Performing at Big Day Out Festival 2008

The greatest touring festival in the world is rolling round yet again — and 2008 has the look of a real classic. Among those booked to rock your socks off are home-turf heavyweights Silverchair and Hilltop Hoods (whose "What a Great Night" makes a fine tone-setter) and visiting headliners Bjork — "Earth Intruders" comes from 2007's brilliantly abrasive Volta — and Rage Against the Machine. We stir more spice into the BDO '08 melting pot, in Next Steps.

Any great music festival should be both eclectic and international — and BDO '08 hits just the right balance, pitching Canada's Arcade Fire (wizards of sound, as ever, with "No Cars Go") into the mix along with stellar English newcomer Kate Nash — does feisty female pop get any better than "Foundations"? — as well as rockers from near (British India, Karnivool) and far (the U.S.A.'s Anti-Flag and Brand New). Work up a sweat to the many beats and grooves of our BDO Deep Cuts.

The BDO Boiler Room generates volcanic levels of heat in 2008, thanks to the likes of trance superstar BeXta — aka Rebecca Poulsen — whose remixed "One for the Road" has been one of '07's great club adrenalizers, and England's Krafty Kuts (Martin Reeves): "Tell Me How You Feel" ploughs a loose, funky furrow. And the breakneck pace, and driving bass, of Die! Die! Die!'s "I Wanna" is nothing short of exhilarating.

BDO has done it again, with a fluid line-up that unites veterans like Billy Bragg and Paul Kelly with young guns (including Liam Finn, son of Crowded House's Neil, and Midnight Juggernauts), and deftly walks the line between rock (Grinspoon) and rave (Carl Cox). In 2008 you get to admire the syllable skills of New York's Dr. Octagon (one of Keith Thornton's several aliases) and the U.K.'s prince of grime Dizzee Rascal, marvel at the infectious turntablism of UNKLE, and stomp along to Pluto. Outstanding.