I never pre-book train tickets, let alone hotels, but when there’s an opportunity to spend a day listening to incredible live bands across Oxford’s prominent music venues it’s hard not to get excited.
With the UK’s festival season tailing to an end the doors of renowned venues are swinging open. At the Ritual Union Festival this means unique access to Oxford’s O2 Academies, The Bullingdon, The Truck Store and The Library.
Most festivals bait you in with your favourite artists that would usually cost the price of the festival ticket to see exclusively, so it’d be weird not to go.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d empty my bank account to see Patti Smith again but seeing her at Glastonbury along with Kayne West and Flying Lotus, it isn’t a hard sell. However, I could not be more game for Ritual Union for the opposite reason.
The annual all-dayer is back October 21 and has an exquisite line up of established artists, as well as those that are up and coming sharing the same stages. Take Low Island for instance. I only came across this experimental masterpiece a few weeks ago, and since then I’ve been not-so-eloquently humming away to That Kind of Love and Hold It Down on a daily basis.
Then we move onto the likes of Flamingods which for me sorts out my middle tier of that familiar but unfamiliar territory. They’re the band which I can’t really recall how it is they came to be on my iPod, but since their arrival they haven’t been removed. So I was all ears when I spied them on the lineup.
Although only extending over the duration of a Saturday, which makes this festival all the more outstanding, Ritual Union is also playing host to a line up of well-established leading roles such as Peace, Black Honey and Pinkshinyultrablast. Did I mention this is all inclusive with an all day ticket?
Kicking off at 12pm no one’s bound to committing to the whole day, but of course you can. Solo tickets for individual bands can be purchased as well an all-dayer, which grants you access to all the music in all the venues throughout the day.
It would be foolish, and almost rude, not to go.
For further information about the full lineup, and to purchase tickets, click here.