Dot to Dot Festival: Three must see acts

THE three-day Dot to Dot festival returns to Manchester again this year, before travelling onto Bristol on May 28 and Nottingham on May 29, bringing the best new upcoming artists of 2016.

The festival, which was born in 2005, has hosted a variety of artists over the years, with appearances from Ed Sheeran, SBTRKT, Ellie Goulding and Annie Mac over the 11-year span.

Only over only the last two years, the festival has also featured some of the best and most popular artists of 2016, with the likes of Years and Years, Wolf Alice, Catfish and the Bottlemen and James Bay performing at the festival before becoming popular to a larger audience.

This year’s line-up also hosts a variety of promising artists, with The Mystery Jets, The Temper Trap, Rat Boy, Lauren Aquilina, Sundara Karma performing as headliners of the festival.

However, the festival doesn’t forget the local talent, and for each destination for the festival, there is also a line up of bands from that specific area. The Manchester bands appearing on this year’s festival include the likes of Spring King, Pale Waves, Delamere, Girl Friend and many more artists also appearing on the bill for May 27.

So if you have got yourself a ticket for this year’s Dot to Dot festival in Manchester, here are three acts certainly not to be missed.

The Hunna

The four-piece band, The Hunna, originally from Hertfordshire have rocketed to success after only forming back in October 2015. The indie-rock band certainly know how to introduce themselves into the music industry, with their debut single that welcomed the band, ‘Bonfire’ creating a rather large stir.

It really is difficult to comprehend that the four-piece have only been the indie-rock outfit for less than a year. Their songs are loaded with anthemic qualities, invigorating melodies and energy, and have sounds that are a reminder of bands such as You Me at Six intertwined with Coasts.

The band clearly know their style and know how to produce indie-anthems that are going to be played on repeat without a doubt, with strong lead vocals, riffs and rhythm sections weaving throughout every song.

Sundara Karma

The young band from Reading, Sundara Karma, will also take to the stage at this year’s festival. The indie four-piece are quickly becoming known on the band scene after supporting a variety of popular bands, appearing at a number of festivals and having their own headline tour last year.

Also releasing two EP’s filled with beautifully crafted indie anthems, ‘EP I’ and ‘EP II,’ frontman Oscar Lulu commented: “We’re hoping 2016 is going to be our year, we’re going to f*****g go for it… and maybe not party so hard.”

With their music filled with shimmering guitars and hooks, the bands singles can immediately grasp an audience’s attention from the onset. The distinct vocals from the front man, Lulu, are instantly recognisable and all four members of the band equally display their talent across their memorable singles.

Pale Waves

The refreshing four-piece made up of Heather, Ciara, Ryan and Hugo perfectly describe their genre as ‘reverb and glitter’. Their dreamy-indie pop vibe that the band radiate when performing live is certainly engaging, and the set up of two men and two women really makes the band stand out in a positive fashion.

The band has two singles currently available to listen to on Soundcloud, featuring their distinctive tracks, ‘The Tide’ and ‘Heavenly’.

The remarkable sound of the young band can be described similar to that of the Birmingham born bands such as Swim Deep, Peace and Jaws, featuring shiny riffs teamed with skating and beach-vibes.