Alter Festival launches, announces phase one line-up

The teams behind Wax Palace and Aurora Sound have joined forces to launch Alter Festival.

Set to take place between August 2 and 4, its first line-up announcement includes mi-el, Ohmydais, DJ Love, TSUNIMAN, Stolen Velour and Melati. The full list of names can be found here, with the line-up set to play across two stages to its 700-capacity crowd.

Alter Festival's intention is to be representative and inclusive of club culture, with women, non-binary and LGBTQ+ bookings at the forefront. The festival's founders both grew tired of tokenistic bookings on event programming, reinforced by The Jaguar Foundation's 2022 report which uncovered that only 28% of dance and electronic music artists performing at music festivals were women or non-binary.

Read this next: Why Jaguar is fighting against the dance music 'boys' club'

"It's so important to see women as headliners because we're rarely given big slots," adds one of four co-founders Ruth Dixon. "We're often on when nobody's in the room."

Co-existing with this motivation, its founders aim to foster a sense of community across the three days, encouraging attendees to participate in group activities including shared meals, pub quizzes, campfires, yoga, workshops and more. This, Alter's press release reads, "speaks directly to the sense of alienation that many young people are reportedly experiencing in what’s being deemed a ‘loneliness epidemic'."

“Bringing people together through the shared joy of dance music is at the heart of what we’re trying to do,” adds Wax Palace and Alter co-founder Matilda. And, to contribue to this, Alter is set to encourage no-phone zones to encourage presence and connection. “We’re very proud that after hosting our 2022 [Wax Palace] festival; the biggest piece of feedback we received was how ‘overwhelmingly nice’ everyone was.”

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Tickets for Alter Festival are available now, starting at £84. Grab one here.

Niamh Ingram is Mixmag's Weekend Editor, follow her on Instagram