Kaleidoscope festival 2018: Tickets, line-up and everything you need to know

A brand new festival comes to north London this weekend.

Kaleidoscope, at Alexandra Palace and Park, will fuse together music, theatre, poetry and panel discussions.

It will feature everything from one of America's best loved alternative rock bands to an immersive theatre experience taking place deep within the rarely opened basements beneath the Palace.

Here, we round up everything you need to know ahead of the festival.

When and where is it?

The festival will take place across one day, July 21. It will take over the iconic Alexandra Palace, a long-standing bastion of live music, and the adjoining Alexandra Park, with six indoor and outdoor stages spread across both.

Music

The musical contingent of Kaleidoscope is comprised of both live performances and DJ sets.

Headlining the live side of things will be eclectic rockers, The Flaming Lips, alongside the genre-defying Ghostpoet. Mystery Jets, the Go! Team and Beth Orton are among the other highlights.

Heading up the DJ programme is the legendary radio host and soundsystem extraordinaire, Norman Jay. The 2 Bears, a collaboration between Joe Goddard of Hot Chip and Raf Blundell, are joined on the line-up by Don Letts and Mike Pickering.

There will also be the chance for festival-goers to test their MCing skills with a spot of Hip Hop Karaoke, run by the perennial party-starters Southern Hospitality.

Comedy, poetry and talks

Dr John Cooper Clarke, the punk rock poet, is the headline act when it comes to words and comedy at Kaleidoscope. Katherine Ryan, Mark Watson, Eshaan Akbar and Jonny & The Baptists complete what is a stellar comedy line-up.

Poetry comes courtesy of Bang Said The Gun and Mike Garry, while a number of discussions will be hosted by Caught by the River and Funzing Talks.

Theatre and performance

The theatre and performance side of Kaleidoscope is a delightfully wide-ranging. The Glory, a queer pub in Haggerston, will host one of its raucous drag parties, while the Handlebards, a group of four bicycle-straddling actors, will perform their version of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

The Tin Shed Theatre Company will perform Le Flea, its brand of physical theatre that is as absurd as it is enjoyable. Pub, a play by street theatre company Molly Orange, humorously tackles the issue of spreading gentrification.

There’s also a secret immersive theatre experience set to take place below the Palace in its basements, run in conjunction with Rift. Organisers are keeping tight-lipped about what it will entail, so you’ll have to head down and find out for yourself.

Tickets

Tickets for the festival are still available, costing £50.75 for adults (14 years and over), £17.75 for children (five to 13 years) and £2.25 for infants (five years and below). They can be purchased here.

Travel

Train: Alexandra Palace train station

Tube: Wood Green (Piccadilly line)

Car: There is no parking available in or around Alexandra Palace, apart from disabled parking