UK: Wakefield’s Long Division Festival has announced its return after a fallow year in 2017. After taking a year off to take stock and better understand what he wanted the festival to be, festival founder and director Dean Freeman, along with the newly expanded Long Division team, is bringing it back with an expanded line-up and broader programme, including a host of free entry and paid events taking place in venues all across the city.
Leading the announcement is folk and roots icon Billy Bragg, Scottish troubadour King Creosote, ex-Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherly, and Helen Marnie of lauded electronic outfit Ladytron. Also on the bill are Leeds indie-legends Cud, Long Division favourites and psych-punk duo The Lovely Eggs, and avant-jazzers Shatners Bassoon.
When asked about reviving the festival and booking for the festival again, founder Dean Freeman said: “It’s wonderful to be back in the game of announcing artists and projects again. Taking a year out in 2017 was tough because we were just bystanders, whilst the world turned on without us. I don’t think it’s often a festival like us has that luxury, to step off the treadmill and really think about what it wants to be. We learnt our passion isn’t for people up on a stage playing guitars, it is for culture and how it brings people together. It’s also a passion for our city and for creating opportunities for artists and performers where there can often be too few.”
Alongside the music, Long Division will be hosting a number of artistic and cultural installations and events, including a collaboration with Wakefield Artwalk as part of its 10th anniversary celebration.
Long Division 2018 will take place in a host of venues across the city, including Wakefield Cathedral, Warehouse 23, Wakefield Town Hall, Elizabethan Gallery, The Red Shed, Wakefield Beer Exchange, Jolly Boys’ Tap, Neon Workshops, Wakefield Precinct and many more yet to be announced.
Long Division was founded in 2011 and is dedicated to promoting independent, creative and forward-thinking artists and creating engaging and unique new work. It is Wakefield’s largest festival of music & culture and has hosted artists including British Sea Power, The Cribs, The Fall, Ghostpoet, Ash, Pulled Apart By Horses, The Wedding Present, Robin Ince, Josie Long and Simon Armitage.
