Photos by Katja Ogrin, Joe Singh and Mark Rhodes
WOW! To all of you who had your faces melted off by Supersonic 2018, our hearts are completely warmed- THANK YOU! We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend full of mind bending, life altering music and art, paired with fun and frolics shared amongst a loving, open minded community – something much needed in our current times.
Huge thanks and congratulations to our hard-working Supersonic team and volunteers who every year go beyond the call of duty to make it happen, and to our incredible artists and audience alike who elevate the whole experience to something unlike any other.
We will start posting up our Supersonic Collective memory (first started in 2009)- where we’d love to hear from you! Send your comments, blog links and photos to [email protected] with some of your highlights. Keep checking back as we add more content and share your weekend memories.
SUPERSONIC QUESTIONNAIRE
We know that people who come to SUPERSONIC are a knowledgeable and opinionated lot so we’d like to ask for your assistance to develop and improve the next festival by answering a few questions about you and your experience. This should take no more than a few minutes of your time, and your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Your answers here will aid us in keeping our work going and in making sure new and interesting artists will keep coming to the festival – so your input really does matter in making SUPERSONIC work.
REVIEW
BBC Radio 3 recorded live sets at Supersonic Festival- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b7hrwb
“Put your headphones and space helmets on for otherworldly music, mystical sounds, and transcendent live highlights from Supersonic Festival.”
The Arts Desk – 5 star review- https://www.theartsdesk.com/node/81602/view
“Supersonic Festival 2018 – Birmingham waves the flag for New Weird Britain Another vintage year for Digbeth’s annual showcase of the sonically strange…as audience members from around the UK, America, Japan and other far-flung parts of the globe got together to celebrate the weird and the wonderful.”
The Guardian – 4 star review- https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/25/supersonic-festival-review-birmingham-shirley-collins
“Supersonic is a festival of cross-genre pollination, but also one that questions what genre is.”
The Skinny Magazine – 5 star review- http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/live-music/reviews/supersonic-2018-the-review
“Supersonic, you knocked it out the park once again. It’s so important to have this annual citybreak of adventurous sounds from yesterday and tomorrow. And we already can’t wait to return in 2019.’
Clash Magazine- https://www.clashmusic.com/live/live-report-supersonic-festival-2018
“there’s an undeniable sense that Supersonic is incomparable to any other UK music festival.”
“Supersonic are not so much who I’m writing this piece for as a reason I’m writing it. That is to say: the festival’s approach to choosing lineups is a prototype of how I prefer to envisage music’s underground. A space of interactivity rather than cramped, glowering sects, where sufficient imagination can cook up a conceptual link between any two given acts. In 2018, music fans are way less rigid in their tastes than they used to be. The reasons for this are complex, although not so complex that I can’t say ‘mainly because of the internet’, but on a micro level, many identifiable entities have helped to get listeners to swerve across multiple lanes. Supersonic is, I feel, one of them.”
Flush The Fashion- http://www.flushthefashion.com/music/supersonic-festival-22-24-june-2018-birmingham/
“Since its inaugural event in 2003, Supersonic has grown to be one of Europe’s standout alternative festivals. Centred around The Custard Factory and the industrial warehouses of Digbeth in Birmingham, Supersonic has constantly evolved to fulfil its mission statement of providing experimental music for curious audiences….That’s why there is no festival like Supersonic and that’s why it has built a loyal following over the last 15 years – long may it continue.”
Fighting Boredom- http://www.fighting-boredom.co.uk/live-review/supersonic-festival-2018-friday-live-review/
“Fighting Boredom’s favourite festival is here again. Set in the Custard Factory in Birmingham, Supersonic festival is where we come to hear old favourites, discover new inspiration and immerse ourselves in the best place ‘for curious audiences’.”
Pop Matters- https://www.popmatters.com/supersonic-festival-2018-2586958730.html
“In 2018, Supersonic returned with an impressive line-up, one of the strongest in its history. From extravagant producer Yves Tumor, score master Mark Korven, instrument aficionados Mario Batkovic and Andrea Belfi, to legendary folk singer Shirley Collins, psychedelic gurus Dwarfs of East Agouza, punk legends the Ex, and black metal masters Wolves in the Throne Room, Supersonic extended its grasp.”
Echoes and Dust- https://www.echoesanddust.com/2018/07/supersonic-festival/
“Supersonic is an absolute champion among festivals, a unique and precious thing, a banquet for the musically curious.”
What’s on Brum- 5 star review – https://whatson.guide/2018/06/28/supersonic-festival-review/
“Supersonic promotes the most challenging and experimental music. Whether it’s brutalising electronica, hard EDM, noise, doom psyche or bombastic black metal, it’s here. If there’s anything more extreme, no doubt it would eventually end up at Supersonic. This is a festival not afraid to take chances.”
“For me, Supersonic festival has not only stood out from others of its kind by pushing its scope away from the one dimensional trap that is indicative of most music based festivals, but has programmed things people might not be aware of.
“And due to the nature of the event itself, those in attendance tend to be open to investigate those things.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be allowed the opportunity to present sound and visual works within the framework of an established festival that gives trust to others to bring in outside perspectives.” – Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Supersonic 2018 Guest Curator
PREVIEWS
The Skinny- http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/live-music/previews/supersonic-2018-preview-mix
“Since being founded in 2003, the festival continues to draw from some of the more hidden corners of the underground – never ceasing to challenge and surprise, but somehow managing to remain accessible and inviting too.”
The Quietus- http://thequietus.com/articles/24126-supersonic-2018-gazelle-twin
Clash Magazine- https://www.clashmusic.com/live/preview-supersonic-festival-2018
“For years now, Birmingham festival Supersonic has been at the forefront of radical music, hosting fierce artists of myriad disciplines. This year looks no different.”
I Heart Noise- http://ihrtn.net/preview-supersonic-festival-2018/
“On a personal note, I have attended the festival several times as a paying punter and I’ve never come away having not fallen in love with several “new” (to these ears, anyway) bands that I’ve witnessed over the two-and-a-bit days.”
Counteract Magazine- http://www.fighting-boredom.co.uk/live-preview/supersonic-festival-2018-day-tickets-and-lineup-information/
Louder- https://www.loudersound.com/news/supersonic-festival-adds-more-bands-to-2018-lineup
Music and Riots Magazine- http://musicandriots.com/supersonic-festival-2018-lineup-unveiled/
“This year Supersonic is championing an array of ambitious, fiercely independent, and progressive artists, each committed to doing things in their own unique way.”