Next stop: Hainault. Alight here for pretence, debauchery and the hidden gem of the UK festival circuit just half an hour outside of London on the Central Line. Emerging from the forest last year like a children’s pop-up book featuring weird and wonderful circus-like sights and sounds from the likes of metallic glamsters Chrome Hoof, pitch-perfect indie from The Maccabees and heroic microwave-slaughtering from wiry heroes Gang of Four. Melding together inspiration and the inspired, this year Offset returns with a line up bursting with everything essential in antagonising, quintessentially British post-punk past and present, with the likes of stalwarts The Slits and A Certain Ratio jostling for attention with prepubescent upstarts Bombay Bicycle Club, the sultry slump of The xx and the rejuvenated kaleidoscopic stylings of Southend’s doom poppers The Horrors. Transforming the forest’s plateaued oasis into something of a Shoreditch amongst shrubbery, the whole affair’s as barkingly brilliant as cherry blossom candy floss dyed dark and shrouded in thorns; The Chapman Family grace Artrocker’s Main Stage, plastering their intense, visceral snarl over every dandelion in earshot whilst Metronomy return to the festival as part of their Nights Out victory lap, chest light bulbs in tow.
Tickets are a snip at £45 for the weekend, with a square metre of idyllic bladed grass costing £10
extra. Most certainly a credit-crunching bargain, they're available here.
Full line up over seven rammed stages includes:
THE HORRORS | THE SLITS | THE FUTUREHEADS
A CERTAIN RATIO | BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB | GOOD SHOES
FUTURE OF THE LEFT | DANANANANAYKROYD | S.C.U.M
DIE!DIE!DIE! | KASMS | THE CHAPMAN FAMILY | ULTERIOR
OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT | PULLED APART BY HORSES
PANICO | LET'S WRESTLE | WILD PALMS | JOHN AND JEHN
FICTION | AN EXPERIMENT ON A BIRD IN THE AIR PUMP
KAP BAMBINO | HATCHAM SOCIAL | FACTORY FLOOR
R O M A N C E | CHEVAL SOMBRE | TEETH OF THE SEA
CONNAN MOCKASIN | GYRATORY SYSTEM | DISCONCERTS
TIM BURGESS (DJ set) | DOUGLAS HART (DJ set)
THE GHOST OF A THOUSAND | DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL
ROLO TOMASSI | BLACKHOLE | THE STUPIDS
THROATS | DEAD SWANS | SHAPED BY FATE | TORTUGA
OUTCRY COLLECTIVE | EYES OF A TRAITOR | MATHS
WILD BEASTS | THE XX | MAPS | IPSO FACTO
TUBELORD | GOLD PANDA | SIAN ALICE GROUP
SHE KEEPS BEES| SHRAG | SUNDERBANS
METRONOMY | DAMO SUZUKI | DRUM EYES | MALE BONDING
COLD PUMAS | TEEN SHEIKHS | MAZES
SPEAK & THE SPELLS | SPECTRALS
DEAD KIDS | THE RAYOGRAPHS | BO NINGEN | DETACHMENTS
BEARSUIT | FRIENDSHIP | QUAD THROW SALCHOW | WETDOG
STRANGER SON OF WB | MAGIC & FUR | TULIPOMANIA
THE DULOKS | ARTEFACTS FOR SPACE TRAVEL | NEWISLANDS
FABLES | BERLIN BRIDES | THE NUNS | NULLIFIER
DEATH CIGARETTES | LR ROCKETS | BRONTOSAURUS CHORUS
For more info head to the Offset Festival official site.
Photo by Mike Burnell.
