Even though The Rapture couldn’t keep their excitement under wraps and mentioned it a month early to interviewers, and Swedish House Mafia disingenuously mentioning that they had an Australia-related announcement to make the same day the lineup was to be announced, this year’s Future Music Festival lineup is packed with a stunning array of surprises that even the most imaginative dance music fan couldn’t have guessed.
British big-beat pioneer Fatboy Slim claims one of the headline slots, along with English rapper Tinie Tempah and German trance heavyweight Paul Van Dyk.
Dubstep-heads will be thrilled to hear of Chase and Status and Skrillex both returning to Australian shores, after shows at Origin and Creamfields earlier this year respectively.
And speaking of hard-hitting dance music: the man who’s soundtracked many a bad acid trip, Richard D James – also known as Aphex Twin, is making the journey down to Australia. With a reputation for terrorizing audiences across the globe, it’s anything-goes with the IDM forerunner.
German house and techno kingpin Sven Vath was a favourite act of many a Future attendee in 2010, and apparently he dug it so much he’s returning for this year’s festival. All corners of the dance music industry are getting love, with everybody from Die Antwoord, The Wombats, James Murphy and Pat Mahoney, Jessie J, Hercules and Love Affair, The Naked And Famous, Gareth Emery, Jamie Jones, Azari & III, Frank Ocean, Alex Metric , Holy Ghost!,The Juan Maclean, Benoit & Sergio, Horse Meat Disco and Stafford Brothers on the bill with many more to come.
