Presview: Hinterland & Haddow Fest

Events held under one banner around various venues in a city aren't, of course, new beasts: for eight years until 2008, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen co-hosted the fondly-remembered Triptych festival over a single weekend. However, where Triptych sold separate tickets for each gig, Hinterland, Haddow Fest and Stag & Dagger (a branch of the already-established London festival) all operate on a one-ticket, all-access scheme, meaning much more music for relatively little outlay.

Today's Haddow Fest offers 50 bands for 15-20, including Idlewild, My Latest Novel, We Were Promised Jetpacks and Nine Black Alps, over eight venues; next Saturday Hinterland is hosting acts from further afield including Mystery Jets, British Sea Power, Jeffrey Lewis and DJs from Hot Chip and Friendly Fires over six venues, for 15. May's Stag & Dagger has yet to announce its venues or full line-up, but 16.50 will get you a comparable bill, including headliners Wild Beasts.

For a festival, that's dirt cheap, but then the designation shouldn't suggest these events have too much in common with their more traditional, countryside-based cousins such as T in the Park, Glastonbury and Rock Ness.

"They serve different purposes," says Mike Oman, organiser of Hinterland. "Something like T is almost a holiday in itself, people take a week off to go there, and they get a huge line-up for a fairly good cost. What we're trying to do is aimed more at an underground crowd, and it's a different commitment. We charge what you would pay to see just one reasonably-sized band on a Saturday night, and you get to stagger back to your own bed at the end of it."

"The great thing about Edinburgh," says Haddow Fest's Hamish Jolly, "is that there is a base of people who like to go and regularly watch live music, and they'll even travel as far as Glasgow, if need be. Put that together with a group of good live venues within walking distance of one another and, hopefully, you have just the right conditions."

That said, Jolly is aware of the responsibility of trying this in a city for the first time. "Lots of things like this pop up around the country every so often, but a lot of them die a very quick death," he says. "If that happens then that city is tainted, people think oh, that didn't work, so it'll never work. It's important to work hard beforehand, and to get a good balanced line-up."

One lesson Oman says he's learned from last year is not to overstretch himself. While 2009's two-day Hinterland crammed in venues around Sauchiehall Street including the ABC and Art School, this year he has scaled it back to a more manageable radius encircling a hub at the Arches. "There was too much going on last time," he says, "so we're trying to balance things a bit better now, and cut out crossover. That's impossible to do completely, of course, but you have to try to be as user-friendly as possible. I timed the walk from the Arches to our furthest venue, the Admiral, and it's four minutes. Hopefully that's a nice, comfortable distance."

The target for both festivals seems to be to establishing a foothold and then steadily grow in reputation and capacity. "I'd love to be as big as T one day," laughs Jolly, "but I don't think the police would let us have 50,000 people walking the streets of Edinburgh." More than visions of world conquest, though, these developing events are about independent promoters being pro-active in building their local scenes.

"I wouldn't recommend doing this to anyone," says Oman. "At least, not if you like sleeping for a certain amount of time each night. I'm just really passionate about making this work, though. We have a lot of support in Glasgow and it's clear that the potentials there to make this a really special event." v

Haddow Fest is at various venues around Edinburgh today (www.myspace.com/haddowfest). Hinterland is at various venues around Glasgow on Saturday (www.thehinterlandfestival.com). Stag & Dagger is in Glasgow on 22 May (www.staganddagger.com)

This Article was first published in Scotland on Sunday, March 28, 2010