Now in it’s 6th year and taking in three cities - Nottingham, Manchester and Bristol over the second May Bank Holiday weekend, the Dot To Dot Festival is almost upon us once again.

Each year the festival aims to put on and showcase the most exciting new talent around. In the past the like of Florence and the Machine, The XX, Glasvegas, Beach House and many more who have now become household names have played.

It promises to be an exhilirating day and night of live music taking in Rock City, Rescue Rooms, Stealth and The Bodega.

Instead of running through every band on the line-up, we've decided to highlight the ten we think will make your festival go with a bang on Sunday 29 May...

...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD

Worryingly, this band probably started out when many of the people going to Dot To Dot weren’t even born, but their live shows are still as explosive and electrifying as anything you are likely to experience all day. They can be loud, ferocious and just down right insane, and often in the same song. Their set is bound to be a blitzkrieg of riffs, noise and energy.

Read an interview with ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead on LeftLion.

ALESSI'S ARK

Alessi’s Ark is a young singer-songwriter who plays lilting folk-pop with shades of chamber-pop and wouldn’t be out of place alongside the current crop of of kooky folky types from across the Atlantic such as Feist - except she’s from North London and her songs have the dark and twisted undertones of old lullabies.

CULTS

Forget the circle-jerking blog hype that surrounded this New York based duo when they anonymously uploaded some songs to the internet a couple of years back; and instead bask in their glorious lo-fi pop that takes in anything from lush chillwave to 60s girl groups.

DOM

Playing the kinds of scuzzy new wave indie rock that bands like Best Coast and the Vivian Girls have been peddling recently. The band sound like they are trying to put all of the great guitar pop bands of the 1980s through a blender, with C86 influenced fuzz and murky vocals existing at the point where ramshackle and togetherness collide.

FIXERS

They’re from Oxford yet their sound has more in common with the the psychedelic pop of Animal Collective’s recent output. Imagine if Brian Wilson had access to ecstasy and a bank of keyboards instead of acid and a room full of musicians. If the sun isn’t out on the day of the festival, this band’s music has enough sunshine radiating from it to more than compensate.

THE JOY FORMIDABLE

Years of touring and self-funding their own releases finally paid off last year when they finally got signed. Welding shoegazey fuzzy guitars to glorious addictive pop songs, Joy Formidable aren’t afraid to rock hard whilst embracing the more pop end of the spectrum. Like moshing with a mouthful of popping candy.

THE NAKED AND FAMOUS

Listed as one of the BBC’s 'Sounds of 2011' and fresh from playing The Bodega earlier in the year, The Naked And Famous return to Nottingham to bring their exuberant dreamy electro to Dot To Dot. Recent singles Punching In A Dream and Young Blood were brimming with inventive melodies and expect more of the same.

NIKI AND THE DOVE

Will be bringing their bewitching and dark electro-pop all the way from Sweden. They may have that detached air of coolness that many Scandinavian acts exude, but their music is anything but that, as pounding glacial synths and deliciously spooky vocals go straight for the jugular.

STAGECOACH

Making the kind of post-grunge racket that manages to successfully weld a riot of noisy guitars to actual songs. There are shades of Weezer, Dinosaur Jr and Guided by Voices in what they do. It rocks, it’s unpretentious, but above all they will bring the kind of fun that you want at a festival.

TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS

Vying with ...And You Will Know Us Trail of the Dead for the best name at the festival, which is probably enough of a reason to go and check them out. Fortunately, the producer-type also makes sublime glitchy, euphoric electronica that sounds like a hundred computers getting down and dirty on the dance floor. Expect very messy scenes.

Local Nottingham artists will be representing more than ever at this year’s festival, and because you should all support your local scene make sure you catch these in action...

BABY GODZILLA

DELTA SUN

HARLEIGHBLU

HOT HORIZONS

KOGUMAZA LONG DEAD SIGNAL

MANIERE DES BOHEMIENS

RONIKA ROYAL GALA

SPOTLIGHT KID

SWIMMING

WILL JEFFERY

YUNIOSHI

Win a Pair of Tickets! (Competition is now closed)

We are a generous bunch here at LeftLion towers, so we've decided to give one lucky reader the chance to win a pair of tickets to the Nottingham leg of Dot To Dot.

All you have to do to be in with a chance to win is to answer this very simple question...

Name the three cities where the Dot To Dot Festival takes place?

All answers should be sent by email to music(at)leftlion.co.uk* with the title ‘Dot To Dot Comp’ including your name and telephone number by 6pm on Monday 23 May 2011 . The winner will be picked at random.

* Replace (at) with the @ symbol

The Dot To Dot Festival Nottingham 2011 line-up

ROCK CITY MAIN HALL

22.00 - 23.00: Hurts

20.15 - 21.15: We Are Scientists

18.45 - 19.30: The Naked & Famous

17.15 - 18.00: Ed Sheeran

16.15 - 16.45: Swimming

15.15 - 15.45: Alpines

14.15 - 14.45: Long Dead Signal

23.45 - 03.30: Matt Horne Presents: Session

MAT HORNE DJ SET / THE TRASH SOCIETY DJS/ PUSH MUSIC DJS /PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

ROCK CITY BASEMENT

00.45 - 01.15: Royal Republic

23.45 - 00.15: Romance

21.15 - 21.45: Frontiers

19.30 - 20.00: The Lines

18.15 - 18.45: To Kill A King

16.45 - 17.15: Foreign Office

15.45 - 16.15: The Suzukis

14.45 - 15.15: Zebedy Rays

13.45 - 14.15: Baby Godzilla

TRENT MAIN ROOM

21.30 - 22.30: Trail Of Dead

20.00 - 20.45: Joy Formidable

19.00 - 19.30: Dananananaykroyd

18.00 - 18.30: Benjamin Francis Leftwich

17.00 - 17.30: Braids

16.00 - 16.30: Hot Horizons

15.00 - 15.30: Spotlight Kid

TRENT UNI - THE PULSE

21.00 - 21.30: TBC

19.30 - 20.00: Colourmusic

18.30 - 19.00: I Dream In Colour

17.30 - 18.00: Jake Morley

16.30 - 17.00: Stagecoach

15.30 - 16.00: Veto

14.30 - 15.00: Royal Gala

THE BODEGA

01.00 - 01.45: King Charles

00.00 - 00.30: Cults

23.00 - 23.30: Fixers

22.00 - 22.30: Alessi’s Ark

21.00 - 21.30: Ronika

20.00 - 20.30: Tom And The Tides

19.00 - 19.30: Lanterns On The Lake

18.00 - 18.30: Various Cruelties

17.00 - 17.30: Kogumaza

16.00 - 16.30: TBC

15.00 - 15.30: Lux Lisbon

14.00 - 14.30: Will Jeffrey

RESCUE ROOMS

00.15 - 01.00: Morning Parade

22.30 - 23.30: Guillemots

21.00 - 21.45: The Phoenix Foundation

20.00 - 20.30: Dom

19.00 - 19.30: Is Tropical

18.00 - 18.30: The Holidays

17.00 - 17.30: Get People

16.00 - 16.30: Wolfgang

15.00 - 15.30: Allie Moss

14.00 - 14.30: Childhood

STEALTH LIVE ROOM (DOWNSTAIRS)

02.00 - 03.00: Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (Live)

00.45 - 01.30: SBTRKT (Live)

23.30 - 00.15: Hyetal (Live)

22.30 - 23.00: Becoming Real (Live)

21.30 - 22.00: Trophy Wife

20.30 - 21.00: Born Blonde

19.30 - 20.00: Niki And The Dove

18.30 - 19.00: All The Young

17.30 - 18.00: Yaaks

16.30 - 17.00: Yunioshi

STEALTH UPSTAIRS

04.00 - Close: Dollop DJs

02.30 - 04.00: Blawan

01.00 - 02.30: Mimm DJs

23.30 - 01.00: Lost Boyz DJs

16:00 - 23:00: Mute: The Smirnoff Silent Disco

The Dot To Dot Festival Nottingham takes place on Sunday 29 May 2011. Click here to buy tickets.

Dot To Dot Festival website