The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Festival overview
Slessor Gardens, September 14-15
Incorporating an evening mini-festival in Slessor Gardens in the shadow of the V&A, and a more compact daytime line-up on the Saturday, the 3D Festival is a high-profile event run by T in the Park and TRNSMT organisers DF Concerts, which focuses its attention on Scottish musical talent and particularly a range of artists from the city of Dundee. The three ‘D’s of the title, we are told, refer to ‘Dundee, design and discovery’; a ‘jute, jam and journalism’ for the 21st Century.
On Friday night the headliners are the wellestablished Glasgowformed rock group Primal Scream, who will be collaborating in an as-yetunspecified way with the Scottish visual artist Jim Lambie. Elsewhere on the evening’s bill are one of Scotland’s breakthrough successes of 2018 Lewis Capaldi, the highlyregarded Angus musician Be Charlotte (who has a major label deal of her own), and Edinburghborn DJ and designer Clair ‘Éclair Fifi’ Stirling.
On the Saturday, meanwhile, Be Charlotte will appear again, along with Gary Clark – founder of local heroes and 1980s transatlantic successes Danny Wilson – and the Sistema Scotland children’s choir, plus appearances from up-and-coming Dundonian artists St Martiins, Andrew Wasylyk, SHHE and Kashmir Crows.
A part of Scotland’s Year of Young People 2018, the 3D Festival has been programmed in collaboration with V&A Dundee’s Young People’s Collective, a group of 16 to 25-year-olds from across the city who have given advice on who should perform to how the stages should look.
There will also be substantial non-musical elements on both days, with a sound and light show on the Friday and a series of workshops on Saturday drawing attention to both the new building and Dundee’s status as the UK’s first UNESCO City of Design.
On Friday night the Dundee-based dance company and educators for adults and children Shaper/Caper will unveil a specially-devised new performance featuring young dancers from across the city, in a piece which we’re told will reflect their own aspirations.
There will also be visual, sound and light installations throughout the evening, created by Dundee-based design studios Agency of None and Biome Collective; the former group tasked with illuminating Slessor Gardens.
On Saturday the emphasis is also on celebrating Dundee’s design heritage, with one of those featured attendees representing possibly the greatest design classic to come out of Dundee – Beano Studios, which will be in attendance with the “Beano Zone”, featuring favourite characters and a special one-off edition of the comic which fans can draw their own ending for. Also on-hand will be Abertay University, with various interactive multimedia stands, and live painting and graffiti workshops from Open/ Close Dundee.