Flow Festival 2011 first acts announced, including: Kanye West, Q-tip, Lykke Li, Janelle Monae and Mogwai
aaamusic | On 23, Apr 2011
Finnish Flow Festival announces the first batch of artists including Kanye West, Q-Tip, Royksopp, Lykke Li, Mogwai, Janelle Monae, James Blake and Iron & Wine with added venues. The eighth edition of Flow is organised in Helsinki’s Suvilahti and will take place on August 12–14 2011. More acts will be announced in May, as well as the experimental music bill entitled “The Other Sound”. The three-day Flow tickets are now on sale in the UK at See Tickets.
Flow Festival is primarily a music and arts festival. The event is situated at the historic Suvilahti power plant area, which will be tailored each year for Flow specifically, including various forms of design and installations plus both indoors and outdoors venues. All of the performances at Flow take place within the same festival site, from the concerts starting early in the afternoon to the late night clubs which run until 3 am.
The music presented at Flow is a strong and varied selection of up and coming as well as established artists from indie-rock to soul and jazz, from folk to contemporary club sounds, both from the Finnish and the international scene. Alongside interesting and topical music, Flow is about urban spaces, visual arts, cosy decoration, good food and drink. Flow has featured in the past diverse acts such as Kraftwerk, Grace Jones, Lily Allen, Chemical Brothers, LCD Soundsystem, The XX, MIA, Magnetic Man, Robyn….
For 2011 Flow acts confirmed so far include: Kanye West, the king of new pop music, whose recent album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” ranks among the most celebrated of the past couple of years. Q-Tip, the legendary MC from the pioneering hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, makes his first appearance in Finland, the Swedish songstress Lykke Li showcases material from her career-boosting new album “Wounded Rhymes”, and the “Nordic Daft Punk”, Röyksopp, display their party-starting electro akin to last year’s successful release “Senior”.
Other Flow acts include post rock heroes Mogwai, sporting an audiovisual stage spectacle, Iron & Wine, one of the most original acts in the contemporary folk/indie scene, futuristic pop wunderkind James Blake, and Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, authors of the Year’s Best list topping album “Before Today”.
The new wave of indie rock is well represented at Flow by the likes of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Midlake, Warpaint, Twin Shadow, The Dø and Destroyer. Janelle Monáe, Mayer Hawthorne & The County and The Budos Band keep the Afro-American musical tradition well in place, whereas Sly & Robbie with Junior Reid are one of the most legendary reggae combos around. The traditionally strong club line-up at Flow this year includes: Matthew Dear Live Band, Hercules & Love Affair, Tensnake, Joy Orbison, Martyn, and Oni Ayhun, among others.
Finnish Flow acts include soul sensation Jo Stance, upcoming indie rock outfit French Films, electropop prospects Shine 2009, the internationally noted band Rubik, and solid Finnish jazz combo Jukka Eskola Quintet, debuting their expanded stage setup with strings. Teeth, gaining fast momentum in the UK club scene perform at the festival and have also composed the Flow Festival theme heard at radio spots.
The atmospheric Flow Festival area expands significantly with the new 5000 capacity Nokia Blue Tent. The total capacity of visitors, however, grows only slightly in order to make the Flow experience even more pleasant for the visitors. A further addition to Flow is a new venue which will host an experimental music bill entitled “The Other Sound”, with line up details to be announced in June.
Flow Festival three-day tickets are now on sale in the UK at See Tickets. More acts will be announced in May. Individual day tickets will go on sale in May thru Finnish ticket outlet Tiketti.
To view all confirmed artists, please go to: http://www.flowfestival.com/en/artists
The Main Partner for Flow Festival: Nokia
In Cooperation: Helsingin Sanomat / NYT, JCDecaux, Radio Helsinki, Brand Factory, Diesel, Heineken, RGB, UPM Timber and Viinimaa.
Flow is supported by City of Helsinki Cultural Office and Ministry of Education and Culture.
Tickets: 3 days 100 GBP (+ booking fees) / See Tickets: http://www.seetickets.com/Event/FLOW-FESTIVAL/Suvilahti-Helsinki/556884
Day tickets will go on sale in May, available at Finnish ticket outlet Tiketti (www.tiketti.fi )
