PhillGood festival in Plovdiv, July 17-19 - The Cure, Gorillaz and Moby at a new Balkan open air

This summer Plovdiv became a new dot on the Balkan music map. From July 17 to 19, the city's Greben canal hosts PhillGood (PhillGood) - a brand-new three-day festival that has pulled The Cure, Gorillaz and Moby into one place. Three names usually reserved for London, Berlin or Barcelona, not for a city two hours from the Macedonian border.

The headliners carry the weight: The Cure play on July 17, Gorillaz on the 18th, and Moby closes the third night on July 19. These aren't second-tier attractions - The Cure are a goth-rock institution with nearly half a century of career and albums like Disintegration, Gorillaz are Damon Albarn's virtual band with billions of streams, and Moby is the man who defined the electronic sound of the late nineties with the album Play.

The programme doesn't stop there. The main stage also carries Wolf Alice, Kneecap, Suede, German industrial pioneers Einstürzende Neubauten, Sleaford Mods, Just Mustard and Son Lux. The second stage, PhillCool, is made up of Thievery Corporation, Perturbator, Kadebostany and Apashe with a brass orchestra, while the third stage, PhillRave, brings techno and house names like Acid Arab, Daniel Avery, HAAi and Erol Alkan. Over thirty performers on three stages in three days.

This is the first edition, and it launches straight away with a lineup that neighbouring festivals build over years. Tickets come in three-day, single-day, VIP and camping options, and are sold through ticketstation.bg, with prices starting at around 99 euros and organised transport from Sofia. For a Balkan music lover who has spent years travelling to Budapest or Vienna for names like these, Plovdiv has suddenly become a much closer address.