Radar Festival 2024 is on the horizon and it's the most diverse eclectic line up yet. We're going to give you a run down of the big hitters and some of our personal selections.
Headliners
The main stage headliners are perfectly suited to this festival. To start the party on Friday are The Midnight, the Atlanta duo play cool, trendy synthwave that will bring the beats, to Manchester making us all go mad for it. Expect slick lighting shows and pumping bass on the mainstage. (Tom)
On the second stage the headlines is Caskets, the Leeds quintet features ex-members of Glamour Of The Kill and will get you built up for synthwave with alt-metal/metalcore that features powerful choruses and a emotional strength.
On Saturday it's veteran djentlemen Tesseract who take to the main stage. One of the most impressive live shows around, their light show is mesmerising, their music euphoric and the performance filled with passion and precision. A major booking, Tesseract are now ready to progress to the next size of venues, legitimate arena/festival headliners who will look to cement their place as not just one of the UK's best progressive metal bands but best metal bands period. They have something truly special lined up with the Choir Noir and their biggest stage show to date.
Before them though on the second stage is the crushing grooves of Conjurer, like a sledgehammer to skull Conjurer marry technicality with primal force the foursome and anyone who has seen them live will know their forcefulness and they'll be a perfect way to lead into Tesseract as they too are technical, progressive and downright heavy.
On Sunday it's something quite special, Norwegian prog masters Leprous return to Radar but this time they will be doing something totally unheard of. They are doing an in real-time by request set, so I assume they will be making their way to the stage with a few things in mind but the majority of the set will come from requests from the audience in situ. This will be brilliant for sure as of there's any band who can pull this off it would be Leprous as I would assume they know all of their songs off by heart anyway.
It's almost beast into beauty as the second stage headliners for Sunday are Humanity's Last Breath, the last time they played Radar my (Matt) ears were ringing for hours after so I'll need some of the snazzy ACS earplugs to combat that. However if you love a breakdown then HLB are for you, as they will bring pure aggression before we move towards the more gentle tones of Leprous.
Names To Watch
Elsewhere there are a fair few names to watch as for me (Matt) it's Friday that presents the best bands of the weekend as Vola are a must watch with their beautiful prog metal, then there some instrumental brilliance from Plini and Earthside. Prog/stoner/riffers Giant Walker will be kicking off the second stage with tonnes of groove as Cestra will provide the industrial/orchestral wonder and there's also a hint that there may be a collab with Tesseract in the offing.
On Saturday Tom is expecting crazy time signatures and post hardcore vocals from two favourites The Fall Of Troy and Hail The Sun. There's aggression from Heart Of Coward, Graphic Nature and Car Bomb while Tribe Of Ghosts have a gothic oddness and there's righteous hardcore from Ithaca and classic keyboard heavy prog from Kyros. Long term Radar fans will rejoice at the return of Dirty Loops, expect a lot of improper dancing.
On Sunday I'm looking forward (Matt) to watching Adharma for the first time after loving their album, bands such as Future Static bring their alt metal vibes and Blood Command will cause pits galore on the second stage. Sungazer will add jazz, video game themes and prog ready for some angular grooving while the special guest are Welsh future megastars Holding Absence.
With a slew of Masterclasses allowing you to get closer to the players and learn their tricks and techniques, a host of post show entertainment at Rebellion venue, games arcades, instrument market, stalls and improvements to the O2 Victoria Warehouse insuring that anything their loyal fanbase has brought up has been addressed for this year. Radar continues to be a festival for the fans, a safe space, with an eclectic line up that is always three days of discovery.
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