Kate Hewett of Tramlines interview

Image: Tramlines 

Metropolitan festivals are becoming ever more popular these days with city dwellers opting to stay clear of the mud. Tramlines, the UK's largest inner-city festival, undoubtedly serves as a benchmark when it comes to swamping an entire city with a line up so diversified just about anyone can consume it.

There are many great things to come from Sheffield: first thoughts recall its steel industry, a certain band named Arctic Monkeys or even good old Jarvis Cocker. With over 18 music venues, many compromised of old mills or warehouses, and a 200 strong line up built heavily on the same DIY scene that helped spawn its famous alumni, Tramlines binds all that is culturally great about the city together.

A 17,500 capacity main stage situated in Ponderosa Park will see the likes of George Clinton Parliment Funkadelic, Kelis, Jurassic 5 and Catfish and The Bottlemen hold its floor. A 500 capacity Cathedral and Sheffield City Hall are also part of the mass operation, whilst a nocturnal dance programme sees Craig Charles, David Rodigan amongst the names sweeping its night spaces.  

Head of programming, Kate Hewett has been a major driving force behind Tramlines since it began as a free festival in 2009. Ahead of its eighth edition, Ben Smith caught up with her to speak about the festival's evolution and what we can expect when it arrives at the end of July.

Going right back to square one, where on earth do you start with a blank line up and over 200 slots to fill? 

This is our eighth years and as the years have gone on it has become more of a full time year round thing. We're already starting conversations about next year. It starts with a wish-list, we're really lucky that the Tramlines audience is receptive to new music and experimental stuff as well. They like the fact we don't just stick to one genre. We don't have any classical, but apart from that we've got pretty much anything. 

So it kind of starts from there, who would we want to see? Our personal music tastes are quite diverse and take in lots of different things. That's a reflection of how people listen to music. People are a lot less tribal than they used to be because we can access it immediately online and we kind of base it around that. 

So who was on the wish-list for this year? 

George Clinton is the one we've wanted to make happen for years now. It's going to be ridiculous, he's got like a 20-piece band with him. I keep putting him on and there's this hit I forgot about or he's being sampled on the Kendrick's record and you're still hearing his influence today.   

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Kelis is defintely one of those where we were like, "wow, we might as well ask"and it actually came off. They're the big two we have been talking about for ages. 

I've noticed there's a big urban/reggae slant on this years festival, is that a conscious theme? 

It's not a theme so much because it takes place in the city centre, a lot of what the festival looks like is grown out of the spaces that we have available and what the city actually looks like.

There are a lot of really strong dance music venues, clubs, warehouse spaces and really amazing dance promoters - so we hand it over to people who really know what they are doing and let them shape the line up for their own spaces. It's born out of that really. 

In that sense does Tramlines bring all of the city's promoters together? 

Yes to an extent. The way that the festival started in the first place, none of us had a background in running a festival but we where all promoting shows or running independent ourselves.

It'd get to the summer and because Sheffield has a massive student population it'd hit June and there'd be a mass exodus of people who come to your gigs. Tramlines was born out of how we keep our venues alive and how we keep Sheffield's music community. 

Speaking of Sheffield's venues and music community, has the city suffered with the trend of music venues being closed down? 

It's not an easy time to be a promoter, but I think Sheffield has found ways around that and the warehouses are a really good example of that. Sheffield used to have this thriving industry and when that hit difficult times a lot of creative people in the city re-purposed these spaces. That's where you can find the most interesting underground music.  

You read a lot of rhetoric that it's kind of the demise of the club industry and frankly I don't believe that to be true. Young people who want to go out and enjoy bass music, dance music or whatever are just doing it in a different way. They're definitely not going to these traditional superclubs or whatever ran by 50 year old white guys. They've found their own way of doing it.  

Has Tramlines got any of these exciting new underground spaces this year? 

We've got a few different venues this time, we're going back to all of the venues we have used before. There's the outdoor spaces and the O2 Academy which is massive. We're going to have bands and live music on in the daytime which we've never done before, down to The Harley which is our smallest venue with a 200 capacity - it's one of the places open up pretty much 24 hours. There's hotel rooms upstairs, you can easily lose a weekend there, it's that kind of place.

I know we've spoken a lot about the music, what else is going on aside from that?  

We've got family friendly entertainment going on from street theatre to craft workshops. We've got a forestry school by one of our outdoor stages. We've got some free yoga classes, something you'd expect in a field. I was always think when can I  am I going to have time to do free yoga classes.

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We have also linked up with the local independent cinema, so we've got a film programme for the first time. We're going to be screening Iggy Pop live in Basel, there's a documentary about Suede with a q&a after, we're screening Purple Rain because how can you not?  

And what would be your chosen thing to take in, a hidden secret if you like? 

Atleast half of the line up is made of emerging talent and unsigned acts. There's loads of that at every single venue. The thing I'm genuinely excited about is seeing Little Simz this year. She is playing on the Saturday night at The Harley and she's just amazing.  

Even more so in a 200-capacity venue...

I think it might be a bit of a roadblock that one. We'd definitely recommend checking out the Cathedral.  It's such an incredible space to check out live music, we've got Moon Duo playing there on the Sunday. Also the Millennium Gallery, by day it's an art gallery as the name would suggest. We've got Mica Levi from Micachu and the Shapes, she's DJin in there along with Steve Davis - the snooker legend. He'll be kicking about all weekend. 

And the Crucible is in Sheffield... a Steve Davis techno masterclass there could be an idea for next year!

He's DJin around the corner from there, at least he won't get lost! It could be the start of a beautiful new venture for Tramlines...

Who knows? Thanks Kate! 

Tramlines takes place from Friday 22nd - Sunday 24th July - tickets available via the box below 

Like this? Read our interview with Steve Davis 'Breaking The Frame' ahead of his Tramlines slot    

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