Rainbow Serpent Festival Reveals First-Round 2015 Line-Up

The Rainbow Serpent Festival has revealed its extensive first-round line-up for 2015 in preparation for next year’s 18th Australia Day weekend event.

Given the sell-out status of 2014’s festival, you’ll be wanting to act quickly once tickets go on sale on August 13 at 10am via the event website, because holy moly are we in for a doozy of a year.

The first line-up announcement lifts the veil on Rainbow Serpent’s inaugural international contingent for 2015, and the annual celebration of music, arts and lifestyle have pulled out all the stops in gathering up a fine selection of artists to ensure hips don’t stop shaking for the four-day duration of the festival when it kicks off on January 23 next year.

Leading the charge are renowned US experimental world/fusion outfit Beats Antique, who are bringing in tow their new album and multimedia touring show, A Thousand Faces, to the Rainbow Serpent realm, and promises a multi-sensory experience through shifting soundscapes that straddles the chasm between dramatic odyssey and genre-bent rock opera.

Also among the headline ranks are fellow Americans Amani Friend and Treavor Moontribe, aka Desert Dwellers. With more than 12 full-length albums to their name, as well as several remixes, singles, and EPs, the boys of DD are set to finish 2014 in a big way, with a seven-week US tour lying before them as openers for famed Twisted Records artist Shpongle! Have a listen to Misty Mountain, which is quite literally one of very few pieces of their material available on YouTube that actually falls below the 50-minute-long mark:

It’s not all Yank central, we swear, but fellow big-name drawcard (and Pharmacy Music mastermind) Christopher Lawrence just happens to hail from the United States as well, but you can forgive him that considering the wild acclaim the man has accrued over his long and storied career. A prior winner of the IDMAs’ “Best American DJ” award, a Grammy nominee, as well as the recipient of all kinds of encouraging titles from electronic-music press around the world, Lawrence is well and truly a cut above when it comes to the field of turntablists, decksmiths, beatmasters and Skrillex.

That triumvirate of triumph is more than capably backed up by the remainder of Rainbow Serpent’s first batch of international stars, including German luminaries Audiomatic, Electric Universe, Marcel Dettmann, and Vaishiyas; UK contingent Lee Burridge, Laughing Buddha, Ben Coda, and Odjbox, and globally sourced identities such as Petar Dundov, Broken Toy, Pena, The Floozies, Kukan Dub Lagan, James Copeland, Solid Snake, Symbolic, and solo sets from the Desert Dwellers lads.

“With five stages running almost continuously over four days, there is plenty of choice for everyone attending,” Rainbow Serpent Festival director Tim Harvey said in a statement.

“It’s a massive undertaking to program almost 180 hours of music, but it’s also very rewarding as we discover new talented artists to present to the Rainbow faithful every year.”

Further announcements will drop from the Rainbow Serpent camp in the near future; until then, keep an eye on our Festivals hub for further updates, or see the event website.