann Sieghart hosts discussion between Natalie Bennett, Maajid Nawaz and Roger Scruton – and Beware Bankers Bearing Gifts, a debate of morality between Anatole Kaletsky, Stephen King and Ken Livingstone. Plus comedy, cabaret, and music including C Duncan, ESKA, Ghostpoet, Gilles Peterson and Fairport Convention.
www.howthelightgetsin.iai.tv

19) Bath Fringe Festival
May 27-June 12
Bath
Price: various, many free
If high falutin’ Bath International Festival casts the city in a light the tourist office would have you believe is the historical truth, all refinement and good manners, then the best of the Fringe is much closer to the days of Beau Nash as they were actually lived: boozy, hard partying, spontaneous and gloriously informal. In particular, Bedlam Fair on the middle weekend is one long street party, huge crowds bringing roads to a standstill as they bear witness to all manner of the most imaginative street performers. There’s also a standalone Children’s Festival, an architectural pub crawl, and plenty more music, comedy, theatre and visual arts staged throughout the city.
www.bathfringe.co.uk 

20) Camping Be Cider Seaside
May 27-29
Burton Bradstock, Dorset
Price: £30 w/e
Campfire-centric sampling of fine cider near the glorious Jurassic coast, with music including popular Bristol belter, Gaz Brookfield, and Jake & the Jellyfish.
www.fuelledbycider.com/camping-be-cider-seaside 

21) Chippenham Folk Festival
May 27-30
Chippenham, Wilts
Price: £106 w/e
Determinedly old school folk fest, featuring more than 200 events in venues across the old Wiltshire market town, including many in the lovely park where the River Avon oozes lugubriously through the centre. Expect wall-to-wall ceilidhs, not far short of 100 dance sides, and plenty of kid-centric ents. Indeed Friday daytime is given over almost exclusively to local schools, with around 300 children enjoying tuition in song, dance, instruments and storytelling. Far as the main line-up goes, main draws included the likes of Bob Fox, Jez Lowe, and Larry Grayson’s former conveyor belt assistant, Isla St Clair.
www.chippfolk.co.uk

22) Glastonbudget
May 27-29
Wymeswold, Leics
Price: £80 w/e
The name might be cheeky, but perfectly apt nonetheless in describing a huge old line-up of diversely-styled tribute bands. This year’s faux heroes include Antarctic Monkeys, Bruno Marz, Clone Roses, Fell Out Boy, Four Fighters, Guns 2 Roses, The Hot Red Chili Peppers, Kazabian, Lisa GaGa, Oasish, One Step Behind, The Clashed and, rather magnificently, Ozzy Ozzspawn.
www.glastonbudget.org 

23) Lechlade Festival
May 27-29
Lechlade-on-Thames, Glos
Price: £79.95
The Proclaimers and – for the second year in a row – Dr and the Medics might be the headline acts but it’s all the joining in that this festival is really about, with workshops on everything from hula-hooping to belly dancing, paper aeroplane making to booiaka dancing. In many ways a determinedly family friendly affair – under 16s go free – although some might think that tempered by the fact that it’s also a festival with a standalone burlesque programme.
www.lechladefestival.co.uk

24) Raw Power Weekender
May 27-29
London
Price: £60 w/e
Remember Bristol’s marvellous Choke collective, and the nights they used to put on at The Croft? This weekender reads like a must-book wish list. A capital prospect for lovers of left field, not altogether quiet music, all centred around the Boston Arms and the Dome in Tufnel Park. Melt Banana, Part Chimp and Mugstar are three highlights amid a line up also including the likes of Selvhenter, Cult of Dom Keller, Anonymous Bash, Pikacyu-Makoto, Teeth of the Sea, Taman Shud, Housewives, Bonnacons of Doom, Graham Dunning’s Mechanical Techno, and Sly & the Family Drone.
www.babayagashut.com/raw-power-festival  

25) Salisbury International Arts Festival
May 27-June 11
Salisbury, Wilts
Price: various, some free
Lovely Salisbury hardly needs extra excuses to visit (the cathedral alone boasts the world’s oldest working clock, the country’s tallest spire and the best-preserved copy of Magna Carta) but, if one is required, here you go: an across-the-spectrum arts fest, this year taking New Zealand – and Maori culture in particular – as its theme. Thus, loads of Kiwi artists joining a programme also including music from John Grant and Lau, comedians Romesh Ranganathan and Hal Cruttenden, circus including Ockham’s Razor’s spectacular new show, Tipping Point, and the Philharmonia Orchestra in the aforementioned cathedral.
www.salisburyfestival.co.uk 

26) Shindig Weekender
May 27-29
A Secret location near Bristol
Price: £99 w/e
Third year for a local fest big on luxury tents, ‘podpads’, and mystery – exactly where Shindig takes place will only be made known when ticket holders are sent their ‘arrival pack’. Those who have presumably already been made geographically aware include Beardyman, Dub Pistols and, perhaps best of all, Andrew Weatherall – the man made famous for producing Primal Scream’s era-defining Screamadelica has been afforded an extended four-hour set.
www.shindig-events.co.uk  

27) Common People
May 28-29
Southampton & Oxford
Price: £55 w/e
Second outing for Rob da Bank’s latest festival venture: two days, two cities, with the not-to-be-sniffed-at bill playing across both (non-camping) sites: Duran Duran, Katy B, Public Enemy, Soul II Soul, Ghostpoet, Primal Scream all line up, with extra-curricular ents including a circus, up-and-comers on the Uncommon Stage and – heads up anyone clutching an I Spy Book of Hipsters – a knitting tent.
www.commonpeople.net 

28) Dot to Dot
May 28
Bristol
Price: £25
In which a big old bunch of indie groups get to enjoy a day out apiece in a plethora of venues across Manchester, Nottingham and, for our purposes, Bristol. Only the first wave of acts had been announced as the guide went to press but, as a rule of thumb, if they’re of a style likely to be championed by pre-free NME but not too big just yet, they’re likely to be here. So, confirmed at typing time: Mystery Jets, The Temper Trap, Rat Boy, Lauren Aquilina, Sundara Karma, The Japanese House, The Sherlocks, Ardyn, Barns Courtney, Bleeding Heart Pigeons, Chappo, Cigarettes After Sex, Crosa Rosa, Dancing Years, Ekkah, Estrons, The Jacques, Lewis Del Mar, Liss, New Carnival, Northeast Party House, Stephen Kellogg and Trevor Sensor.
www.dottodotfestival.co.uk 

29) LeeStock
May 28-29
Melford Hall, Suffolk
Price: £30 w/e
Ninth year for a festival held in the grounds of the National Trust’s handsome 16th-century pile, Melford Hall, founded – and sustained – for the most admirable of reasons. Established by friends in memory of Lee Dunford, who died from Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2006, the event raises money for The Willow Foundation, providing special days for terminally ill young adults aged between 16–40. An excellent cause, then. Although, to be candid, once you’ve contemplated a weekend where the star turns are The Feeling, The Hoosiers, and  X Factor’s Lucy Spraggan, you may think it better to donate from afar and skip actually attending.
www.leestock.org

30) Liverpool Sound City
May 28-29
Liverpool
Price: £77 w/e
As much industry conference as regular music festival, featuring  a bunch of expert speakers, panels, workshops and multifarious other methods of wisdom passing. Far as ‘proper’ performances go, acts slated to play include Catfish and The Bottlemen, Sleaford Mods, Band of Skulls, The Dandy Warhols, Palma Violets, Leftfield, 2manydjs, Young Fathers and The Coral.
www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk 

31) Love Saves The Day
May 28-29
Bristol
Price: £65 w/e
Bristol’s dance-centric festival goes from strength to strength, now in its fifth year and returning for a second outing taking advantage of the spacious surrounds of Eastville Park. The likes of Hot Chip, Dizzee Rascal, Everything Everything, Roni Size & DJ Krust, and Stormzy headline a bill with more high-profile names than ever before: see also Chase & Status, Nightmares on Wax, Maribou State, Skream, Goldie, Mura Masa, Mad Professor and loads more. Altogether we’re talking more than 300 acts spread across seven stages, with new additions to the site including hidden discotheques, an immersive theatre venue, a roller disco and another flame-grilling stage from the Glastonbury-schooled Arcadia team (them that brought that massive spider to Queen Square): the Arcadia Afterburner is centred around a DJ booth topped by flaming spire, from where emanates a ring of multi-level dance platforms and exploding lamp posts.
www.lovesavestheday.org