Gone are the days when going to a festival meant an ill-equipped camping expedition, persistent drizzle and a slumber punctuated by bizarre nocturnal yelling. Nowadays – as well as offering up live music – festivals are an opportunity to explore new, exotic landscapes, ambling along warm cobbled streets by day and watching bands in the vicinity of mountains, coastlines and historic cities by night. You can look at it two ways; either rock & roll is dead OR it’s taken a well-earned holiday and is inviting you along for the ride.
The newest of these sun-soaked gatherings is Siren Festival, taking place next weekend in the Italian coastal town of Vasto. Against a backdrop of 16th century palazzos and a knockout stretch of heritage coast, the festival promises two days of gigs, parties, outdoor movie screenings, literary events and street feasts; despite a promo video that’s a touch heavy on the skateboarding, it looks pretty hard to resist. Quite rightly, the backbone of the festival is a slew of Italian bands and DJs, celebrating both its healthy indie scene and more prevalent club culture. Some, such as Sub Pop’s first Italian signing and collaborator of Jarvis Cocker, Marco Fasolo (aka Jennifer Gentle) will be familiar to international ears, but the majority are more of a mystery. The whole point though is to bring new audiences to these local bands, a feat festival organiser Pietro Fuccio has cannily negotiated by hand-picking a line-up of bands that hail from Sweden, Australia, Britain and the US, among others.
Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor will showcase his recently released solo album, the languid Await Barbarians, JD Samson will grace some beachside decks, Bristol’s Fuck Buttons will fuck up some buttons and weighty, emotive headline moments will come courtesy of The National and Mogwai, whose beatific instrumentals are likely to sound pretty incredible ricocheting off the moonlit Adriatic. Full line-up, details and droolsome pictures of beaches at the festival’s website.
