In less than 24 hours Strong Island will be paying our annual visit to Blissfields festival. I am excited to introduce you my top five things to see and do at this years festival.

1 – First of all are Big Child Man Child, lead singer Matt Jarvis is well acquainted with Blissfields after playing on three previous festivals as a solo artist. Lloyd Hoy and Steve Probert are more commonly known on the south coast as the popular DJ’s The Business Partners. Together they have ventured into new musical territory for them both and have been producing exciting results. Check them out on the Larch stage on Thursday night.

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2 – Some of you might have been lucky enough to see Cosmo Sheldrake‘s performance in the Fat Fox during Southsea Fest 2013. He describes himself as a multi-instrumentalist musician, composer and producer. Cosmo plays a wide variety of instruments and brings them together using a loop station to create some fantastic tunes. Pay his YouTube channel a visit so you can see some of the unique venues he’s chosen for his live sessions.

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3 – I was introduced to The Plastic Mermaids earlier this year by a friend. Band members Douglas Richards, Jamie Richards, Chris Jones, Tom Farren and Chris Newnham hail from across the Solent on the Isle of Wight. Described by Q Magazine as a “Gorgeously textural, Polaroids sounds like Mercury Rev going on a road trip with The Flaming Lips”. After Ok Go I am confident that you would struggle to find anyone that is producing brillaintly original and entertaining music videos. A personal favourite is ‘Saturn‘, I could only dream of being that good at dancing!

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4 – Kassassin Street require no introduction to Portsmouth locals. For a long time now Rowan, Nathan, Ryan, Tom and Andy have been building a reputation as Portsmouth’s premier live band. The guys have another busy summer ahead which includes live shows at Bestival, Secret Garden Party and Victorious Festival.

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5 – Overnight I have downloaded Apple Music and my first download had to be a Taylor Swift track but my second was the incredible ‘Zaba’ by Glass Animals. The band have been capturing the attention of electro fans across the world and have just returned from a two month tour of America, performing in cities including San Diego, New Orleans and Seattle. For fans of Jungle, The xx and SBTRKT, the Glass Animals are definitely one for you.

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If you would like to join the fun then there are a limited number of tickets still available. You can get your hands on them from www.blissfields.co.uk/tickets. You can also follow the festival for updates on Facebook and Twitter @Blissfields.