CityLife

Festivals: Hungry Pigeon, Dot To Dot

Twisted Wheel

May 2010

Bank Holiday weekends: don’t you just love them? A free day off work for most of us almost always guarantees an unseasonal downpour. On the plus side, these lovely long weekends have also become a fine excuse for a mini festival.

Helping us see May out in style this weekend, then, is not one but two bright young things on the festival circuit.

The first and most extensive is homegrown three-dayer Hungry Pigeon, while new kid on the block Dot To Dot makes its inaugural appearance in the city on Monday for a mammoth day-long party.

Hungry Pigeon starts today with a 20 venue-wide bill and stages its regular Piccadilly Gardens takeover on Saturday.

Wristbands get you access to every venue – capacity permitting – where you can see an inconceivably huge number of bands for your more than modest ticket price.

On the opening day, Jon ‘The Rev’ McClure switches singing for spinning as Reverend Soundsystem at Moho; and a Pond-spanning bill featuring San Fran’s The Dilettantes and Manchester’s Kirsty Almeida rocks Band On The Wall.

Over at The Roadhouse and Night & Day, Echo Deck, The Longcut, Hayley Faye and Rook And The Ravens keep the local flag flying.

On Saturday, compere Clint Boon presides over a strong line-up in the Gardens that includes the Manchester Samba School, Beggar Joe, George Borowski, the Jessie Rose Trip and headliner Athlete.

And as that stage draws to a close, The Travelling Band, To The Bones, 1913, System Fault and Dr Tid & The Triple Eights take up the mantle in the Northern Quarter.

By day three, I Am Blackbird and Liam Frost share a bill at Band On The Wall, Kid British play a rare acoustic set at Moho, Sound of Guns and The Paris Riots take over Night & Day, Fox Force Five top the bill at the Roadhouse and This Morning Call and Dr Butler’s Hatstand Medicine Band fill slots at Noho.

Hungry Pigeon done and dusted; Dot To Dot’s convoy of tour buses arrives on Monday and occupies six venues in the city’s southern corridor: the entire student union at Manchester University, FAC251 and the Deaf Institute.

All eyes will initially be on the Fred Perry Stage (Academy 1) where Mystery Jets top a bill featuring Wild Beasts and Twisted Wheel, but every venue has some peachy performances.

Los Campesinos! sharing a bill with Liars, Field Music and Chapel Club at the Pineapple Folk Stage (Academy 2) is equally, if not more, enticing than the ‘Jets, while Zane Lowe’s two hour DJ slot at FAC251 after sets from Lonelady and Fenech-Soler will be a massive draw. The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster claim an unlikely headline slot above Dan Sartain, Johnny Foreigner and Rox at Academy 3, while Jakwob leads the pack at Club Academy with Egyptian Hip Hop and Daisy Dares You in support.

This year’s emerging troubadour Alan Pownall plays a mid-bill set at Deaf Institute, where Fol Chen and Yuck (fresh from a support slot with Teenage Fanclub) also perform.

Hungry Pigeon - May 28 to 30, 2010 - £25 weekend/£12 day ticket (hungrypigeon.com).
Dot To Dot - May 31, 2010 - £25/£15 for individual tickets for Fred Perry and Pineapple Folk stages (dottodot festival.co.uk).