Field Day (festival)

Village mentality

The festival hosts an annual village fete titled Village Mentality. Beginning in 2008, the area includes a sack race, tug of war and egg and spoon race. In 2008, the events took place until 5pm, finishing earlier than the rest of the festival. In 2009, the area was extended to include its own musical line-up, playing on the Village Mentality Stage. Acts included Mumford & Sons, Toumani Diabaté and Malcolm Middleton. The area is handled by organiser Tom Baker's girlfriend Natalie. Village Mentality was formerly known as Homefires, who hosted their own London festival until 2007.

Field Day radio

Field Day and Eat Your Own Ears founder Tom Baker, together with forward-thinking radio production company Folded Wing, recorded a series of exclusive radio shows in the run up to Field Day festival in 2012. It features sessions and interviews with the performing artists and has been a regular feature of the festival since. Episodes include exclusives interviews and mixes from the likes of Pixies, Grimes, Solange, Mulatu Astatke, Panda Bear, Caribou, Omar Souleyman, Metronomy, John Cooper Clarke, Four Tet, Kurt Vile and many more.

2007 festival

The inaugural Field Day festival took place on 11 August 2007, with the first Underage Festival taking place the same weekend. Over fifty artists featured across four stages, as well as a musical bandstand. Artists included the 1990s, Absentee, Adem, Alberta Cross, Andrew Weatherall, Archie Bronson Outfit, Bat for Lashes, Battles, Caribou, Casper C, The Cock N Bull Kid, Crispin Dior, El Plate, Electrelane, Erol Alkan, Euros Childs, Fanfarlo, Filthy Dukes, Florence and the Machine, Foals, Four Tet, Fridge, GoodBooks, Gruff Rhys, Hannah Holland, James Yorkston, Jo Jo de Freq, Justice, Kid Harpoon, Late of the Pier, Laura Marling, Liars, Matt Walsh, Matthew Dear, Miss Odd Kidd, Mystery Jets, Nadia Ksaiba, Patchwork Pirates, The Pictish Trail, Pull Tiger Tail, Skull Juice, The Aliens, The Concretes, The Earlies, The Lovely Jonjo, Vetiver, Warboy, White Rabbits, Young Turks and Zombie Disco Squad. Originally being billed as a capacity of 6,000, the amount was increased to 10,000 shortly before the festival.

2008 festival

The 2008 event took place on 9 August 2008, with the Underage Festival taking place the previous day. The entire site was redesigned by Vanguardia Consulting, who provide specialist advice on sound control. Capacity was increased to 20,000, and bars and toilets across the site were doubled. More than fifty artists were again billed for the festival, including Simian Mobile Disco, Les Savy Fav, Mystery Jets and Laura Marling. The event was headlined by Foals, in what was their first UK headline festival performance. A 25-member brass band was also added as a final addition to the line-up. The event now featured five stages, an increase from the previous year. The main stage was retitled the "Converse Century Stage", to reflect the company's 100-year anniversary in 2008. A similar stage was used at Underage Festival the previous day.

2009 festival

The 2009 festival took place on 1 August 2009, one day prior to Underage. The first line-up announcements were made on 28 January 2009, when NME announced that Mogwai would headline the event. Four Tet, James Yorkston, Apes and Androids, Malcolm Middleton, Fennesz, Errors and Skream were also announced. Further line-up additions were announced on 7 April 2009, including The Horrors, Little Boots, Santigold and Mystery Jets. Other line-up announcements have been sporadically announced through the festival's Twitter account.

2010 Festival

The 2010 event was confirmed to take place on 31 July 2010, in their fourth annual outing in Victoria Park. On 9 February 2010, it was announced that Phoenix would headline the event, with Amiina, Beth Jeans Houghton, Caribou, Esben and the Witch, Chilly Gonzalez, Corsano and Flowers, Gold Panda, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, James Holden, Joker & MC Nomad, Max Tundra, Memory Tapes, Mouse on Mars, Pantha Du Prince and Silver Apples also announced to perform. Further acts were announced on 12 March 2010, when Babeshadow, Carte Blanche (DJ Mehdi & Riton), Chapel Club, Hudson Mohawke, Lightspeed Champion, No Age, Simian Mobile Disco, Tamikrest, The Fall, These New Puritans and YucK were added. The festival is set to expand further to six stages, including the Outdoor live stage, Adventures in the Beetroot Field arena, Homefires stage, Bugged Out! arena, Bloggers Delight stage, and the musical bandstand.

For the first time in 2010, Field Day is to take part in a festival 'twinning' scheme, organised by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF). The initiative encourages twinned festivals to swap artists and cross promote each other's events. Field Day was 'twinned' with the Øya Festival in Oslo, Norway.

2011 Festival

The 2011 event took place on 6 August 2011. The next day, a companion festival took place, with the same organisers and similar stages at the location, under the name The Apple Cart festival.

2012 Festival

The 2012 festival date moved from the traditional August month to Saturday 2 June 2012 (bank holiday weekend). This was due to Victoria Park being used for events to celebrate the London Olympics. The Apple Cart festival took place again on the next-day Sunday.

2013 Festival

Following on from 2012's change in date, Field Day 2013 took place on Saturday 25 May (bank holiday weekend).

2014 Festival

In 2014, Field Day expanded to a two-day event. It took place on the weekend of 7–8 June 2014, headlined by Pixies and Metronomy.

Appearing were:

2015 Festival

The 2015 festival took place on the weekend of 6–7 June 2015, and was headlined by Caribou, Ride and Patti Smith.

Partial lineup:

2016 Festival

2016 will be the 10th anniversary edition of Field Day. It will take place on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12 June 2016. This year's line up is

JAMES BLAKE
PJ HARVEY
Air
Adam Green
Ata Kak
Avalon Emerson
Baio (DJ set)
Beach House
Ben Watt Band feat. Bernard Butler
Bicep - live
Blossoms
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Cass McCombs
Champion
Coves
Danny L Harle
Daphni
Dean Blunt
Declan McKenna
D.D Dumbo
Deerhunter
DIIV
Dilly Dally
DJ Koze
Dusky
Empress Of
Fakear
Fat White Family
Fickle Friends
Floating Points - live
Formation
Four Tet
Frisco
Gillbanks
Girl Band
Goat
Gold Panda
Greco-Roman Soundsystem
Happy Meal Ltd.
Holly Herndon - live
Jackmaster b2b Gerd Janson
John Grant
Junior Boys
Kelela
Kimmo Pohjonen Skin
KINK - live
Little Simz
Loyle Carner
LUH
Lxury
Mabel
Mbongwana Star
Meilyr Jones
Mentsh (GRSS)
Metz
Mind Enterprises
Molly Nilsson
Moon Duo
Motor City Drum Ensemble
Mount Kimbie DJ Set
Mura Masa
Mystery Jets
Nao
Nimmo
Novelist
Opal People (DJ set)
Optimo
Orchestra Baobab
Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band
Parquet Courts
Plastician
Red Axes - live
Rejjie Snow
Roman Flügel
Roots Manuva
Shock Machine
Skepta
Sleaford Mods
Slimzee
Steve Mason
Special Request
Tale of Us
Tangerines
Teen Creeps DJs
The Black Madonna
The Temper Trap
The Thurston Moore Group
Tirzah (live)
Tourist
Wild Nothing
Wooden Wisdom & Dj Fitz
Yeasayer
Yorkston Thorne Khan
Youth Lagoon