Festivals / Simple Things Festival
Simple Things: The forward thinking music festival on its long-awaited return
It’s about time Simple Things Festival makes a return to the city.
Bristol Beacon has reopened, Simple Things are celebrating a special anniversary and live music has never been more needed.
Launched in 2010 by Matt Aitken and Saul Minshall at venues including Start the Bus (now O’Neill’s on Corn Street) and the Bierkeller, the festival has built up a reputation for being a progressive and diverse event that showcases some of the best established and upcoming artists around the world.
is needed now More than ever
The first several years saw the likes of Grimes, Jamie XX, Caribou and Ghostpoet take to the stage, with Matt and Saul running everything on their own.
It was 2013 when Crack Magazine got involved, a sense of music synergy bringing the two together.
“Simple Things were booking acts that we wanted on our front page,” co-founder and director of Crack Magazine, Tom Frost tells Bristol24/7.
Launched 13 years ago, the festival has always been ahead of the curve with their lineups. photo: Simple Things Festival
2013 also saw the festival being hosted at the Bristol Beacon for the first time, a partnership that allowed the event to grow and one which effected the beloved all-dayer massively when it closed for refurbishment in 2018.
This alliance grew again a year later when Team Love, renowned for their music events such as Love Saves the Day and Forwads Festival, came onboard.
“We were still very DIY until they get involved,” Matt, co-founder of Simple Things, explains. “They bought in different methods, a better way of doing things, there was a great level of professionalism.”
The festival prides itself on sourcing some of the best artists around the world, from Skepta and JME in 2015 to Ata Kak and Nilüfer Yanya in the final event before their five year hiatus.
In 2017, partly funded by the Arts Council England, the festival had an educational programme at We the Curious, formely @Bristol, with talks, gigs and workshops held at the IMAX Cinema and the planetarium.
Returning in 2024 following Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsquent cost of living crisis, how have things changed since the last time they hosted the event?
“The cost has skyrocketed since our last event,” Tom explains. “Artists who cost £10,000 back then are now costing £20,000. There’s also a lot more competition now with Forwards Festival and Ritual Union.”
Despite such challenges, there are some positives that come with being a smaller, one day festival.
“Having less budget means that you are more creative with the lineup,” Tom tells us. “But there’s quality control behind it; Matt, Crack and Team Love. There’s a huge wealth experience in our teams and so the audience do trust us to put on a great lineup.”
The return of the festival has seen a rebrand of their visual campaign. photo: Simple Things Festival
With over ten editions, all of which have included incredible lineups, spotlighting rising stars while sometimes being the only UK tour dates for some of the international artists, Simple Things Festival have definitely earned their reputation for being a forward facing music and technology event.
Art and music go hand-in-hand with the team putting as much effort into their visual campaign as well as their music programme.
Alfie Allen, Max Marshall, Ben Dosage and Andrew Cunningham worked together on this year’s rebrand and Tom is keen to stress the importance of the visual relaunch.
“Visually, Simple Things changes each year and this year there’s an interactive visual element on the screen at the events, promotional material, social media, it’s insanely important to our identity and what they came up with last year, I just love.”
For the tenth anniversary edition, Simple Things will welcome Casisdead, Max Cooper, Warmduscher, Honesty alongside several local bands and artists, including Saloon Dion, Tlya X An, Ex Agent and Kayla Painter.
In what’s known as the “king-maker slot”, Giant Swan will be closing the main room at the Bristol Beacon this year, a slot which always draws a crowd and was previously held by punk royalty, IDLES.
IDLES performed at the festival in 2017. photo: Ro Murphy
“The lineup reflects music across Bristol but we don’t want it to fit in to Dot to Dot and Ritual Union where it’s probably a 50-50 split of Bristol artists on the lineup,” Matt says. “We want it to be very representative of the music we’re known for.”
If you want to party for 18 hours straight, this is the day to do it as the festival continues into the night with a separate programme full of events at The Love Inn, Strange Brew and The Island.
While the words next year are floated around, the focus is singularly on this year’s edition; “Next year? Lets get this year out the way, analyse and see how it goes,” Tom tells Bristol24/7.
“There’s so much going on in Bristol we want to make sure we’re being ourselves and not turning into anything else or competing with anyone else.”
The festival promises to be a homecoming and a reinvention wrapped into an all-dayer like no other.
Tickets for the festival are on sale now at https://tickets.crackmagazine.net/category/simple-things-2024
Main photo: Guila Spadafora
Read next:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
