Founded in 1976 with performances from legendary artists including Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Stan Getz, the North Sea Jazz Festival was an instant success, attracting over 9000 visitors in its first year. This year the festival will feature more than a thousand musicians, spread out over 150 performances across thirteen different stages, and today attracts over 25,000 visitors per day. Some of the acts announced so far are The Roots; Earth, Wind & Fire; Flying Lotus; Kamasi Washington; James Blake; Anderson Paak & The Free Nationals; Simply Red; Jill Scott; Buddy Guy and many more. Insights spoke…
Author: Festival Insights
USA: For the second year in a row, Georgia’s Savannah Music Festival is an all-Meyer Sound event, with sound systems reinforcing all five venues for amplified music. With more than 100 performances scheduled through April 9, this year marks the debut of Meyer Sound’s Leopard linear sound reinforcement system at the festival, providing sound at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts. Leopard was specified for the venue by Chris Evans, the festival’s chief sound engineer. “Leopard really shined for the Pink Martini show,” said Evans. “The band is very dynamic, with pin-drop-quiet classical piano and violin sections followed by upbeat…
UK: Cheltenham Jazz Festival has confirmed the final line-up for its 20th anniversary, with British DJ and presenter Jo Whiley to host the ‘BBC Introducing’ showcase and Leo Green’s ‘Sounds of the ’50s’ capping off the bill. Taking place across six days from April 27 – May 2, the festival will once again deliver a diverse programme that combines established stars with up and coming talent from across the worlds of jazz, blues, pop and soul. Having already announced Lianne La Havas ‘Live in Concert’ with Jo Whiley on April 28, the festival has confirmed that Whiley will also host…
USA: StubHub, the online ticketing marketplace, has launched a new ‘virtual view’ feature at Houston’s NRG Stadium and San Francisco’s AT&T Park, allowing prospective ticket-buyers to visually preview particular seats via their phone screens or virtual reality headsets such as Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR. StubHub hopes the technology will allow fans to better evaluate whether any given seat its worth its respective price tag. With the new feature, fans can open up their StubHub app to get a 360° view of the venues, or insert their iOS / Android phone into their VR viewer and move their head…
SPAIN: Sónar+D – the 4th International Congress of Digital Culture and Creative Technologies – will take place from June 16 – 18 in parallel to Sónar by Day, and will feature more than 50 speakers, a hundred exhibiting companies, and 4,500 accredited professionals from all over the world. The Inaugural Conference will be given by the renowned and hugely influential producer, composer, visual artist and British technologist Brian Eno. This year’s programme also includes talks on shaping cultural opinion using algorithms and technologies that predict our tastes on the Internet. The participants include institutions such as the BBC, the Microsoft…
SWITZERLAND: The 13th edition of Caprices Festival commences in a week at the Valais ski station, with acts such as Maceo Plex, Ricardo Villalobos, KiNK, Âme, Rødhåd, and Sven Väth set to perform from April 7 – 10. The first of Caprices’ two venues, entitled Moon, was deliberately installed at the foot of the pistes this year to reduce the distance between its second venue, dubbed MDRNTY. On the opening night, the former will host Nina Kraviz, Magda, KiNK, DJ Tennis, and Kūn. Maxime Léonard, the Director of Caprices, said: “[This is] not an evening to be missed. It’s the…
UK: Festival accreditation supplier ID&C has launched its 6th annual Grass Roots Festival Bursary, which sees small-to-medium UK festivals apply for the chance to receive £2500 worth of security wristbands, passes and lanyards. The bursary can be applied for here. Entries close on 30th April, with the winner announced in the first week of May. More than 60 festivals applied for last year’s bursary, which is open to any UK festival that has operated for eight years or less and has an overall attendance of up to 15,000 people. “We were thrilled to win ID&C’s bursary [in 2015],” said Sarah…
UK: The Great Escape has revealed another 100+ artists who will be joining its line-up from May 19 – 21, where over 450 performers will transform the seaside town of Brighton into a bastion of undiscovered talent and live music. New artists revealed to perform live include Barns Courtney, Beasts, Man of Moon, Loyle Carner, Thomas Cohen, SG Lewis, Izzy Bizu, and MMOTHS. MMOTHS said: “I am very excited to be playing TGE, looking forward to presenting the new live show”. Continuing the festivals’ ethos of discovery, ‘The Late Escape’ will put a focus on the electronic and dance world…
UK: The UK’s Office for National Statistics recently announced that it has removed nightclub entry fees from its Retail Prices Index, a litany of goods and services examined to determine inflation. Many commentators, including the BBC, have interpreted the move as microcosmic of the ostensible decline of UK nightlife. The BBC article in question cites an approximate 50% reduction in operational nightclubs since 2005 as evidence of the industry’s rapid decline. However, new statistics from Skiddle, the UK’s number one ‘What’s On?’ guide and leading ticket agent, contradict the article’s fundamental assertion. Skiddle’s year-on-year figures demonstrate that more events are…
USA: Ultra Music Festival, the eminent EDM event staged along Bayfront Park in downtown Miami, attracted over 150,000 attendees for three days this March. Robe BMFL and Pointe moving lights were prominent on three major stages: the Main Stage, the Live Stage and the Carl Cox & Friends Arena – all helping to create visually compelling environments. The production designs for Carl Cox & Friends and the Worldwide Stage were created by Steve Lieberman of SJ Lighting. Contracted directly by Ultra, Steve was also the Lighting Designer for the Main Stage, where he collaborated closely with Creative Director Richard Milstein…