ALTHOUGH December and January still constitute the final remaining quiet months on Europe’s festival circuit, November still has an array of excellent events to choose from in some of the continent’s unsung-gem cities. Here are five of the month’s top choices.
Turin’s Club To Club (November 2 to 6) has been a fixture in the northern Italian city for many years and although it doesn’t now involve as much club-hopping as the name implies, it packs a huge punch on the Italian circuit. This year finds a characteristic mix of the avant garde and the floor-friendly, with Autechre, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Powell, Clams Casino and Laurent Garnier among the bill’s banner names.
Amsterdam may get most of the plaudits when it comes to holiday destinations in the Netherlands, but Utrecht has at least the same capacity to enchant, and never more so than during Le Guess Who? (November 10 to 13).
A gorgeous and easily traversable little city of canals and bicycles a short train ride south of Amsterdam, Utrecht is the perfect setting for a festival that this year unfolds over 13 different venues. Wilco, Julia Holter, Suuns and Savages have co-curated the festival, and names such as Fennesz, Tim Hecker, Swans and DJ Nigga Fox are on a line-up that’s consistently among Europe’s most diverse.
After the triumph of September’s two-day Interval Natural mini-festival in a 13th-century citadel in rural Transylvania, the Romanian promoters behind Interval have decamped to Cluj-Napoca for the sequel to last year’s Interval 100 event in Bucharest. Running non-stop for at least 120 hours from November 29 to December 4, the bill is yet to be disclosed, but last year’s feast included everyone from Melodie and Kornel Kovacs to Hunee and DVS1.
Mira (November 10 to 12) is one of the slowly growing number of festivals springing up in Barcelona aside from the big beasts of Sonar and Primavera. With a strong visual and artistic element, it also looks to be one of the most sustainable. Gesloten Cirkel, Lee Gamble and Zomby figure on a bill that has become more adventurous and impressive each year.
Finally, and a little closer to home, Metropolis Festival (November 3 to 5) in Dublin looks a good shout, with bigger names such as Grace Jones (pictured), Paul Kalkbrenner and Booka Shade appearing alongside Floating Points, Jessy Lanza and Novelist.
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