Virtual Festivals' weekly news round up

Christmas, Speedos, that AC/DC fiasco and more

Daniel Fahey - 17 April 2009

Line-ups

Not shy of a festival booking or five, Doves added Lovebox to their summer schedule this week, as organisers go after the Best Medium Festival crown for a second consecutive year. Bosses are hoping that a dream team of New York Dolls, Noah And The Whale and Rokia Traore capped with N*E*R*D and Duran Duran will clinch the title again this time around.

Another former Festival Award winner, Summer Sundae Weekender, has also been busy revealing names for this year’s event, adding Mystery Jets, iPod advert benefactors Chairlift, ex-Stranglers man Hugh Cornwall and reggae legend Horace Andy who will have beats supplied by Ashley Beedle.

Self professed reggae lover Lily Allen was confirmed as the second headliner for Radio 1’s One Big Weekend joining Snow Patrol at the top of the line-up. Basement Jaxx, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian and other headline contenders will have to be content with lower billings - and sharing a stage with Chris Moyles.

Kasabian fans will be able to hear the band’s "psychedelic" (lead singer Tom Meighnan’s adjective, not ours) new album at next week’s Camden Crawl as well, with the Leicester band and The Enemy the final acts to be added to the line-up.

At the other end of the booking scale Standon Calling chiefs revealed their first names for the summer, which included Femi Kuti And The Positive Force, crooner Tony Christie, Easy Star All Stars and early house legend Dave Haslam. The festival’s award winning underwater rave is also set to return, so make sure you pack your Speedos.

For those who thought T In The Park was already swimming with acts, bosses went and added Noisettes, VV Brown, The Temper Trap, The Horrors, Tommy Reilly and Birmingham bad boys The Twang this week.

Sticking with the Scottish, A Hop At The Farm bosses confirmed that The Fratellis will headline the Saturday night at the festival, which after just two semi-successful albums may be seen as a gamble, especially with Paul Weller, 2 Many DJs and Super Furry Animals (three acts with headlining experience) already on the bill.

Feeder were the potential anomaly in the latest Sonisphere line-up additions with the heavy rock and metal festival also bolstering its bill with the likes of Taking Back Sunday, Skindred and former-Million Dead man Frank Turner.

Closing the curtain on this week’s round-up (quite literally) are Mistress, which begs the question - what's the best way to end things with your Mistress? Over the phone? Face-to-face? Or a good ol' soap-style murder? Damnation Festival have announced that Birmingham filthy noise band will play their final ever show at the Leeds event this October. How do they intend to do it?  "We thought we'd cash in [...] the last grinding hurrah of blood, snot and spleen."

Cancellations

The list of forgotten festivals grew again this week with Homecoming in Scotland getting pulled before it had even debuted. The cancellation was "due to new demands from the council requesting 50% of the profits and a £60,000 bond on the land," organisers disclosed.

Tickets

With most of us still thinking about the amount of chocolate we’ve consumed over the Easter weekend, ATP’s thoughts are much further ahead – think tinsel, mince pies and Santa. Organisers were eager to unwrap the curators for this year’s Nightmare Before Christmas - My Bloody Valentine. Tickets bought now will get you £20 off the face value. Click here to buy yours.

Over on Virtual Festivals Europe

The name that has cropped up the most this week is Lily Allen, who will be appearing at Lowlands in Holland, at Spain’s Benicassim, Les Vieilles Charrues in France and INMusic Festival in Croatia. FM4 Frequency Festival pulled off the coup of the last seven days however, wowing fans with the confirmation of Radiohead, Grace Jones and more. We’ve got a pair of tickets to win to the event. Click here to enter.

Elsewhere Exit Festival were busy adding The Prodigy, Darren Emerson, Kissy Sell Out and more to the bill while Roskilde and Pinkpop both tied up the loose ends and completed their line-ups this week.

And finally…

Did you hear the one about AC/DC and the Romanian festival? After advertising the ‘Back In Black’ boys as headliners for the two-day Bucharest bash, their management confirmed that the Aussie rockers had never been booked in the first place. Without a replacement the Bucharest Rock Arena was subsequently cancelled.

Comments

Related Artists

Related Events