What’s new for Loop this year?
Jason Clarke (organiser): Quite a lot really. Apart from being a month earlier than usual, the festival is a lot longer. Everything kicks off with the Matthew Herbert show at the Dome on Friday and then there’s two days centring on Victoria Gardens. We always wanted to use bits of the Dome complex and moving forward a month allowed us to do that. It just means we can book bigger acts and be as noisy as we want to be.
Is there a different feel to the different days?
Definitely. Saturday is very much a classic Loop sort of thing really building towards the headliners and Loop Late. For the Sunday we wanted a very different feel, something much more relaxed but leftfield enough to still be Loop. So we started with a few acts that we all agreed on who fit into that mould. That lead us to acts like múm, Emiliana and Tunng, and we just tried to book things that we thought would compliment them.
What makes a Loop artist?
There are definitely bands that everyone in the team would agree are Loop bands. Micachu & The Shapes from last year and Telepathe this year would definitely fall into that category. We kind of get bracketed as an electronic music festival but it’s quite a bit broader than that, especially this year. In most cases we just look for something new little bit different which we think some people might like.
But it’s not just about music, is it?
No, we’ve also strengthened the visual programme by teaming up with the guys onedotzero, they’ve pulled together a really amazing programme of screenings and there will be more interactive elements across the entire site.
If you had to pick just one recommendation what would it be and why?
My recommendation changes on a daily basis but at the moment it’s Fever Ray. The album’s great and we’ve been gasping at the lighting spec since we got the rider. It really will be pretty spectacular.