Five of the best: Community Festival

Image: Community Festival (credit)

For alternative fans across the land, Community festival may not be the largest festival in scale, but it will certainly be written in the calendar as an unmissable event. Community Festival is a lynchpin of the 90’s band t-shirt, floaty dancing community and takes over Finsbury Park for the second time on July 1st this year, after its explosive debut in 2017.  And in the space of twelve months, it seems that the festival has shifted from strength to strength with an even more monumental line-up.

The headline acts this year grace us in the form of Two Door Cinema Club, The Vaccines, Circa Waves and You Me At Six. Yes, they even cater to the rockers as well. The Community Festival 2018 line-up is the best of the alternative scene, mashed together to create one head-banging, toe-tapping, and crowd surfing ensemble. 

As there is a lot to see and almost not enough time to see it all, we decided for the benefit of the lucky festival goers to select a special five that we believe should be at the top of your itinerary list. 

Two Door Cinema Club

This one is a no brainer. Two Door Cinema Club are the indie innovators that need no introduction. Although the band have slipped under the radar since their 2016 album ‘Gameshow’, the boys are back in business with a 10-year anniversary release of EP ‘Four words to Stand On’ with original demos, that was released for the first time in 2008.  The EP was the cornerstone of the bands rise to stardom, receiving dazzling reviews from critics and their peers. 

Of course, we suspect that the band will indulge us in tunes from their album ‘Tourist History’ hitting us right in the sweet spot.  They have gained a reputation of being comparable to a rare bird, they only seem to be spotted in the open during summertime. So we implore that you go and bask in their brilliance before autumn swings back around.

The Vaccines

Another band that require no elaboration. Indie juggernauts The Vaccines are still making their mark on 2018, with the release of their fourth studio album ‘Combat Sports’ in March this year.  The band show no signs of aching after the exit of drummer Pete Robertson in 2015, and are still riding the high of a tremendous critical reception from NME and The Line of Best Fit amongst fans alike.  With a touching tribute to their first album, it’s the perfect opportunity for fans to get nostalgic about a time when summer didn’t last three weeks and the 7am Monday morning alarm seemed years away.

The Vaccines have an incredibly busy schedule this summer, headlining Latitude, FB Benicassim and Atlantic festival, amongst a gargantuan European tour. It only seems fitting to witness the band in their prime, and were confident that it’ll be T Shirt Weather.

 Pale Waves

Indie- goth dreampop outfit Pale Waves fall under the category of newcomers in this back catalogue of industry experience, but that hasn’t stopped them from exploding onto the scene since they formed in 2014. The band have already swept up the NME Under the Radar award last year and also bagged a record deal with Dirty Hit. Not bad considering they are yet to release an album. 

Their debut EP ‘All the Things I Never Said’ was released in February and Heather Baron-Gracie and co have stated that this is the foundation for their debut album that we can expect to be released later this year.  Known for their abundance of leather and front fringes, any keen dreampop fanatic will know that Pale Waves are a brewing force of nature and not to be missed on July 1st. 

Sam Fender

At just 22-years-old, solo wizz kid Sam Fender has wasted no time in sieging into the limelight and in the space of being established for just one year, has managed to be named one of the BBC’S sounds of 2018.  There is, as many have analysed, something completely distinctive about Sam’s music. He has only released five singles to date, most recently the brilliant ‘Friday Fighting’, but each one has overriding themes of political commentary. He shows no fear in discussing topics such as fake news, government surveillance and the rise of sexual assaults. Sam packs a bite, but after being mixed by Artic Monkeys’ alumnus Barry Barnicott, it’s not hard to see that this is a phenomenon in the making. Not bad for music made in a garden shed.

We can only hope an album is on the horizon, in the meanwhile, it’s imperative that you glimpse at Fender whilst tickets for his shows are still cheap. Finnsbury Park is one stop off in a whole host of UK dates for the artist, so don’t miss the opportunity to have the ‘I’m cool’ bragging rights over your mates. 

Yungblud

The final member of the fabulous five comes in the form of ‘YUNGBLUD’, the alias of Doncaster born musician Dominic Harrison. YUNGBLUD has had an explosive 2018, releasing three singles: YUNGBLUD, 21st Century Liability and YUNGBLUD (unplugged) and has blown the public away similarly to Sam Fender, through the medium of “genre-bending protest songs.” The socially insightful artist has struck a chord with fans, his style has also been labelled “The spitfire suburban poetry of young Arctic Monkeys and Jamie T with a healthy splash of Ska.” His grandfather used to play with T-Rex in the 70’s, so it’s easy to infer that Harrison has the magic touch coursing through his veins. 

Although a trajectory to fame and fortune may not have arrived just yet, the future looks especially shiny for the northern lad, and as NME conveyed “We may have seen the future, and it looks like YUNGBLUD.” I don’t think you will need much more persuading than that. 

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