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From Brit award winning The Last Dinner Party to dance legends Groove Armada, HowTheLightGetsIn has been home to cutting-edge music across all genres. A carefully curated lineup of award winning artists is in the works for HowTheLightGetsIn Hay 2025.
Explore previous HowTheLightGetsIn performers below.
An award-winning English singer/songwriter, Laura Marling's easy voice, old-soul lyricism, and deft fingerpicking evoke the warm and wintry vibe of late-'60s/early-'70s classic rock and folk. Emerging in 2008 with Alas I Cannot Swim, she quickly made a name for herself in the burgeoning West London folk scene alongside contemporaries like Mumford & Sons, Noah & the Whale, and Johnny Flynn.
She took home a Brit Award in 2011 for Best Female Solo Artist and has been nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize multiple times. Marling earned her first Grammy nomination in 2018 for her sixth album, Semper Femina, which, like her two prior outings, sought to temper her bucolic English folk with breezy, Laurel Canyon mysticism. She also formed the duo Lump with producer Mike Lindsay, before releasing 2020's Grammy- and Mercury Prize-nominated Song for Our Daughter.
Members of one of Scotland's most influential and critically acclaimed bands - Belle and Sebastian - since 1996, Richard and Chris have DJ’d together around the globe.
At HowTheLightGetsIn, the folk-pop pair blended the sounds of lounge, indie, psych, exotica and a wealth of rare and wonderful genres, for what was a seminal night of music.
'Burst politely onto the scene 20 years ago, but continue to offer musical surprises' ~ Mojo Magazine
Groove Armada are an English electronic music duo, composed of Andy Cato and Tom Findlay. They achieved chart success with their singles "At the River", "I See You Baby" and "Superstylin'". The duo have released nine studio albums, four of which have charted in the UK Albums Chart top 50.
The electronic music innovators brought the house down with an electrifying DJ set at HowTheLightGetsIn Hay 2022.
The Last Dinner Party has made waves on the UK indie-rock scene with its rapid rise to critical acclaim over the last year. Named BBC Radio1's sound of 2024, and winner of the Brit 'Rising Star' award, the band is set to be the most influential of their generation.
The group bought their unique sound and trademark avante garde aesthetic to HowTheLightGetsIn Hay 2023.
British dance group Clean Bandit found crossover success by weaving classical music with dance-pop for a beat-driven yet refined sound -- often delivered with high-profile guest vocalists. After scoring their first hit with the multi-platinum international sensation "Rather Be," featuring Jess Glynne (from 2014's New Eyes), they issued a string of U.K. chart-toppers that proved successful around the world, including "Rockabye" with Sean Paul and Anne-Marie, "Symphony" with Zara Larsson, and "Solo" with Demi Lovato, all of which were included on 2018's What Is Love? They again reached the U.K. Top Ten with 2020's "Tick Tock" featuring 24kGoldn before releasing 2021's "Higher" with Iann Dior.
Steam Down is a collective, a weekly night, and a genuine movement. Formed in May of 2017, the project was born out of Ahnansé’s desire to reconnect to a community: fractured not only by endless touring, but the forces of gentrification and censure threatening the arts across the capital. Lacking a stable and collaborative space in which such creativity could flourish, Ahnansé chose simply to make his own: in Steam Down’s case, their musical Mecca proved to be a railway arch bar in South London, soon home to a frenzied, weekly jam-night infamous for its opportunity for reflection, release...and a lot of sweat.
Don Letts’ reputation has been firmly established in both the film and music worlds over the course of a career spanning five decades. He came to notoriety in the late 70's as the DJ that single-handedly turned a generation of punks onto reggae, and directed over 300 music videos for a diverse mix of artists ranging from The Pretenders to Bob Marley, before moving on to make documentaries on the likes of Gil Scot-Heron, The Clash and Paul McCartney. The Grammy-winning veteran DJ currently hosts a weekly show on BBC Radio 6 Music, blending classic sounds with the best up-and-coming new talent from the world music scene.
“The elder statesman of punk” - Metro
With one of the best live dance music shows on the planet, Crazy P have been leaving their mark on the landscape of British dance music for the last 15 years. They have risen to cult status with their irresistible fusion of house, disco and funk fusion, winning iTunes Best Dance Album of the Year.
At HowTheLightGetsIn Hay 2024 they bought their party to Hay- filling the festival with dance anthems late into the night.
"Second to none" - DJ Mag
Mercury Prize winner Badly Drawn Boy has been producing indie anthems for over 30 years. Named by Q Magazine as one of "50 Bands to See Before You Die", Badly Drawn Boy scored Hugh Grant's classic film, 'About a Boy', and has since solidified himself as a contemplative musical force to be reckoned with.
Hot Chip are an English synthpop band formed in London in 1995. The group consists of multi-instrumentalists Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard, Al Doyle, Owen Clarke, and Felix Martin. They are occasionally joined by former member Rob Smoughton for live performances and studio recordings. The group primarily produces music in the synth-pop and alternative dance genres, drawing influences from house and disco.
Hot Chip began as a bedroom recording project for Taylor and Goddard, who met while students at Elliott School, Putney; their earliest lineup included Smoughton as their drummer. After completing two EPs, Mexico (2001) and San Frandisco (2002), the group released their debut album, Coming on Strong (2004) and added Doyle, Clarke, and Martin to their lineup. The band's second album, The Warning (2006), was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Their follow-up, Made in the Dark (2008), included the single "Ready for the Floor", which was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. The band have subsequently released the albums One Life Stand (2010), In Our Heads (2012), Why Make Sense? (2015), A Bath Full of Ecstasy (2019), and Freakout/Release (2022).
Gwenno is a Welsh musician. She has released three critically-acclaimed albums as a solo artist: Welsh Music Prize winner Y Dydd Olaf (2014); Le Kov (2018), her first album in Cornish; and Tresor (2022), which is shortlisted for a Mercury Prize.
In October 2018, the Cornish Language Board claimed that Saunders' album Le Kov had contributed to a 15% increase in the number of people taking Cornish language exams during 2018.
Wales Arts Review included two of Gwenno's albums on their 2021 list of the greatest Welsh albums of all-time: Le Kov at 18 and Y Dydd Olaf at 64.
Gwenno performed a fantastic set at HowTheLightGetsIn London 2022.
The indie veterans Mystery Jets first emerged onto the music scene in 2006 with their debut LP Making Dens and have since released six albums to critical acclaim. Dropping their latest project A Billion Heartbeats during lockdown in April 2020, the LP was shaped by political protest and the power of social activism.
Garnering support from The Guardian, Clash, The Line of Best Fit and NME for their emotive storytelling, Mystery Jets have been long term advocates for social change - “This album wasn’t about making pointed opinions,” says frontman Blaine Harrison. “It was about being a mirror for what’s going on, reflecting back the way people are feeling.”
Porij (as in porridge) is a British four-piece band that blends house, garage, new wave and lo-fi pop. Comprising Eggy (vocals and keys), Tommy (vocals and guitar), Jammo (bass) and Tom (drums), the four were sharing university halls and studying popular music together at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Having tentatively started to make beats, it was when a friend’s band pulled out of a live show that they were asked to step in with only a week to write a setlist. Hotly tipped by the likes of The Guardian, Dork, The Daily Star, Evening Standard, NME, DIY, Clash - the band were also part of the recent British Music Embassy SXSW performance.
Contenders for both a Mercury Music Prize and a Grammy, genre-defying duo Zero 7 sold more than a million copies of their debate album alone. Their diverse stable of collaborators range from Sia and Jose Gonzalez to Spice Girl Emma Bunton, while the pair have worked and reworked tracks for everyone from Radiohead to Lenny Kravitz.
Fronted by the electrifying Natalia Tena ("Harry Potter," "Game of Thrones"), Molotov Jukebox have been shaking festival audiences from Glastobury to Brazil with their lend Latin, Balkan, and funk into their signature "Gypstep" sound.
Lauded by Iggy Pop, Baba Ali fuse post-punk grit with electronic grooves, crafting a sound both raw and hypnotic. Already famed for electrifying live shows, the duo are fast becoming a indominabel force in the underground music scene.
A Truly Unique Offering
The Independent
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