Bad Vibrations owner Keith Miller has spoken to Music Week about the launch of new eclectic London festival, Wide Awake.
The event, which will take place at Brockwell Park in South London on Friday, June 5, is a collaboration between Bad Vibrations, Dimensions, Lnzrt and Snap Crackle & Pop.
Focusing on leftfield indie, post punk, electronica, techno and jazz, confirmed acts include Black Midi, Goat Girl, Crack Cloud, Shame, Minimal Violence and Snapped Ankles, and curation from Daniel Avery, across six stages.
The new wave of guitar music is coming to a head and it felt like the right time to do something new
Keith Miller
Wide Awake
Miller, who is head programmer at agency Lanzarote Works and head of events at London venues The Waiting Room, Moth Club and Shacklewell Arms, said: "We've seen this new guitar scene coming through over the last four or five years.
"Those bands worked through our venues and we saw a bit of a gap in the market. The new wave of guitar music is coming to a head and it felt like the right time to do something new.
"We wanted a collection of bands that sat well together. That was the vision and luckily we've managed to achieve that with the line-up. We've got the park for five years, so we're hoping to expand to two days in 2021."
Wide Awake aims to provide a distinctive counter-culture experience and will champion independence and include a strong sustainability policy.
"A lot of festivals are starting to change, but because we're starting from scratch it works out well for us to set our stall out," said Miller. "It's just such a big issue at the moment and it's good that it's gathering pace and everyone's starting to get on board with it."
Super early bird tickets are priced at £27.50.
"We've tried to keep costs down so that it's affordable to as many young people as possible," said Miller. "We find at a lot of shows that some of these bands have an older crowd because people can't quite afford a ticket, so we were keen to keep it as low as possible."
He added: "I remember watching like Future Islands at Field Day a few years ago, just before they were about to take off, and hopefully we can have four or five magic moments like that throughout the day."
Wide Awake festival director, Marcus Weedon said: "We're thrilled to be putting on an event with an ethos that doesn't really exist at an outdoor festival in London at the moment. It's great to give bands like black midi, Shame and Goat Girl that have grown out of the South London scene a festival gig in their back garden. We're proud to provide a platform for so many great up-and-coming bands. And stay tuned, we've got some surprises in store before the summer."
