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Festival line-up update: ATP Iceland, Benicassim, Yoko Ono’s Meltdown and more

By Aly Barchi | Published on Friday 5 April 2013

Hey, so as ATP starts selling early bird tickets to its first ever All Tomorrow’s Parties party Iceland (artists tba on 16 Apr), what else is new in festival-based revelations?

Well, there’s a new phase of artist admissions going on at Benicassim, as has taken Beach House, BRMC, Rudimental and The Child Of Lov into its Killers, Arctic Monkeys, QOTSA and Primal Scream-featuring midst.

Elsewhere, some news about the 20th anniversary of London’s alternative arts-athon Meltdown, the one ‘directed’ by Yoko Ono, which now has some real live artists on its line-up, including Iggy & The Stooges, Patti Smith, Boy George, Kim Gordon, Siouxsie Sioux, Thurston Moore, Peaches, Savages and Deerhoof.

Ms Ono – who’s also playing solo and with her Plastic Band as part of the programme – says: “It’s not only a great honour to curate Meltdown in its 20th year, it’s also a lot of fun to be able to invite many of my favourite performers, activists and favourite collaborators to join me”.

Ah, that’s nice. FLUU thrills are also derivable via France’s Midi, which has hired headliners The Horrors and cool auxiliaries like Mount Kimbie, King Krule, Christopher Owns, AlunaGeorge, Mykki Blanco and… Peter Hook & The Light to make its ninth year the best ever; Portugal’s Optimus Alive!, as now comes with added Vampire Weekend, Jurassic 5, Jessie Ware and – as per 99.9% of festivals in 2013 – pervasive alt-pop name-squashers AlunaGeorge; and Cream, who have announced some details about their Ibiza programme for this year (which is sort of a festival) and which will have Calvin Harris, Paul Van Dyk, Above & Beyond, Laidback Luke and Paul Okenfold DJ-ing at it.

And now, I hope you’re all in the mood to look at the new FLUUs in full made to Benicassim, Cream Ibiza, Exit and South West Four, because that’s what follows:

BENICASSIM, FIB Heineken, Valencia, Spain, 18-21 Jul: Beach House, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Dorian, Bigott, Rudimental, And So I Watch You From Afar, Smile, Grupo Salvaje, Attic Lights, The Child Of Lov, Soledad Velez, Alba Lua, Pleasant Dreams. fiberfib.com

CREAM IBIZA, Amnesia, Ibiza, Spain, 13 Jun – 19 Sep: Calvin Harris, Above & Beyond, Paul Van Dyk, Laidback Luke, Alesso, Nicky Romero, Hardwell, Paul Oakenfold, Eddie Halliwell, Gareth Emery, Arty, Dirty South, Otto Knows, Chris Lake, Mat Zo, Michael Woods, John O’Callaghan, Giuseppe Ottaviani, Norin & Rad, Ben Gold, Jordan Suckley, Burns, Tom Staar, Gareth Wyn, GTA, Mosca, Henrix, Deorr. www.cream.co.uk

EXIT FESTIVAL, Petrovaradin Fortress, Novi Sad, Serbia, 10-14 Jul: Cee Lo Green, Eric Prydz, Ame b2b Dixon, Scuba, Ana Popovic, Prong, Delilah, Kate Boy. www.exitfest.org

FLOW FESTIVAL, Suvilahti, Helsinki, Finland, 7-11 Aug: My Bloody Valentine, Grimes, José González, Parquet Courts, Junip. www.flowfestival.com

MELTDOWN, Southbank Centre, London, 14-23 Jun: Yoko Ono, Plastic Ono Band, Siouxsie Sioux, Iggy & The Stooges, Boy George, Thurston Moore, Cibo Matto, Peaches, Savages, Patti Smith, Marianne Faithfull, Immortal Technique, Deerhoof, Reggie Watts & Mac Lethal, Amadeus Leopold, Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto, Body/Head & Ikue Mori, Mystical Weapons. meltdown.southbankcentre.co.uk

MIDI FESTIVAL, various venues, Hyeres, France, 26-28 Jul: The Horrors, Mount Kimbie, Peter Hook & the Light, Christopher Owens, AlunaGeorge, King Krule, Mykki Blanco, Splashh, Justin Martin, Only Real, Francis Lung, Appletop, Jed Nayef. www.midi-festival.com

OPTIMUS ALIVE!, Lisbon, Portugal, 12-14 Jul: Jurassic 5, Vampire Weekend, Tribes, Jamie Lidell, Jessie Ware, Disclosure, AlunaGeorge, Gold Panda, Redlight, Dusky, Huxley, Shadow Child, Mosca, Two Inch Punch. www.optimusalive.com

SOUTH WEST FOUR, Clapham Common, London, 24-25 Aug: Loco Dice, John Digweed, Laurent Garnier, Adam Beyer, Carl Craig, Guti, Hector, Tim Green. www.southwestfour.com