The festival program has been revealed! The ears of many a music connoisseur will savor some great discoveries as well as fancy names: Jagga Jazzists, Princess Chelsea, Dánjal, Acollective, John Primer, Slagsmålsklubben, Sunglitters, Citizens, Hidden Orchestra, We Were Evergreen, Rinna Mushonga, Tenfold Rabbit, Adi Ulmansky, 3421, Gin Ga, Floex, Zrní, Prago Union, Michal Prokop trio, Psí vojáci, and Kapitán Demo. Speaking in figures, it means 195 musical projects appearing in the program of the 3 days of United Islands by Česká spořitelna, Prague’s largest open-air music festival, unveiled by the organizers earlier today. The United Islands by Česká spořitelna festival is held from 20^th to 22^nd June in Prague’s historic downtown.

The event has expanded this year to new locations headed by Kinský Garden and Petřín; the festival has kept the popular Kampa and surrounding streets. “We are glad for the new, exclusive locations; what makes us happiest, however, is the fact that the 10^th anniversary is going to be a music party right and proper. There are no supporting bands this year. Instead, people get lots of concerts in the three days plus the difficult decisions what to miss. We are hoping to have a great party with our visitors on the occasion,” David Gaydečka, one of the organizers, comments on the program. Kinský Garden will hold the Main Česká spořitelna Stage and the Radio 1 Stage. Both locations will bring samples of contemporary trends in music, such as indie, rock, pop, nu jazz, electronica, ambient and nu-folk. Petřín is where the fans of classic music styles, rock, blues and folk, will be headed because this will be the location of the Garage and Folk stages. The popular Kampa Island has retained the Česká spořitelna World Stage that offers various types of world music ranging from Polish folklore, across klezmer, Spanish temperament, and reaching to African rhythms.

The lineup of the open-air part of the festival is going to resemble a musical marathon of sorts as even the beginner listener will be having a hard time seeing all the interesting bands and projects. The principal attractions in Kinský Garden is most likely the Scottish nu jazz quartet the Hidden Orchestra, the hipster Princess Chelsea, the more and more popular indie rock Citizens and their Israeli competitors Acollective, the playful We Were Evergreen, as well as the top of Czech indie scene with Midi Lidi and Zrní.

The music blocks the visitors have enjoyed in previous editions are now even more important. The most prominent is Yellow Submarine Club Infusion, a block of seven Jerusalem bands bearing the name of a local music club. The other blocks focus on Poland and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Austria. The festival’s Desatero (Top Ten) looks into the domestic scene as it contains a selection of the organizers’ ten most favorite Czech bands. On Friday, Petřín will hold a posthumous celebration of Olga Havlová’s 80^th birthday. The stage will host the unique project of Chicago Prague Blues band on Saturday. Like in the previous years, jazz aficionados will seek the JazzDock club to see what the Český rozhlas Jazz Stage has to offer.

There is more to the Islands than the open-air stages: the tenth year offers music also after ten. The program the organizers have prepared for after 10 p.m. in 10 clubs is equally busy! To name a few, note that the performers will include the ambient producer Sunglitters and the native Spanish producer Filastine who caught the attention of the cult-status music server, Pitchfork. Fans of electronica will enjoy the premiere of Sweden’s Slagsmålsklubben project that has a thing for playful 8-bit sound. After an industrious European tour and a stop at the overly famous Primavera festival, the Austrian band of Gin Ga is coming Prague, an ensemble that has been likened to Arcade Fire. Dánjal will be presenting a Danish mix of klezmer, rock and folk music.