Last year, Heavenly’s festival season opened with one of our favourite weekends of the year.
Here is this years Heavenly Stage Kite Festival Line-Up
FRIDAY
22:00 – 01:00 DJ PAULETTE
21:00 – 22:00 – MAUSKOVIC DANCE BAND
19:30 – 20:15 – SARATHY KORWAR
18:00 – 18:45 – PALE BLUE EYES
17:00 and between the bands – HEAVENLY JUKEBOX DJs
SATURDAY
DJs DAVID HOLMES
23:00 – 0:00 SOFIA KOURTESIS
21:15 – 22:00 LYNKS
19:15 – 20:15 ELKKA
18:00 – 18:45 EYES OF OTHERS
15:45 18:00 and between the bands – HEAVENLY JUKEBOX DJs
15:00 – 15:45 MAX PORTER reading from his book ‘Shy’ plus DJ accompaniment from Emma Warren
13:15 – 14:30 MIKI BERENYI book talk with host Emma Warren followed by a short live performance
12:00 – 12:45 MICK HOUGHTON in conversation with James Endeacott
10:30 – 11:30 EMMA WARREN book talk with host Tara Joshi + guest DJ Paulette
SUNDAY
Jukebox DJs
20:30 – 21:30 BAXTER DURY
19:15 – 20:00 DECIUS
18:00 – 18:45 MADMADMAD
15:45 – 16:30 BAXTER DURY in conversation with MIRANDA SAWYER
14:15 – 15:00 TAPIR!
12:30 – 13:30 AUDREY GOLDEN – I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records with host Emma Warren plus guest Jayne Houghton
11:00 – 12:00 JACQUELINE CROOKS – Fire Rush – host Emma Warren
•••
The inaugural Kite Festival in Kirtlington Park, Oxfordshire was billed as a festival of ideas and music. In the field, it was a revelation, with talks all day and banging music into the night, much of it provided by us in the Heavenly tent. Wandering around a beautiful, compact site in one of the first perfect weather weekends of the year (not quite sunburn, definitely very good for all day drinking), slipping into a tent to hear Jarvis Cocker in conversation, or Bill and Frank from DJ History talking about the roots of club culture, before watching Confidence Man explode with frenetic energy as the sun set, was the perfect way to spend the first meetup of the season.
And we’re very glad that Kite is back for a second year. This year’s festival takes place between 9th – 11th June 2023 and we’ll be hosting a stage over the whole weekend again. Across the rest of the site, there’s the kind of line up other festivals can only dream of (Joan Collins, Alistair Campbell, Hot Chip and Suede for starters). Our stage runs over the three days of the festival and features talks about music in the day and music for dancing to during the evening. Friday night is live music and DJs only.
Friday features Pale Blue Eyes, Devon’s finest exponents of ‘excelsior modernist pop music’; polyrhythmic drummer, band leader and far-out jazz player Sarathy Korwar; hypnotic space disco party music from the Mauskovic Dance Band and an after-hours set by house music legend DJ Paulette.
Saturday kicks off with our friend Emma Warren in conversation with DJ Paulette and Tara Joshi on the subject of Emma’s incredible and vital book Dance Your Way Home. She is followed by author and PR genius Mick Houghton in conversation with Soho Radio’s James Endeacott about Mick’s book on music industry legend Andrew Lauder (Happy Trails: Andrew Lauder’s Charmed Life and High Times in the Record Business); then Emma Warren returns to the stage to interview former Lush singer Miki Berenyi about her book Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success, before a short live performance by Miki. Emma will also be DJing as accompaniment to Max Porter, who reads from his hugely anticipated book Shy.
From 5pm, we get rid of the seating in order to get a dancefloor going. First up, Heavenly artist Eyes of Others warms things up with his ‘post-pub couldn’t get in the club’ electronic music. Next, Ninja Tune-signed DJ/producer Elkka brings a bit of rave euphoria with a set that shifts through Chicago house and disco, leftfield techno, UK bass and electro-punk. As the sun sets, Bristol based ‘drag monster’ Lynks plays a set of what NME described as “tongue-in-cheek queer bangers for the ‘others’” before a set from Berlin based Peruvian DJ/producer Sofia Kourtesis and a closing session with DJ/producer/curator and longtime Heavenly associate David Holmes.
Sunday begins with Emma Warren hosting a discussion on the women who worked for one of the UK’s most influential independent labels with guests Jayne Houghton, Tracey Donnelly and author Audrey Golden, whose book I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records is soon to be published by White Rabbit.
The first live band of the day is Tapir!, a new signing to Heavenly who play gorgeously warped sun-kissed acoustics. Following them, MADMADMAD who promise alien party music shaped by the mutant sounds of 70’s no-wave, post-punk and disco. After that, the Heavenly tent turns into a seedy back-street bathhouse when South London pervert acid crew Decius rock up, before, finally, Mr Maserati himself, Baxter Dury, brings the evening to a close with a selection of songs from his illustrious canon plus, no doubt, a healthy number from his forthcoming and best yet album ‘I Thought I Was Better Than You.’
Tickets now on sale!
Hope to see you there.