RGANISERS of Jupiter Rising and Doune The Rabbit Hole are offering music fans plenty of reasons to look forward to the summer with a raft of new names for their eclectic bashes.
Brian D’Souza aka Auntie Flo (right), winner of last year’s Scottish Album of the Year Award for his Radio Highlife LP, will bring his joyful mix of world music and club sounds to Jupiter Artland when he headlines Jupiter Rising at the end of August.
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Jupiter Rising 2019 saw the likes of Cate Le Bon and Mercury nominees The Comet Is Coming perform by the swirling Charles Jencks landforms the magnificent Edinburgh sculpture park is best known for. Festival-goers this year are set to again enjoy woodland dance parties hosted by Glasgow DJ Sarra Wild and taking a dip in Gateway, a colourful plunge pool created by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos.
As well as Auntie Flo, this year’s live music programme features indie dreamers Penelope Isles, Neue Grafik Ensemble – the new London jazz outfit led by French producer/musician Neue Grafik – avant folk wanderer David Thomas Broughton, Scots-Portugese musician SHHE and double SAY-nominees Free Love, who’ll play two set on stages hosted by Lost Map and Night School Records.
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Jupiter Rising’s art programme will include work by video artist Pipilotti Rist and screenings by Linder Sterling, the internationally renowned artist who found fame designing for the Buzzcocks and Morrissey. Like last year, numbers are capped at 1000 to allow festival-goers a more intimate experience.
Meanwhile, two artists known for the power of their words have been announced as joining beloved indie band Belle And Sebastian and provocative Russian art collective Pussy Riot at Doune The Rabbit Hole in July.
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Headlining the festival’s first night will be US hip-hop firebrands Public Enemy Radio – now so-called to distinguish them from the original band with recently sacked co-founder Flavor Flav.
Their set will see Chuck D, turntablist DJ Lord, rappers Jahi and the S1Ws perform from their first album together Loud Is Not Enough – out next month – and take Public Enemy classics back to their essential DJ-and-MC roots.
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Expect cuts too from Rick Rubin-produced 1990 masterpiece It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, while the following evening, another of Rubin’s associates, award-winning spoken word megastar Kate Tempest (right) will headline. Rubin was at the dials for Tempest’s recent third studio album The Book Of Traps And Lessons, and her Doune appearance comes just weeks after the Ted Hughes Award-winner sees her first play Paradise premiere at the National Theatre in London.
Also appearing at Doune will be Velvet Underground founding member John Cale, legendary punks Buzzcocks (now with Steve Diggle on vocals following the death of Pete Shelley in 2018), comedian/musician Bill Bailey and some of Scotland’s best contemporary bands such as Honeyblood, Sacred Paws, Elephant Sessions, Peat & Diesel and Tidelines.
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“Our aim has been to create the most ambitious and progressive festival line-up in Scotland and enable more music fans than ever to attend Doune The Rabbit Hole,” says festival director Jamie Murray. “We think we’re pretty close to that as we announce our final headliners.”
Jupiter Rising: August 29 and 30, Jupiter Artland, Bonnington House Steadings, Wilkieston, Edinburgh, £70 to £85, under-12s free. w.jupiterrising.art
Doune The Rabbit Hole: July 17 to 19, Lake of Menteith, Cardross Estate, Stirlingshire, £110 to £145, under-12s free. ww.dounetherabbithole.co.uk
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