One Great Song... the tracks that'll blow the roof off 2016's festival season • DIY Magazine

When it comes to festival season, there’s no limit of choice when it comes to the acts you can see. But it doesn’t always matter how diverse a line-up, or how intriguing a set may well be. Sometimes, people just want to have a dance, a singalong and they want to hear the hits.

Sometimes it’s all about that moment. You know, when a song kicks in at full pelt, you’re in the middle of a crowd losing its shit on every corner and everything in the world just feels right. These are the songs most likely to ‘go off’ this summer.

Foals — What Went Down

You know the bit. Yannis going full throttle, his already raw vocals stretched beyond their limits, screaming “you’re the apple of my eye” repeatedly, sounding less a compliment, more a full-on threat. If you’re not forming a circle pit for it, you’re missing out.

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Wolf Alice — Giant Peach

Foals play Open’er (29th June - 2nd July), Bilbao BBK Live (7th - 9th July) and AMA (23rd - 29th August), where DIY is an official media partner. Tickets are on sale now. Visit diymag.com/presents for more information.

Chvrches — Clearest Blue

Big, brutal and booming - the entire song builds to that one moment of cacophonous joy, and whether at Glastonbury, Bestival or that big set supporting Biffy Clyro in Glasgow, only the bravest will want themselves front-centre when it all kicks off.

Radiohead — 2 + 2 = 5

Wolf Alice will play Bilbao BBK Live (7th - 9th July) and Positivus (15th - 17th July), where DIY is an official media partner. Tickets are on sale now. Visit diymag.com/presents for more information.

Major Lazer & DJ Snake (feat. MØ) — Lean On

Whether the Glasgow trio have temporarily planted their pop bombast in a sweaty tent or on a massive main stage, the (probably) muddy countryside they’re in will be transformed to an open-air club once the synth riff fully kicks in on this one. Strobes, lasers, the light from a thousand mobile phones, even the fun-averse will rave on to this one.

Grimes — Kill v Maim

Chvrches will play Open’er (29th Jun - 2nd July), Bilbao BBK Live (7th - 9th July), Latitude (14th - 17th July) and Melt! (15th - 17th July), where DIY is an official media partner. Tickets are on sale now. Visit diymag.com/presents for more information.

LCD Soundsystem — All My Friends

There’s a theme here: the best songs at festivals are those which have a definitive moment everything kicks in, goes crazy, makes sense, however you want to put it. And this is probably the best Radiohead number for that (with the stop-start in ‘Just’ a near second). Fraught with anger brimming over, even the most chin-stroking ‘head head will be thrashing it out at this one.

With no idea whether DJ Snake is following Diplo and pals on their worldwide jaunt this summer, it’s the possibility of our fave Dane joining in the fun that’s gonna make this one of the hottest tracks for a second summer running. Get your worst pan flute impressions ready!

MØ will play Latitude (14th - 17th July), where DIY is an official media partner. Tickets are on sale now. Visit diymag.com/presents for more information.

That’s not forgetting the power of a singalong, and for those of us who can’t keep up with Taiwanese rapper Aristophanes on the deliciously dark ‘Scream’, there’s the wonderfully hedonistic refrain of “we don’t behave” on the equally dance-worthy ‘Kill v Maim’. Fists in the air.

Grimes will play Open’er (29th June - 2nd July), Bilbao BBK Live (7th - 9th July), Latitude (14th - 17th July) and Positivus (15th - 17th July), where DIY is an official media partner. Tickets are on sale now. Visit diymag.com/presents for more information.

Every song James Murphy and his merry band perform during the summer’s festival will be A Hit - whether the immediate ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’ and ‘Drunk Girls’ or the easiest-singalong-ever ‘Yeah’. But it’s the gang’s most sentimental number that’ll easily be the star of the disco-ball starring show, as (happy, mostly) tears will inevitably be shed worldwide to this call to (swaying) arms.

LCD Soundsystem will play Positivus (15th - 17th July), where DIY is an official media partner. Tickets are on sale now. Visit diymag.com/presents for more information.

Taken from the Festival Guide 2016. Subscribe to DIY below.

Tags: Features, Festivals, Foals, Listen