Dot To Dot Festival is a dual-city, multi-venue festival that takes place over the late May bank holiday weekend. It showcases some of the hottest up and coming names in the UK music scene, in some of the best venues Bristol and Nottingham have to offer. This year the Bristol half of the festival will be on 24th May, with the Nottingham half being on the 25th May. Tickets are currently available to buy from the Dot To Dot website starting from £35, but be quick as those early bird ones won’t be around for long!
LINE UP:
Dot To Dot have just announced their second wave of acts, with the full line up poster available here. With so many incredible names on the line up it’s definitely going to be hard to choose which artists to see, but our personal favourites are Adore, Basht., Big Special, Cardinals, Fat Dog, Girlband!, Honeyglaze, Kate Bollinger, Keo, Lapsley, Lunar Vacation, Pencil, Sprints, Talk Show, and Westside Cowboy. With stage times yet to be released we’re not sure if we’ll be able fit all of these in, but we really hope so! Dot To Dot’s focus on showcasing new talent also offers up the perfect opportunity to discover artists previously unknown to you, and who knows, you could be leaving with a new favourite!
VENUES:
With your festival ticket you’ll get access to some fantastic venues across your chosen city, with rooms ranging from under 200 to over 2000 in capacity, it’s a great chance to see some amazing acts in an intimate setting. The venues for Bristol this year are Bristol o2 Academy, SWX, Thekla (our personal favourite!), Dockside (an outdoor stage right on the harbourside), The Fleece, The Louisiana, Rough Trade, Strange Brew, Dareshack, The Lanes, Mr Wolf’s, and the Exchange. The Nottingham venues are Rock City, Beta, Black Cherry Lounge, The Level, Rescue Rooms, Red Room, Stealth, Metronome, The Bodega, Rough Trade, 31K, The Angel, Fox & Grapes, The Malt Cross, The Old Bus Depot, The Carousel, and Jam Café. Venues in both cities have varying age policies and opening times, so it’s always best to double check your chosen venues before heading out.
HOW IT WORKS:
Once you buy your ticket you’ll receive an email confirmation with a QR code, then on the day of the festival there will be a designated spot (usually in or near on of the venues) to exchange your QR code for a festival wristband. This wristband will give you access to all of the participating venues across the city (age restrictions may apply). As each venue has a different capacity, and some of them quite small, it’s advisable to get to your chosen venues early enough to ensure entry, you do not want to arrive to be told there’s no room (trust us, it sucks!). Dot To Dot have an app available to help plan your day, stage times will be visible on the app prior to the day of the festival, with the ability to highlight acts you want to see and add them to your schedule.
In our opinion, Dot To Dot is an incredibly underrated festival. The number of artists you can see and venues you can access for the price is impressive. With so many past acts going on to become iconic names in the indie scene, it’s the perfect place to discover your new favourites.