Bloc Festival is at London Pleasure Gardens this weekend

Bloc Festival is in the London Pleasure Gardens this weekend and it is sure to kick start what will be an epic new landscape.

This year the line-up is as eclectic as its venue: rapper Snoop Dogg will play alongside minimalist composer Steve Reich in the industrial Pleasure Gardens.

This is the first time that Bloc has left its Butlins home and ventured into the capital and it probably wouldn’t have done so unless the site was right.

In this case it’s a 60,000 square metres outdoor derelict space in the Royal Docks that has been redesigned by the team behind Glastonbury’s Shangri-La.

Launched last weekend, it’s dusty and slightly barren with a backdrop of a towering warehouse.

Bloc is one of the first to take over the waterside Docklands location and is bringing with it the MS Stubnitz – an 80-metre old German ship that has been revamped into a travelling soundsystem.

Global superstar Snoop Dogg is headlining on the Friday night with old-time ravers Orbital on the Saturday. Among the bigger names – Squarepusher, James Blake, Flying Lotus – there’s underground acts aplenty.

Bloc 2012 is on July 6 + 7. Tickets are still available. Visit www.blocweekend.com.