The first acts for this year's Camden Crawl were announced last week. If you're not familiar with this opener to the festival season, it's a chance to catch lots of live music on your own journey through Camden's sticky, crowded, noisy venues. This year it takes place on 30 April and 1 May.
The festival's roots go back to 1995, but it relaunched in its current form in 2005 and has expanded steadily since. What was once a relatively low-key Thursday night shindig is now an all-weekend event that takes over most venues in Camden.
With bands crammed into virtually every venue you can think of, it's a great chance to see lots of up-and-coming acts. And while queues can build up (especially when big names play small venues - get there early if it's someone you just can't miss), the one-wristband-gets-you-in-everywhere system makes it easy to move around as you choose.
Put aside thoughts of camping out in one spot - it's called a 'crawl' for a reason. Part of the appeal is catching bands you wouldn't otherwise have seen live, so it's best to embrace the spirit of the thing, treat it like any other festival and spend your evening skipping between venues. There's usually plenty of stuff going on outside too, especially during the day.
Acts announced so far include Villagers, Cloud Control, Hadouken, Lethal Bizzle and Banjo or Freakout. But that's just the initial line-up. Based on previous years, you can bet the full list will feature loads more acts, a reasonable mix of established and new talent - plus hopefully a headliner to rival 2009's Yeah Yeah Yeahs appearance at The Roundhouse.
The Camden Crawl takes place on 30 April and 1 May. One £63.50 ticket gets you a wristband granting access to all venues for the whole weekend, or you can pick up single day tickets for £39.50 each. Buy tickets here.
If you prefer stand up gigs to music gigs have a look at the Camden Crawl's comic sister, the inaugural Comedy Crawl.
