Secret Garden Party announces line-up, drops headliner to support grassroots artists

Secret Garden Party has announced its line-up, which this year, is taking a different approach to programming. In support of venue Chai Wallahs' Drop a Headliner campaign, to nurture homegrown talent, the festival has booked exclusively grassroots artists for its 2024 instalment.

Under the theme Secret Garden Party: Roots, the festival is set to welcome back favourite areas from previous years including The Lost Woods, Doghouse, The Garden Shed and The Pagoda in order to feature an expanded line-up traversing genres including disco, house, techno, UKG, drum 'n' bass and beyond.

350 artists are set to play across the weekend, including Unkle, Crystal Fighters, Chinchilla, Carly Wilford, Adelphi Music Factory, Frankie Wah and Jakkob with collectives such as The Living Room, Save Our Scene, Dubtendo, Noiganica and Parable Music also getting involved.

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"We believe in being a breeding ground for talent to grow," explains SGP founder Fred Fellowes on the decision to Why allocate a massive budget to one or two headliners when it could fuel another 50 outstanding acts? This year's focus is on providing grassroots artists the ability to shine, whilst actively redefining festival experiences for the future."

"Having been ardent supporters of the grassroots scene for over 20 years, we were chuffed when Secret Garden Party agreed to be the first independent festival to collaborate with us on the ‘Drop a Headliner’ campaign," adds Chai Wallahs founder Si Chai. "There is so much more enjoyment to be had in the discovery of new music, and please trust me when I say that there is a massive world of undiscovered talent. For the grassroots scene to survive and thrive, this talent needs platforms and opportunities to be able to develop, so we must address the disparity.

"This campaign highlights not only the opportunities for programmers to be more creative with their million pound budgets, but also presents a chance to support a whole ecosystem of artists. It provides greater enjoyment to open minded music lovers, and a healthy alternative to playing the big name game, where programmers are held to ransom by unscrupulous booking agents.

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"Goaded into exclusivity battles with corporate players, and lumbered with countless arguments about where someone's ‘Giant Ego’ appears on a poster; imagine a grassroots scene so vibrant that you could discover something new, to suit any mood, at any time, on any stage, at any venue or festival. If you love music and discovery then get involved…. Roots don’t grow unless you feed them!"

Tickets for Secret Garden Party are available now, grab yours here. You can check out the full line-up below.

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