Virtual Festivals' weekly news round up

Sonisphere, Tom Jones, No Oasis, The Libertines

United Kingdom | 13 February 2009

So here we are boys and girls, Metallica and Linkin Park have been announced to play the hot new heavy rock festival Sonisphere at Knebworth House.  This exciting newbie is the first European touring festival touching down in the UK, Holland, Spain, Germany, Sweden and Finland.

Speaking about playing the festival series, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said: "We're stoked to be touring England and Europe with Sonisphere. Summer festivals in Europe are what Metallica do best."

Indie rockers Elbow and Razorlight have been confirmed to play T in the Park and Oxegen. With both festivals traditionally having a very similar line up Pete Doherty and White Lies have also been booked to play both.
Bruce Springsteen announces his first ever UK festival date selling out tickets to London's Hard Rock Calling. AC/DC are rumoured to headline the Saturday night (27 June). Watch this space!
 
Another rumour floating about is that Mr. Springsteen will also be on the top spot for the Pyramid stage at this year's Glastonbury (on the Saturday).
 
As predicted by Virtual Festivals, masked metallers Slipknot are headlining the Saturday (12 June) night at this year's Download Festival in Donington Park. Other major line-up additions include Limp Bizkit who recently returned to their original line up. Dance rock legends The Prodigy and Whitesnake are also set to headline the three day festival.
 
It's been confirmed by Isle of Wight Festival organisers that Oasis and Kings Of Leon will definitely not be playing the festival in June.  Rumour has it that U2 are more likely contenders.
 
Also this week, Tom Jones expressed his desire to play Glastonbury and White Lies, Little Boots, Animal Collective and more have been confirmed to play Liverpool Sound City 2009. Tickets are now on sale for Sonisphere and Download. Everybody's feeling the credit crunch as Hellfire festival has announced a limited offer on special discounted tickets and Snowside festival tickets get cheaper. Good news for us though.

By helping endangered animals, it's been announced this week that Red List Live is a new festival situated in Port Lympne Wild Animal Park. Lets hope they do better than last year's Zoo Thousand And Eight which was held in the same location with the same idea. They faced problems when artists pulled out and didn't even turn up. Speaking to BBC News, Zoo thousand and Eight festival director Danny Blanche said: "Our biggest problem was one of miscalculation over cashflow. This required us to make the pragmatic decision to cancel a few acts."

Over on Virtual Festivals Europe...

Oasis and Kings Of Leon are set to play Belgium's Rock Werchter 2009 and the Arctic Monkeys add more dates to their European tour, performing at Beatday Festival in Copenhagen and  Biddinghuizen, Holland. Kraftwerk and Moby are the latest acts confirmed for the Hurricane and Southsides festivals. Cancer Bats and more have been announced to play Denmark's Roskilde. Sneaky Sound Systems and other names have been confirmed for Garden Festival in Croatia.  Early bird tickets are now on sale for Lowlands Festival in The Netherlands.

News from Down Under

It was announced this week that ska boppers Madness and 80's synth group Human League have been confirmed to play V Festival Australia. They will be joined by The Kills, Razorlight, Howling Bells and Jenny Lewis. Click here for the full V Festival Australia line up.

And finally...

Those likely lads Pete Doherty and Carl Barat have turned down a £2 million offer from festival organisers to reform as the Libertines to play Reading and Leeds this year. According to Doherty,  Barat refused to play with him on the grounds that they must be friends first and they can't just do it for the money.

by Sarah Kerr

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