With UK urban music edging closer and closer to the spotlight, more and more of our favourite MCs are appearing at festivals across the country. This year you can catch both old legends and new talents at Sundown, Neverland, and Reading & Leeds. Here is GRM’s undisputed list of the best hip-hop and grime acts to be heard over this year’s festival season.
Sundown Festival is held in Norfolk Showground in Norwich, on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of September. This year the one and only Dizzee Rascal is headlining on Saturday, alongside Chase and Status and the winner of our Legacy GRM Rated Award, the unforgettable Kano. Other acts not to miss include My Nu Leng, David Rodigan, and Flava D.
Sunday sees Krept and Konan stop travelling the world long enough to headline the main stage, with Redlight and the Artful Dodger appearing on stage 2.
Get your tickets for Sundown here.
Starting as a rock festival in 1961, over the years Reading and Leeds festivals have opened their doors to a wider variety of electronic genres, and recently grime has won it’s place at one of the UK’s biggest music festivals.
The festival runs from Friday 26th of August to Sunday the 28th. This year in Reading on the 26th and Leeds on the 27th, Boy Better Know, Giggs and Lady Leshurr grace the stages.
Krept & Konan, Travi$ Scott, Section Boyz, and DJ Semtex bring hip-hop and grime to the 87,000 strong Reading crowd on the 27th and 75,000-strong Leeds crowd on Sunday the 28th August.
Reading’s Sunday 28th and Leeds’ Friday 26th lineup features A$AP Rocky, DJ EZ, David Rodigan Yungen, and Kurupt FM.
Get day and weekend tickets here.
The Neverland festival’s location is still currently secret, but their varied and independent lineup definitely shines. Catch currently-world-dominating Little Simz, alongside Loyle Carner and garage icons DJ Luck and MC Neat, at the festival from the 28th to the 30th of July.
Get tickets here!