Music: Playgroup Festival

Brighton’s principle party promotors, Playgroup, are all lined up for a festival to remember

Organised by Declan Cassidy and Philip Lakka, Playgroup Festival enters its third year, and looks set to grow again from last year. Set in Eridge Park, England’s oldest deer park, it’s very much a Brighton focused festival with many of the acts from the area. “We’ve gone with a grassroots line up, south east and Brighton based bands. It’s not about big name headliners that you can see at other festivals in the summer,” says Declan. “We had 500 the first year, 2,000 last year, and we have a 5,000 capacity this year.”

As well as running the Blind Tiger Club venue in Brighton, Playgroup are well known as promoters of some of the best club nights of the last few years, combining themed events with live music and DJs and a party atmosphere. Lost Toys is the theme (wildlife was last year’s theme) – on getting a ticket you get your character card, and you come as one of those characters, although you don’t have to!

With Brighton being such an incredible hub for quality music, you can expect to see some of the best local acts such as AK/DK, The Black Fields, Carnival Collective, Dizraeli & the Small Gods, Los Albertos, Kalakuta Millionaires, DJ Format, Prince Fatty, The Peppermint Beat Band, Samsara and Sweet Sweet Lies as well as a number of superb live acts from around the country including Lazy Habits, Submotion Orchestra, Yes Sir Boss, Smerins Anti-Social Club and Herbaliser.

“Music is just a part of the festival, it’s very much about the arts…we have a 24-hour cinema, plus acoustic and theatre performances that go on through the night, an expanded kids’ area, healing area, site-wide installations…”

The Cabinet of Curiosity tent has been programmed by Tash Marks who set up Animal Vegetable Mineral, a boutique food events business providing edible ‘interventions’ for festivals, parties and pop-up experiences. She also hosts Experimental Food 101, an introduction to sensory food play. Expect miracle berries, inhalable cakes and bacon sandwiches, Gummy Bear dissection and Jelly Baby wave machines!

Playgroup will also continue with their strong environmental policy, “The Big Lemon Bus company are again involved, and this will be the first year that the event will be powered solely by solar and vegetable oil. Eighty per cent of rubbish will be recycled on site and we have a ‘No Trace’ policy. And tickets are exceptionally well priced for a weekend festival, the top price being a £95 weekend adult ticket.

Eridge Park, Kent. 3-5 August, www.playgroupfestival.com