First acts announced for Simple Things 2016

Bristol’s massively eclectic multi-venue festival returns to the city this October for its sixth instalment featuring Warpaint, Ben UFO and more

Simple Things Festival is, without a doubt, one of the UK’s most ambitious and eclectic festivals and this year is no exception. The festival takes place in some of the most interesting and iconic venues in Bristol’s city centre and this year they will play host to a huge selection of live and DJ sets.

The main event takes place on 22 October in the usual venues of Colston Hall, The Firestation & Island Complex, O2 Academy and Lakota. The first live headliners to be announced are LA-based dreamy pop four-piece Warpaint while the ever-impressive selector Ben UFO heads up this year’s DJ sets.

Other announcements include live sets from ex-Beta Band frontman Steve Mason, ascendant pop singer Jessy Lanza, Diagonal Records head honcho Powell, current Crack cover star Abra, experimental punk band Suuns, grime upstart AJ Tracey, Kanda Bongo Man, Twin Peaks, Rival Consoles, Plattenbau, The Big Moon, Harvey Sutherland, Horsebeach and Chrononautz.

DJ sets have been confirmed from Crack cover stars Metronomy, Beats in Space host Tim Sweeney, EBM reviver Helena Hauff, UK funky originators Crazy Cousinz, Veronica Vasicka, Madam X, Lena Willikens, Boris, Courtesy, Evan Baggs, Massimiliano Pagliara, Red Axes, Mike Servito, Karen Gwyer, Marcus Nasty and Saiorse while Teklife’s top man Spinn will be heading up a label showcase featuring Traxman, Jackie Dagger and Feloneezy.

If you’ve still got stamina left after all that then you can head down to the Simple Things finale with John Carpenter who’ll be playing his latest album Lost Themes II in a special show at Bristol’s Colston Hall.

For more information on this year’s Simple Things head over to to their website and grab tickets here.

Watch this space as there are more headliners and other acts to be announced in the coming weeks.