All Tomorrow’s Parties is not your typical rock festival- it doesn’t accept corporate sponsorship and you won’t see police barricades set-up. Instead, ATP is more like a sleep away camp for those truly passionate about music. A special guest, in what has been described as a live mix-tape, curates each festival, there is no camping at ATP, fans and musicians alike stay at the crumbling resorts that serve as venues (think Dirty Dancing but without a fresh coat of paint).
Now in its tenth year, the main festival takes place over two weekends in the UK at Butlins Holiday Camp, about five hours outside of London in Minehead, Somerset. The curators this year are Matt Groening (yes, of The Simpsons) for May 7-9 and the newly reunited Pavement for May 14-16. Tickets for Matt Groening’s ATP have sold out but you can still buy them from licensed ticket brokers through the ATP website while tickets for Pavement’s ATP are still available.
Unlike most other “only the tough survive” festivals, All Tomorrow’s Parties is a breeze. Our advice is to relax, bring earplugs, bring cash for food, bring things to share and bring some caffeine because at ATP, you won’t want to sleep. Impromptu collaborations, sing-a-longs and ping-pong games with rock idols happen all weekend and trust us, you don’t want to miss out on a thing.
Matt Groening Line-up:
Iggy & The Stooges, Joanna Newsom, Spiritualized performing Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, The xx, CocoRosie, Built To Spill, She & Him, James Chance And The Contortions, Liars, Boredoms performing 9 Drummer Boadrum, The Raincoats, Toumani Diabate, Danielson, Anni Rossi, James Blackshaw, Viv Albertine‘s Limerence, Panda Bear, Daniel Johnston, The Residents, Deerhunter, Broadcast, Shonen Knife, Ruins alone (Tatsuya Yoshida), Amadou & Mariam, Ponytail, Konono No1, Thee Oh Sees, Juana Molina, Lightning Dust, Hope Sandoval, The Tiger Lillies, Hello Saferide, The Soft And Onlys, Cold Cave, Trash Kit and Jill Sobule.
Pavement Line-up:
Pavement, Atlas Sound, The Authorities, Blitzen Trapper, Broken Social Scene, Calexico, The Clean, Camera Obscura, The Drones, Enablers, Endless Boogie, The Fall, Faust, The Fiery Furnaces, Grails, Marble Valley, Mission of Burma, Omar Souleyman + Sublime Frequencies, Pierced Arrows, Quasi, The Raincoats, Saccharine Trust, Sic Alps, Spiral Stairs, The 3Ds, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Wooden Shjips, Boris, Mark Eitzel, Monotonix, Boris performing Feedbacker, The Dodos, Venom P. Stinger, Wax Fang, Tim Chad & Sherry, Horse Guards Parade, Still Flyin’, Terry Reid featuring Matt Sweeney, Times New Viking, Avi Buffalo and Surfer Blood.