Weekends Matter Newsletter 15th July

Image: Foo Fighters (Credit Kevin Mazur)

Sunshine and an Ashes win; it's been a good few days and the future looks even better for the weekend enthusiast.

Festivals

Ahead of heading out on a festival have you checked you've got the A-Z of essentials? One extra is always free tickets, and we're currently giving away some for MADE Birmingham, whilst we had a look at one of the arenas at another dance music festival SW4.

We've also got reviews of 2000 Trees and Cocoon in the Park (including that Villalobos set), and an interview with one of the guys behind brand new Loch Ness festival Groove.

Clubs

Yes we know it's July but already the autumn raves are getting announced, with Edinburgh's Nightvision, Freeze Liverpool and new Brixton club Phonox among them. Stadium dance titan Zedd has a couple of shows later in the year, and we've rounded up what to look forward to over August in Ibiza.

Skiddle Mix 076 - Doorly (Ministry of Sound) by Skiddle on Mixcloud

We talked all things Larry Levan with Ministry of Sound founder Justin Berkmann, interviewed chart sensation DJ S.K.T, and got a great mix from Doorly (above). Oh and have you voted for your favourite DJ yet?

Live Music

We're very excited about Liverpool live music bonanza FestEVOL. There are quite a lot of tours on the way too, with reggae legends The Wailers, indie upstarts Hooton Tennis Club and hip hop icon KRS-One among those heading out on the road, as will Foo Fighters when Dave Grohl's leg is better.

We've also been out, enjoying both Modest Mouse and mega mouth Noel Gallagher's recent gigs, and spoke with beguiling oddball Ezra Furman.

That's me for a minute; I'm off to marvel at Patrick Stewart and Richie Hawtin in the photo of the week.