Arts & Culture

Cowley Road’s multi venue festival Ritual Union is back for its third year on Saturday October 19.

The all-dayer, which starts at 11am until the early hours, is fast becoming a mainstay of the Oxford music scene’s calendar and this year you’ll be able to catch it at the O2 Academy, The Bullingdon, The Library and Truck Store.

And amongst its gigs, gigs, gigs, will be the band Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (or Pigsx7 for short) who totally won us over at ArcTanGent earlier this summer with their artistically hard to pigeonhole take on Seventies sounding metal.

Another band that we are slathering at the mouth to catch are Young Knives who have been an Ocelot favourite ever since they appeared on the cover of the third ever magazine back in 2006 in all their glorious weirdness. The legendary Oxford stalwarts have been a bit quiet of late since Sick Octave in 2013 but promise a kickass set of new material and old.

They are joined by such amazing acts like She Drew The Gun, Teleman, The Comet is Coming, Ibibio Sound Machine and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.

We caught up with five of the best Oxford acts taking part for a few words.

Ahead of the festival we chat to Pet Semetary:

What are you working on at the moment?

We’re currently writing and recording some new songs with the full band. It’s a little different from PETSEM Vol I which was just guitar and vocals and we’re super super lucky to be working with Chris Barker from Premium leisure producing, who are also on the Ritual Union lineup. He’s super encouraging and positive but also has a lot of really awesome ideas, so its nice to work with people who not only support your music but also give you that creative push.

What can we expect from your Ritual Union set?

Lots of reverb, lots of banshee sounds, lots of shimmering guitars. Also a lot of oversharing and possibly tears.

What other acts on the line-up would you recommend checking out?

I’m absolutely stoked to be seeing some of my favourite artists like Bo Ningen and especially the Soft Cavalry.

For further information visit www.ritualunion.seetickets.com