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The By the Sea festival will be bringing top names to play beside the seaside. We give you the lowdown on the line-up and Neill Barston meets Saturday night headliners Everything Everything

Margate’s third By the Sea Festival takes off this weekend – we give you the lowdown on the line-up

The Libertines and Everything Everything will headline Dreamland’s third – and biggest yet – By the Sea festival this weekend.

The Margate festival line-up follows on from the sell-out Demon Dayz festival with Gorillaz earlier this summer. For the first time the festival will extend to three days, running from Friday, September 29, to Sunday, October 1. The Libertines, with frontmen Carl Barat and Pete Doherty, will bring the event to a close on the Sunday night. Friday night will be headlined by Everything Everything, Ivor Novello and Mercury Prize nominees. With a string of rare yet consistently sold-out shows under their belt, Metronomy will play to an intimate crowd on Saturday. The Libertines, formed in 1997, will be playing some of their anthems and come to Margate as part of a tour of UK seaside towns, although due to capacity constraints, their gig will be held at nearby Margate Winter Gardens. The band have also got their own base in the town after buying a 20-room townhouse with plans to turn it into a hotel and recording studio.

Other acts appearing include the eclectic sound of British Sea Power, uncompromising Marika Hackman, multi-instrumentalist quintet Flamingods and all-female singing collective Deep Throat Choir. Ticket holders will have access to the theme park on all three days, with guest DJS on the Sunday, plus other activities across Margate Old Town. The festival has built up a strong reputation for big names and new acts in just two years.

Its inaugural year saw indie rockers Foals play a much-anticipated gig and were joined as headliners by Hot Chip. Last year, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, a figurehead of the Britpop movement in the 1990s, was among the line-up.

Everything Everything will headline at Dreamland’s By the Sea Festival along with The Libertines, below