Franz Ferdinand in Festival No6 line-up
HAVE A HOST OF BANDS FROM OUR CITY TO ENJOY
MANCHESTER will descend on the iconic Welsh village of Portmeirion for Festival No.6 this summer and the first wave of acts on the line up have been revealed.
Franz Ferdinand and Friendly Fires will be joining previously announced headliners The The at the top of the bill and a host of Manchester bands will also play at the September festival.
Back after a brief hiatus, Friendly Fires will headline the Friday night to showcase brand new tracks and old favourites, while Franz Ferdinand will close the show on Sunday following the release of new album, Always Ascending. Also added to this year’s line-up are Manchester’s The Charlatans, Everything Everything and Go-Go Penguin.
Experimental orchestra Manchester Camerata will also be collaborating with the festival’s composer in residence Joe Duddell to perform the very best of Northern Soul and Motown classics on the Sunday afternoon.
Singer-songwriter Jessie Ware, garage rockers The Horrors, former Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes and shoegaze pioneers Ride are also among the highlights of the first wave of acts.
They will be joined across the weekend by artists including singersongwriter and guitarist Anna Calvi, Hot Chip founder Alexis Taylor, singer-songwriter and former Mansun frontman Paul Draper; lo-fi psych-rockers The Lovely Eggs and many more, including A Certain Ratio, Lewis Capaldi, Tom Walker, Hak Baker, Amen Dunes, Hollie Cook, Genghar, Haelos, Gwenno, Warm Digits, Raf Rundell, Amber Arcades and Tom Williams.
Festival No.6 has also unveiled the first of its DJ/ electronic line-up, including four-time Grammy nominated and one half of Masters at Work, Kenny Dope; Roy Davis Jr; Hot Chip; Erol Alkan; Willow; Honey Dijon; and Horse Meat Disco.
The first names from the arts and culture bill have also been announced, headed by the legendary lead singer of Madness, Suggs, performing his new one man show What A King Cnut – A Life In the Realm of Madness. Will Self, acclaimed author of many books including Umbrella, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2012, will also be appearing at No.6 for the first time, as will Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, and Eimear McBride, whose book A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing won the 2013 Goldsmiths Prize and the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2014. Andrew Weatherall be curating his own Psychedelic Faber Social stage, inviting fellow authors and artists to celebrate psychedelia including Dorian Cope, Jeremy Deller, David Keenan and others to be announced. Edith Bowman will be talking to Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh about music and films, and there will also be a programme of screenings including Oxide Ghosts – The Brass Eye tapes celebrating the 20th anniversary of the seminal satire show. The classic French film Festival manager Luke Huxham La Haine will also be screened complete with a live soundtrack by Asian Dub Foundation.
Viv Albertine, guitarist with the legendary English punk group The Slits, will also be appearing to discuss her new book To Throw Away Unopened, the follow-up to her memoir.
This year’s festival will also be marking a centenary of suffrage with Stealing Sheep’s Suffragette Procession, curated by the all– female Liverpool band. There will also be a celebration of Frank Sidebottom and his love affair with the Welsh village of Portmeirion, where the festival is held, featuring rare footage and archive material.
Festival manager Luke Huxham said: “We always aim to raise the bar with our programme. Our mandate is to deliver a diverse but coherent line-up combining stone-cold legends like The The with the cream of emerging talent and this year is no exception. The festival goes from strength to strength and we still have an enormous amount of talent in music, arts, culture and food still to reveal.”
Festival No.6 returns to Portmeirion from September 6 to 9. Tickets are on sale now from festivalnumber6.com.