QTheMusic.com

You can put away your camping mat (mislay it in a cupboard and buy a new one next year) and it probably is time to cut those wristbands off, as bar a handful of events the UK's outdoor festival season is over for another year following Bestival this weekend (9-11 September). While it perhaps hasn't been a classic in terms of the weather, there's been plenty of new acts joining the circuit who have got us already thinking about next year's line-ups.

With Glastonbury taking a break and the Olympics coming to London, there is already word of several of one-off events planned to compete with the more established festivals. The question is who is going to be playing them?

As one of the last major festival's to finalise its line-up each year, Bestival handily collects together a lot of the hopefuls on its Sailor Jerry Ink City stage, so provides a good opportunity to examine the freshers hoping to become summer stalwarts. Helpfully the stage is situated by busy bars and the funfair, so with turns able to pick up the passing/ drinking trade as they walk by, audiences really do vote with their feet.

In terms of this year's highlights, Yuck (pictured) have done their live reputation no harm at all this summer. Many doubted if a British-based band could convincingly do Dinosaur Jr-inspired stoner rock, but on the Isle Of Wight they confirmed again that they do this very well indeed with a blistering set of melodic, soaring songs (they also enhanced their Good Samaritan reputation at the recent Reading & Leeds Festivals lending their gear to Chicago band Smith Westerns - promising in their own right - after the latter's equipment was destroyed in the stage collapse at this year's Pukkelpop).

Possibly vying for the same mid-afternoon slots next summer, Wolf Gang and Tribes represent the more commercial end of guitar music, with both trading in proto-anthems. Wolf Gang are probably destined to be mistaken for Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All on paper only a bit in the coming months, but with their synth-led, angular indie reminiscent of The Police suggests they could be a good bet in their own right. Tribes meanwhile trade in big guitars and big choruses and while their rock'n'roll posturing is hardly subtle, you have to ask, How subtle can you really be if big fields and Main Stages are your goal?

A wider spectrum of emotion comes from Detroit singer Alex Winston, who mixes fiery Karen O-esque vocals with a pop charm and had the boozy punters enthralled. Quirky yet accessible, and with more material on the way, she could succeed where many of the home-grown, post Florence And The Machine brigade have faulted. Also with potential for bigger stages are Niki And The Dove, who were one of the last acts to play Ink City this weekend, though their rasping collection of stylish synths and electronic gongs are probably more suited to discerning slots in dance tents or second stages.

See a gallery of the new talent from the Ink City stage on Qthemusic now.

Looking further afield (ahem) this summer, it seems impossible that Ed Sheeran won't be playing bigger stages next year - possible very big if his Bestival experience was anything to go by. Booked for one of the smaller stages, helpless bouncers were overrun as crowds flocked to his set, sneaking in en masse under the tent's wall flaps. Foster The People had a similar, if more restrained, impact on the crowd at Reading & Leeds' new talent stage over the August Bank Holiday, and Miles Kane also surpassed bookers expectations drawing sizeable crowds despite his early billings all summer. The Vaccines meanwhile, have survived the potentially suffocating early hype to quietly establish themselves as future festival stars with a series of assured and swelling performances, and Laura Marling's successful baptism of fire on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage suggests that post her cathedral tour, she'll be able to handle slots bigger than she's previously taken.

In fact a more troubling question for next year's festivals is not which of this year's newcomers can fill the undercard, as Ink CIty proved there's plenty to pick from, but who will be headlining next summer?

It's curious that at the moment festivals exploded into the mainstream, the number of new bands qualified to headline them has stalled. Kings Of Leon, Muse, Kasabian and Arctic Monkeys have all made the successful step up, but contemporaries like Razorlight couldn't deliver when they had the chance and many promoters seem adverse to taking a gamble on others from that generation (The Libertines didn't top a bill when they reunited), leaving few opportunities for acts to make the step-up to headliner.

Next year it feels the time for an event needs to start taking gamble on a Two Door Cinema Club or a Foals, otherwise with our increasingly muddy summers, rising ticket prices and watered down beer, there's a danger - as Michael Eavis warned earlier this summer - this saturated festival boom is going to be more than a blip as line-up become predictable.

Fortunately for promoters who have been drawn to the safety first identikit bills, next year appears to herald the rise of a series of fresh(ish) talents they won't be able to ignore. The aforementioned Florence And The Machine along with Mumford & Sons should get the chance to headline something (assuming their second albums go well), while Adele must be in the position of choosing which bills she tops now.

Of course it's not just the events that have to take these gambles, we the festival-goers have to take a punt too. So come next spring if you see a poster with a few new or unexpected names near the top, at least consider making a leap of faith (everyone who goes to a festival in Britain does that with the weather anyway), because let's face it, Jarvis can't reunite Pulp every year.

8:52 AM | 13/09/2011