2024
First reveal of our juicy programme is here!
“The Moth Popera is a mind-blowing show. There is definitely a correlation between CHEWY SHE and what David Bowie was up to in its early days. By being an artist that keeps pushing herself, exploring, testing, and learning different forms of art. ”
- Cerys Matthews, BBC 6 Music
Chewy She are an electro-disco-punk band, based in London. Born from the eccentric mind of bandleader Garance Louis, the music is a celebration of freedom, sex-positivity, neuro-diversity, queerness and the pursuit of ecstasy.
Having been championed by Cerys Matthews on Radio 6 in the UK, Chewy She have gone on to work with a talented cast of producers including Andy Ramsey (Stereolab) and Eddie Stephens (Roisin Murphy) and Capitol K (The Comet Is Coming, Soccer96)
The band are best understood by their live shows, which have developed into a combination of punk show and camp theatrical performance. They include a gonzo narrative, many costume changes, soliloquy, choreography and audience interaction. They are an initiation into the darkly ironic, theatrical and immersive universe of CHEWY SHE.
"Philippa has a fantastically controlled vocal style which conveys an enormous amount of feeling and meaning in every single word."
- Ryan's Gig Guide
Philippa Zawe is a Yorkshire based singer-songwriter. She is of Ugandan heritage and her songwriting is inspired by the rich stories that are told around her and that lie within her.
Her songs are rooted in the genre of Folk with an infusion of Soul. Musical inspirations include Terry Callier to Joan Armatrading, Nick Drake to Laura Marling.
The vocals Philippa delivers are earnest and soulful, the guitars are gentle and romantic, the strings are lilting and hypnotic. She has performed across Birmingham (UK) with appearances in Sheffield and London and at Moseley Folk Festival and Manchester Folk Festival.
"Tending to find a perfect balance between pop and art, Liverpool’s electro-pop trio Stealing Sheep have become synonymous with performance-based lived shows containing big ideas and big questions."
- Narc Magazine
Outsider Pop artists Stealing Sheep emerged from the Liverpool music scene in 2011. The scouse supergroup have since travelled from weirdo psychedelic-folk to darker disco sensibilities and sci-fi visions. In this DJ set, prepare to enter the realms of sheepie dance floor weirdness.
Stealing Sheep craft an ever-evolving output of vivid visual-pop. Recent adventures saw them produce the Eurovision Opening Ceremony Show and collaborate with The Radiophonic Workshop to chop up and remixed ‘foley tapes’ of electronic pioneer Delia Derbyshire.
It's an honour to have them bring their selections to NightGarden 2024 and we can't wait to hear what they spin for us on the forest floor.
"they had a cosmic energy about them. The vocals lived up to their vibe as Gina Pratt sang ‘Lucid’ in a siren-like voice. This tangled with the creamy synth bass and soulful melodies lulled the room into a dream-like sway, as we absorbed the warmth of Pocket Sun."
- Whisper Magazine
Born from a woozy synth-fueled landscape, Pocket Sun fuses alternative pop, psychedelia, and jazz, crafting an outcome that is both playful and tinged with nostalgia. Their ethereal melodies and hypnotic grooves invite you to shut your eyes and sway into synesthetic bliss.
Hailing from Bristol, UK, the band is led by vocalist and synth player, Gina Marie Tratt. Gina's background in 70’s inspired animation spearheads the band's aesthetic, ensuring each release becomes a visual extension of their sound.
Lyrically, Pocket Sun draws inspiration from universal themes such as escapism, consciousness, and nostalgia, infusing these topics with a unique poetic flair that delves into the spiritual depths of our collective experiences. With music released on Kitsuné, they share a platform with artists like Hot Chip, La Roux, and Two Door Cinema Club.
“A Masterpiece of science-inspired jazz”
- JazzXploration
“Wonderful, adventurous and experimental”
- Misty’s Mellow Mix
Hailing from Brussels and now based in Manchester, Trees.R.Good (they/them) is a producer & multi-instrumentalist on a mission: narrating Nature's powerful solutions to tackle climate change through sounds and music.
From the depth of the forest floor to the tip of trees' canopy, Trees.R.Good allies their Plant Science degree background and their musical skills to bring jazz-infused electronica music back in the living spaces. Performances include Manchester International Festival, We Out Here On Air 2021 and Band on the Wall. Bringing their 5-piece live band to NightGarden, Trees.R.Good invites us to pause, contemplate and marvel at the world around us.
Experimental performer Limpid transmits rattling, wonky electronic music for the discombobulated. Closing the festival, expect a joyous, hugely danceable DJ set to see us through to the next dimension...
“A joyful wonky disco extravaganza that fills your heart with bright sparks and your feet with helium. Bouncing like a tiny mushroom playing with a hedgehog - fantastic dancetastic”
- Fighting Boredom
Echo Juliet is a classically trained musician who fell for the allure of electronic music. Now a DJ and producer, she uses her first love of percussion as the defining element of her sound, receiving comparisons to Four Tet and Bonobo.
The radiotelephony message PAN-PAN is an international standard urgency signal to declare that someone aboard a boat, ship, aircraft, or other vehicle needs help, but for the time being, does not pose an immediate danger to anyone’s life or to the vessel itself.
Join the good ship Pan-Pan as they steer Nightgarden into eclectic, electric, oddball waters. WITHOUT a life jacket.
leoleoleo’s DJ sets bring an eclectic mix of all things left-field, as the rolling, atmospheric sounds of jazz, kraut-rock and balearica intersperse with the energetic corners of rave, disco and the global underground.
How it's Made are a dance music duo inspired by the versatile world of film and TV soundtracks throughout time and culture. Reflecting the mood and setting whilst keeping audiences on their toes, How it's Made are ever excited to hear where the mix will take them next.
Zola hopes to bring the Steel Drum to light showcasing its gorgeously bright, and colorful resonance. Lavender Rodriguez (they/them) explores afro-futuristic sounds, spinning plates of electronic dance, hyper-pop, alt-pop with an essence of soul and afrobeat muses.
hellocatfood (Antonio Roberts) is a visual artist and performer based in Birmingham. He uses a combination of hardware video synthesis and generative processes through live coding to create glitches, feedback loops, and geometric patterns.
He has performed nationally and internationally at events including SXSW, Supersonic Festival, Barbican, Corsica Studios, and Green Man Festival.
Modulate_Sc is an audiovisual artist in the field of intuitive realtime composition and VJ performance, utilising modular video synthesis to create dynamic abstract tapestries & vibrant colour frequencies correlated to sound.
Member of Modulate AV collective and co founder of Oscillate electronic music club. Currently provides live visuals for electronic music pioneer Higher Intelligence Agency.
Lauren Harrison (aka. Cath e Ode) is a Leeds-based visual artist who cuts, pastes, re-samples and distorts a catalogue of homemade moving images to create immersive visual landscapes. Her approach is inspired by Pippilotti Rist, Hannah Perry and the restrictions of obsolete media. She arms herself with a midi controller and laptop to create live collaborative and bespoke performances.
Combining cyborgism, synaesthesia and meme culture, Zaron brings a truly unique perspective to new-media art practice. Working tirelessly to ‘immanentise the eschaton’, they create connections where there are none, or are there? I can’t tell anymore...
Shannon-Latoyah Simon
Join Shannon-Latoyah Simon, and Sam Leith Taylor as they facilitate an immersive soundbath, tuning into the background sounds of Nightgarden. By capturing some of the festival’s electricity and listening to its peculiar setting, they will invite you to connect with your surroundings, and take a moment to be still.
Shannon-Latoyah is a Classical Guitarist, Angelic Reiki Master, Sound Healer, Experimental & Ambient Sound Artist. Come as you are, with open ears, intention or curiosity.
Lotte Djikstra
Join Lotte Dijkstra, a researcher, storyteller and creative practitioner whose work explores landscape and language. Listen closely for the stories hanging from branches, hopping through underbrush and rooting beneath your feet. A moment of collaborative forest-based storytelling, where you are invited to share with each other and with the very NightForest itself.
Sign up at the bar, join your forest guide for a short walk down the garden path, and step into the embrace of the NightForest.
Caro Biotteau
Join Caro for this workshop where to focus our minds and give us a purpose beyond chatting about the demise of capitalism, you will learn to sew a patchwork quilt.
Having been convinced for most of her early 20s that capitalism could be “greened”, Caro’s entire worldview shifted after completing a degree in Environmental Governance. Quilting holds a very strong political background and it is the ideal medium to break down individualism and enable cooperation. No prior sewing or political knowledge is required.
Jenny Mc Namara
This work uses colourful, striped, sequenced lights inside a tunnel structure to gently interfere with the viewer’s sense of spatial orientation and give a sensation that the tunnel is spinning. It works by creating conflict between three sensory systems (visual, body position/proprioception and balance/vestibular) and uses a moving pattern in LED light to transform the space, creating an optical illusion.
Jenny Mc Namara is an artist/designer from Dublin, living in Newcastle. She’s pattern and colour obsessed and works across a range of media including LED light and sculpture.
"I’m interested in how visual art can be used to mesmerise, capture attention, communicate visual languages, elicit emotional responses and ultimately improve mental health." - Jenny McNamara
Elias Mallo Tardiveau
Using slide film, Elias will take contextual portraits of NightGarden festival-goers to create a visual narrative of participants’ experiences and memories. After going through an analogue film development process on-site, the images will be projected within the garden, bringing participants back into a visual installation.
Bruford Low & Wildforms
Nature soundscapes, ambient loops and sparse percussion coalesce into an improvised live composition, a collaboration between Wildforms and Bruford Low, both musical alumni of NightGarden.
Intrigued? Meet by the horse box and allow yourselves to be led into the... Undergrowth.
Woe Is She
Step inside a miniature library inspired by the flora and fragrances of the NightGarden woodland. Stocked with handmade zines with spaces to enclose your foraged ephemera and scent blends, you can craft a portable paper garden to take home with you. Prolong your NightGarden experience with a sensory diary to capture time and provoke memories.
Merrick Angle
Merrick Angle is a British illustrator and designer who accidentally ended up in rural France. His animated film The Flying Girl & The Falling Boy is a rough and ready fairy tale about flight (and being a poorly
co-ordinated idiot).
Loudhead
Creativity blooms under the stars. Select your stencils, pick your paint, roll and reveal your own unique artwork. Moonlit Masterpieces is dreamt up by Loudhead, who balances a sensible teaching job with art projects. There are also ADHD-riddled plans to; create a gothic gnome village, complain daily to Scottish Power, locate and photograph knob graffiti, and still get marginally excited by the instruction diagrams on old hand-dryers…
Lola Ogunyemi
Lola Ogunyemi is an artist who loves creating work which is impossible to ignore, demanding attention from the viewer. She wants her art to make people feel seen, safe and less alone. Everyone’s a little strange and weird, EMBRACE IT. Mind Cave is a physical representation of Lola’s mind, allowing you to experience what it’s like to be in her head.
Domme Ewan
Domme Ewan is a neuro-queer Artist, Designer, Performer, and Educator based in Glasgow. Approaching digital tools in a hands-on manner; Domme blurs the conventional boundaries of interface. New News is an interactive sculpture which collages excerpts from newspapers collected during the Covid-19 pandemic. Reflecting on the absurd and poetic nature of headlines.
Kirsty E Smith
Kirsty E Smith's practice sits at the hinge of different worlds, drawing on a passion for architecture and the optimism of Futurism, all underpinned by a disarming sense of playfulness. Cave Wall emerged from DEEP SPACE MOOLOG, a multimedia installation inspired by vintage sci-fi, Neolithic cave drawings and the possibility of Time Travel.
Stan Skinny
Stan skinny is a comedian and poetry performer from Sheffield via the a38. He’s looking forward to leading people on the evening procession having previously only led them astray.
"Stan blew the roof off. His high energy characters are delightfully silly, fun and absolutely hilarious. His joy on stage is infectious."