Last year's Rock The South flaunted all the fours with its '44 acts over four days' fourth edition. This year's fifth anniversary edition, which is endorsed by the Valletta 2018 Foundation, will see the festival go back to a three-day format, but it will still, however, offer a line-up of more than 40 acts. Kicking off on Friday April 15, once again at ZION Restaurant & Reggae Bar in Marsacala, the festival's three days will be jam-packed with with live music from an explosive line-up of top local and international acts performing on two separate stages, further to which the programme also sees the return of the Silent Disco, which went down very well when it was introduced for the first time last year.
The music on offer at Rock the South, as has become synonymous with this celebration of all things alternative, will present a varied line-up. There is a strong Italian presence thanks to performances from hardcore act On A Ship, instrumental rock duo Sdang, alt-rockers Plan De Fuga, Angler and Dorian Gray, which will incorporate an interesting blend of sound and vision, the latter's live performance enhanced by artist Paolo Bacilieri's accompanying. Another international act on the bill will be UK band My Drug Hell.
The Friday programme will start around 6:30pm with the first stage being dedicated to 2-piece bands, the line-up featuring Paragon, Beesqueeze, Krishna and Italian duo Sdang. The second stage, on the other hand, will have a metal flavour, with performances from On a ship (Italy), Bila, Angler (Italy) and ClubMurder. The last act of the night will be KNTRL.
On Saturday, the action once again kicks off at 6:30pm, with the first stage featuring indie pop and rock acts, namely LifeLong War, Canvas Wall, Plan De Fuga (Italy) and nosnow/noalps. The second stage will feature Massacre House Party, The Voyage , Dorian Gray (Italy) and Brodu, witht he closing act being local electronic act Crux.
The third and final day, Sunday, will start at 1pm with a hiphop line-up featuring Umannimali, Sempliciment tat -Triq and Tydal & The Acquaintances, followed by late afternoon performances from Eversity, Pyramid Suns, WaterWings, Falcon's Flying Circus and Dance Apollo. The evening schedule will focus on female-fronted bands, namely Jack's Fusion, Cryptic Street, Lucy's Last and Fuzzhoneys. The second stage will have an eclectic line-up, mixing up jazz fusion and indie rock from the likes of The Ranch, Vertigo Dingo, The Velts and My Drug Hell (UK), with UK_based Maltese act nBome rounding off the night.
As for the Silent Disco, DJ sets will be starting at 10pm on Friday and Saturday, and around 5pm on Sunday. This year's DJ acts are A Critical Mass, Trackage Scheme, Bass Culture, Freedom Fighters, Sick of Ants, FDM Crew and the Rock The South Malta crew.
Doors open at 6pm on Friday and Saturday and at 1pm on Sunday.
Click here for more information. Here's a little reminder from last year's edition!