Redfest 2008

I've always thought of Guilfest as the only real music festival that the county of Surrey has to offer. What it means is that every year I pay something like £80 to go to a festival that, whilst held with good intentions and a success every year, doesn't offer me much of the music I want to hear. There are only two bands really that I look forward to (last year it was Rodrigo y Gabriela and Howling Bells).

My perspective has now changed. On the 4th and 5th of July is Redfest, a music festival in Redhill (where else?) in Surrey. For me, it's a further distance to travel than Guilfest but the bands on offer could make the whole deal worth it. This is who has been announced so far:

Late Of The Pier
Lightspeed Champion
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Pete And The Pirates
Elliot Minor
Robots In Disguise
Operator Please
Ebony Bones
Fear Of Music
Johnny Foreigner
I Haunt Wizards
This City
SixNationState
WinterKids

A few bands I've seen before and/or like their music anyway, most others I've heard of and the rest are unknown. The point is this - that line up caters to a completely different audience. It caters for me and all the other teenager/young adult types who think Guilfest is for old farts and for people who can't afford Glastonbury tickets. This appeals to, and curse me for even mentioning this term in my own blog, the NME audience. I shudder at the thought of typing that.

I should be there like a shot, buying tickets already (it's £64 for the two days), but Guilfest is trying to tug my heart strings and convince me to wait until I hear their headliners. Granted, it won't give me a full impression of the line up, but if they have a band like Supergrass headlining again, then who knows?

Buy tickets for Redfest here

DIGG IT!