| TDK Cross Central
2005
What? Where? When? Who? Sunday sees a different flavour and a bizarre headliner choice in Grace Jones, which ought to be interesting. The main stage also plays host to the Soul II Soul Soundsystem, Felix da Housecat and human beatbox extraordinaire, Killa Kela, while elsewhere there's live sets from Vitalic and DJ Format. Highlights from the massive DJ line-up include Mylo, The Glimmers, First Rate, Jeff Mills and Gilles Peterson, with Dynamite on MC duties. It has recently been announced that Four Tet (live), Whitey (live) and James Lavelle & Claudio Coccoluto have been added to the line-up though we don't know for which days at the moment. Check out Eyeballkid for further additions throughout the summer. How much? Available from www.groovetickets.co.uk or 020 7833 9944 More info. |
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Forget
your Reading Festival, trips to the
seaside or heading off to Europe, TDK Cross Central is what the
August bank holiday weekend is all about. It's the second year of
the event which has the clever idea of using the cluster of cool
clubs in the Freight Depot behind King's Cross in London as different
arenas for the one festival. So instead of being in homogenised
tents erected in a field, you're in a proper club. It's certainly
one of the best festivals for dance music because of this and the
live music stages are also well suited. And unlike most other festivals
this one goes on until the early morning. Besides the music there's
also film and digital arts, with Onedotzero
hosting a cinema featuring a selection of short films from around
the world. Naturally there's no camping or overnight stay but hey,
you're in King's Cross, and there's always a cheap hostel around
somewhere. 
While
there's no strict divide, Saturday is more the rock day and Sunday
for dance fiends. The two genres merge seamlessly for Saturday night
headliners Goldfrapp who'll be showcasing
tracks from their forthcoming album 'Supernature'
and hopefully delivering the same kind of thrilling live
spectacle as their performance at Glastonbury
last year. The Bees and The
Magic Numbers also play the main stage, while elsewhere the
likes of Tom Vek, The Earlies, Lady Sovereign,
The Others and Kano play live.
On the DJ front you can witness the full X-Press
2 experience with six decks and three mixers, hear Kurtis
Mantronix playing an electro set, or check out Mark
Rae, Diplo and Richard X. Meanwhile
Mr Scruff greedily keeps Stage One
at Canvas all to himself for an eight-hour set.