2013 Round-up: Jimmy Coultas

2013, it's pretty much done with. The last twelve months has been a good run as far as Skiddle is concerned, with us selling more tickets than ever before. We couldn't of done it without two sets of people; the promoters that put on these great events and the customers that support their endeavours. Big thanks to both of you groups - we are completely indebted.

The highlights are too numerous for me to list all in one go, but I'll pick a few out (sorry to those that evade a mention). Electric Daisy Carnival managed to debut in spectacular fashion, whilst also on the electronic tip we saw great showings from established heavy hitters Global Gathering and Creamfields.

Live music wise we sold tickets for both Leeds and Reading Festivals for the first time (and sent Michelle Lloyd to brave the mud at the former), whilst Secret Garden Party, Farr Festival and Beautiful Days were all warmly received by our reviewers (find more views from our scribes on the festival season here).

It's been quite the year for clubbers too. London Warehouse Events have had too many great parties to mention, Sankeys seemed gone forever only to return recently and the likes of Goodgreef, Southampton's Junk, Yousef's groundbreaking Circus and Edinburgh's Musika have all had brilliant runs.

The Hardwell shows at Victoria Warehouse was unreal in terms of demand, selling out in rapid fashion. Leeds' Control and the Brunel Rooms in Swindon have also been two very eye catching newly opened venues, and we've had raves on sale everywhere from Penzance to Paisely. Ibiza, of course, was as brilliant as ever. 

We also got our geek on this year. We recently went fully responsive across mobile and tablet devices and introduced the Festival Finder; allowing you to search for you perfect festival experience hinged upon whatever factors you wanted, be it Scottish festivals with camper-van access or places where the thud of electronic music seems to never end.

And then there's been the music. We recently did a playlist to showcase some of the amazing sounds musicians have treated us to in 2013 (stream above; we've since added more tracks to it). The Arctic Monkeys' crowned headlining Glastonbury with arguably the year's best album inb AM (we also saw them at the Phones4U arena) and we were also in Somerset when the Rolling Stones finally played the Pilton Farm soiree.

We've also brought you some cracking DJ mixes in our Weekends Matter podcasts - Steve Aoki, Dave Seaman, Delphic and Yousef have all gifted us their sets this year, and we started a Mixcloud series as well. That has had mixes from genuine superstars like Aly & Fila down to hard working residents such as Rich Furness, spotlighting the selectors and sounds we think deserve some love in clubland. 

Personally, there's been three musical highlights in my year. Seeing Fleetwood Mac play out their decades long love opera wasn't perfect but it was still mesmerising, and the Garden Festival in Croatia was truly one of the best festival experiences I've ever had the privilege to be a part of. Oh and I started working for Skiddle. Can't really miss that one off can I?

I've enjoyed albums from Arcade Fire, Disclosure, Jon Hopkins and many more this year, whilst my first love hip hop has had a fantastic twelve months. Kanye West's Yeezus has been one of the most thought provoking masterpieces of any genre which has been supported by ridiculous videos (case in point 'Bound 2' below) and even more ridiculous interviews. 

Add to that engrossing music from Earl Sweatshirt, Pusha T, Action Bronson and many more and it's evidence of a real fallow period. That is without even mentioning the best rapper on the planet heading towards world domination at breakneck speed in Kendrick Lamar, who didn't even release an album this year but was the best thing about plenty of other people's.

Finally it's a good time to think about what to expect next year. We'll have even more tickets and events for you to peruse in 2014, making true on our promise to make your weekends matter. We've already got loads of Festivals on sale and plenty more events too, and they'll only increase as the year goes on.

We all hope whatever you get up to tonight is a lot of fun (if you're still stuck head here), and that it kick-starts another great twelve months for you all. Big love x