Longitude, the newest arrival on the Irish summer festival calendar, will open its doors across the weekend of 19th to 21st July for its inaugural weekend in Dublin's Marlay Park. The newcomer boasts one of the strongest line-ups we've seen for many a year, with the festival's three nights being headlined by some bona fide heavyweights of the live music scene.
French outfit Phoenix will top the bill on Friday 19th and Vampire Weekend, touring their third album Modern Vampires of the City, will take centre stage on Saturday 19th. German electro legends Kraftwerk will bring the festival to its conclusion on Sunday night with a 3-D show.
We have a pair of tickets to Longitude to give away, hop on over to our competitions section to give yourself a chance of winning.
Who We're Looking Forward To Seeing
Phoenix, Phoenix, a million times Phoenix... (Friday 19th)
Phoenix have conspicuously avoided our shores since the release of their outstanding 2009 opus Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix but now that its follow-up Bankrupt! has been released, Thomas Mars and co. will be making a long overdue stop in our capital. Phoenix sit atop any self-respecting festival fan's Longitude to-do list.
Django Django (Friday 19th)
We're big fans of the Scottish (with a hint of Co. Derry) group's self-titled debut album and became even more fond of them after last year's Body & Soul festival. Their placement as third from the top of the bill, behind only Foals and headliners Phoenix, illustrates just how big an impression they've made in the last year.
Dutch Uncles (Friday 19th)
Stockport's Dutch Uncles turns some heads (including ours) with two great performances at the first incarnation of the Camden Crawl in Dublin last year and we're eager to see what they've done with their recently released third album Out of Touch in the Wild. Keep an eye on lead singer Duncan Wallis, he has some frankly barmy dance grooves bursting to get out.
Vampire Weekend (Saturday 20th)
What is it about Vampire Weekend, where they continue to release consistently brilliant albums. The New York band's third album, Modern Vampires of the City, keeps up the hefty pace they established with their first two and a rare performance on Irish soil should be one of the true highlights of the whole weekend.
Kraftwerk 3-D (Sunday 21st)
We're not terribly sure what to expect here, because we presume that Kraftwerk are in 3-D most of the time, not just when they're on stage. Whatever happens up there on the stage, we're looking forward to it - it's not often you get the opportunity to be in the company of true pioneers of music.
Others we'll be keeping an eye on:
The Cast of Cheers (Friday 19th), Villagers (Saturday 20th), Local Natives (Saturday 20th), Japandroids (Sunday 21st), Hot Chip (Sunday 21st), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Sunday 21st)
