Barcelona’s Sonar Festival is a multi cultural event bringing you the
best in cutting edge music, art installations and film at a variety of
venues around the city. Some of the highlights this year include Kurt
Hentschlager’s ‘Feed’, an audiovisual performance with 3-D
projections, artificial fog, and stroboscopic lights; a documentary
about music legend Larry ‘Wild man’ Fischer, venerated by the likes of
Frank Zappa and Mark Mothersbaugh. Speaking of which, Devo are on tour
for the first time in fifteen years and are headed to Sonar along with the
Beastie Boys & drone metal band Sun O))) from the US, Blixa
Bargeld from China, Spains Fatkut and DJ Code, Germany’s Timo Maas, Hocus Pocus from France – all becoming quite the united
nations of innovative music and art at this years Sonar festival.
Over in the UK, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker curates a week of music,
film, and talks at Meltdown in London. At one of Pulp’s first gigs they
covered a Motorhead song, so its apt that almost three decades later
the metal rockers are on the bill for Cocker’s Meltdown. Also on the
bill is folk singer Melanie in a rare live performance, the first U.K.
performance from the father of psychedelic rock Roky Erickson, garage
psych band 13th Floor Elevators, Cornershop, and
film music maestro John Barry with the London Philharmonic. The
experimental theatre group Forced Entertainment will pour their cosmic
chaos into a show called Bloody Mess and Jarvis Cocker will be in
conversation with film maker and musician Don Letts. Meltdown takes
place in and around the South Bank Centre across the River Thames.
This year KCRW is proud to be a promotional partner in the Bonnaroo
festival. Taking place on a farm near Nashville Tennessee, the
festival gets its name from the Cajun word ‘bonnaroo’ meaning ‘a
really good time’ . The first festival in 2002 had more jam-style
bands. This year, there is a truly eclectic line up featuring The
Police,
Mavis Staples, Manu Chao, The Roots, Ralph Stanley to name just a few.
The organizers hope to make this the most ‘green’ Bonnaroo ever by
implementing a number of ways to take care of the environment. Just
think about it – if we all did our bit, there just might be a world -
and music events such as Bonnaroo – for hundreds of years to come!
If you like music
and mythological monsters, head to Scotland for the Rockness festival.
Featuring Groove Armada, Alabama 3 and Caged Baby,
it takes place near Loch Ness so you might just spot Nessie - either
that or it’s the fine Scottish whiskey doing its magic!
We’d love to hear about festivals in your part of the world, so why not send us an email to Global@kcrw.com.
Otherwise, check back with us next week for more information on Global Gigging.
The Global Gig Guide is produced for KCRW.com by JC Swiatek.
Theme music is composed by The Plush Interiors.
Upcoming Global Gigs
Glastonbury, Somerset, United Kingdom
June 22-24 Line-up includes The Who, The Killers, Artic Monkeys
Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Paul Weller and Kasabian.
This festival is legendary for its rain and subsequent gallons of
sticky mud - and the annual line up of amazing acts- new and old.
Fusion Festival, Germany, June 28 – July 1st
Line up TBD.
Roskilde-Festival, Denmark, July 5- 8
Feat. The Beastie Boys, Beirut, Eagles of Death Metal, Thomas Dybdahl, John Legend, Mika, Matmos, and Peter Bjorn & John
Traffic Festival,
Torino Italy, July 11-14 – FREE! feat. Daft Punk & LCD
Soundsystem, Artic Monkeys, Antony & the Johnsons, Art Brut, Franco
Battiato and Lou Reed plays ‘Berlin’.
Iceland Airwaves music festival October 17-21– featuring Bloc Party, Gus Gus and many more
Disclaimer: Although I have tried to make the Global Gig Guide as accurate as possible, KCRW accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person resulting from information contained in the Global Gig Guide . We would recommend that you to verify any critical information with the relevant authorities before you travel.