Dot to Dot Festival

Depending on what subject you do and when your exams fall, this could be a time to rejoice or grumble. Dot to Dot Festival, the forefront of festivals for presenting the best of new talent, is again visiting Bristol for a city-wide day of treats on the 27th of May.

The line-up includes an array of brilliant emerging artists, with the spotlight beaming on Reading’s Sundara Karma, who also featured at the festival last year. Releasing their debut album earlier this year, Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect, the rip-roaring indie four piece are set to bring eclectic energy to Bristol for an evening set to finish around 4am. With hugely popular anthemic tracks Loveblood, A Young Understanding and She Said, this is a young band that truly deserves the slot. Bringing a fun, euphoric, catchy burst of youthful spirit to reinvigorate indie rock, Sundara Karma are sure to be a highlight of the day.

Alongside them are soon to be Exeter regulars Amber Run who recently played at Phoenix and ‘left the crowd stunned’, who are also set to play at Exefest. Releasing their second album For A Moment I Was Lost this February, here at PearShaped, Aagya Pradhan gave a well deserved ⁴⁄₅, as the band developed a ‘maturity which brings them ever closer to establishing their own unique sound’. A growing name in the indie scene, with an established stage presence, Amber Run are sure to bring great excitement to the event.

Also at the top of the bill sits California-born The Growlers. A ferociously garage-y surf-rock band clearly taking inspiration from The Strokes, with Julian Casablancas having close ties to the band in production, they present a refreshingly familiar sound whilst paradoxically sounding terrifically original. Previously supporting The Black Keys and Casablancas himself, this is a band not to miss. Boasting four studio albums, a tight connection in the business and a veracious dedication to what they do, The Growlers deserve a huge amount more recognition than they have here in the UK and hopefully this will be the genesis of their UK break.

Featuring amongst the huge collection of acts also sits The Big Moon, a band I’m really excited about. After seeing the quartet support The Vaccines at Plymouth Pavillions, my expectations of The Big Moon were set high. Set to be the next big thing in the indie-rock scene, these girls sure know how to pack a punch and after gaining some well-deserved experience supporting veterans The Vaccines. Their presence is deserved, expected and anticipated. Their infectious chemistry, dedicated fans and immense tracks are sure to be a shining light on the day.

Honeyblood, Pinegrove, Louis Berry and Ten Tonnes all feature on the line-up, amongst an array of other brilliant talent, and are all names I’m excited to see on the bill. I first stumbled across the crooning Liverpudlian vocals of Louis Berry in 2015 on Bandcamp and have yet had the opportunity to see him perform live, this being a brilliant opportunity to fulfil that. Ten Tonnes, the younger brother of George Ezra recently released his Hugo White (from The Maccabees) produced single Silver Heat which is sure to give him the groundwork of an explosive career and is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Honeyblood and Pinegrove are also incredibly popular, talented and established names that are undoubtedly going to put on a stellar performance on what will undoubtedly be a truly euphoric day.