Green Man 2012

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As the end of the summer festival season draws near we still have a fair few outdoor events to look forward to, ones that might be lucky enough to take advantage of the fact the summer heat has finally hit this little island (although we’re not holding our breath), and almost none more so than Usk Valley’s Green Man. Taking place in the shadow of the beautiful Black Mountains from 17-19 August, the tenth annual festival has survived as long as it has in an overly saturated market because, like many of our favourite weekends, the attention to detail and overall quality is never compromised in favour of a quick buck and a for the sake of it blockbuster name.

As with many smaller, independent affairs the line-up promises a whole host of comedy, literature and film alongside well a rather incredible musical bill, topped off by headline sets from Mogwai, Feist and Van Morrison. Everyone we’ve ever spoken to says it is the weekend’s unique atmosphere that makes it so special and even though we’re pretty sure you can all create that yourselves we thought we should give you some musical pointers too.

Yann Tiersen

The French born Tiersen’s emotion folk inspired compositions have a touch of the avant garde about them but the experimentation is warm and inclusive.

Loney Dear

Emil Svanängen’s acoustic performances are renowned for their intimacy and heart felt nature, the perfect thing to ease you into the festival’s surroundings on the first night.

Savages

If you still doubt that these post-punkers are more than just hype then you clearly haven’t seen them live yet.

The Tallest Man On Earth

Having just released his latest record, Kristian Matsson now has three albums worth of Dylan-esque material to choose from for what will undoubtedly be a majestical set.

Three Trapped Tigers

If frenzied walls of noise are your thing you would be foolish to miss these guys.

Alt-J

The creators of this years’ standout debut An Awesome Wave will be bringing their stuttering experiments to those lucky enough to be taking two days off work in order to arrive on Thursday night.

Vondelpark

We haven’t seen the Surrey three piece in quite some time so we’re looking forward to seeing how their fizzing, warm ambient sounds have evolved.

Feist

Although she probably won’t be bringing Jeff Tweedy on stage with her like last weekend’s Way Out West performance we’re pretty sure Leslie Feist will offer up an impecable set of Metals featured numbers.

Mogwai

Our favourite Scottish post-rockers will be bringing Friday night to its epically loud conclusion.