UK: Multiplay, organiser of the UK’s largest gaming festival Insomnia, has announced the initial line-up of its upcoming Insomnia55 festival, taking place August 28 – 31 at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry. With billions of views and tens of millions of subscribers, The Yogscast group will be heading to the UK’s home of eSports and gaming culture, Insomnia55. Well-known names from the crew such as Lewis, Sjin, Duncan, Sips, Hannah, Martyn, Hat Films and Turps will be sharing some of their unique insight into gaming culture across the event’s three live days. Hugely popular online content creators including Syndicate and The…
Author: Festival Insights
UK: The Greenpeace field at Glastonbury this year aims to highlight the plight of Earth’s oceans, demonstrating the scale of the monster trawlers that hoover up vast quantities of fish. This year, Greenpeace are working to defend the Great Barrier Reef from coal companies destroying the sea bed – home to humpback whales, turtles and clownfish. Greenpeace have built a huge fish that festivalgoers can walk through, and are collaborating with production company Snowbusiness to create a lifelike coral garden. Within this area – in addition to interactive exhibits – the environmentalist activist network will discuss the problems that the…
UK: Nozstock has just announced its vibrant and diverse collection of arts, theatre, performance, workshops and food and drink highlights taking place this summer, as the festival enters its 17th year in July. Set on a working farm in Herefordshire, Nozstock embraces a vast range of sounds and styles, flowing from family-friendly festival by day to electrifying party by night. By day, the Bantam of the Opera will be filled with a weekend of strange occurrences, theatre, circus acts, poetry, puppetry and magic. Puppet masters The Fetch return for the fifth consecutive time, along with the psychedelic spectacle of Hummadruz…
DENMARK: At Folk Spot Denmark, the international music business and media are given a closer look at the Danish and Nordic music scenes. They will also have the opportunity to experience Tønder Festival, which for more than 40 years has been one of the most influential folk and roots festivals in Europe. This year John Prine, The Lone Bellow, Sturgill Simpson, Bellowhead and Richard Thompson are among the headliners. The Danish and Nordic acts under the spotlight are Northern Assembly, Idea Wenøe & The Silver Cords, Maja & David, Erlend Viken Trio, Lukkif, Jansberg, M.C. Hansen, and Phønix. Folk Spot…
CROATIA: UK Event Organiser Sound Channel and Croatian operating company Gratiosus have announced the acquisition of an island set in the waters of Croatia. Close to the city of Sibenik, the island of Obonjan has been untouched for over seven years. The summer of 2016 will see Obonjan become the world’s first curated entertainment tourist destination. The unique concept will evolve year on year, hosting hundreds of musicians, artists, philosophers, chefs and more. Dan Blackledge of Sound Channel said: ‘We’re extremely happy to have signed the contract with the City of Sibenik that enables us to operate on the Island…
UK: Festival No.6 has announced its much-anticipated Woodland programme, with a host of live treats, secret raves and an array of new features including aerial acrobats and spectral art installations. For the first time this year guest artists will take control of the Lost in the Woods live stage. Friday sees legendary Mancunian troubadour Badly Drawn Boy performing and curating in celebration of the 15th anniversary of his landmark Mercury Prize winning album The Hour of Bewilderbeast. Helping him celebrate in style are heavyweights from across the musical spectrum including the maestro himself John Shuttleworth, The Wedding Present performing an…
It is Saturday evening, May 30 and day four of Primavera Sound. We’re standing in the heart of Parc del Forum, right on the coast of the Iberian Sea, where the majority of the weekend’s activities take place. So far, 175,000 visitors have flocked to the many live music events happening all over Barcelona. That includes the festival, which takes place from Thursday until Saturday on the last weekend of May, as well as complementary activities in the city starting on Wednesday and ending Sunday. Alberto Guijarro, Co-Director of Primavera Sound and head of PrimaveraPro, has just released this year’s…
UK: The International Festival Forum – set to take place from September 30 – October 1 – has added a new panel and workshop to its roster of 2015 sessions. The titles and synopses of the latest additions are below. Festivals are Dead, Long Live the Festival! Chair: Dany Hassenstein, Paléo Festival Nyon The age of the headliner-driven festival is slowly coming to an end. With fewer big bill-topping names, heightened competition and attendees turned on by other factors, music festivals are fundamentally changing. So what will the formula for a successful event be in five years time? As artistic…
CROATIA: This year at Fresh Island boat parties will set sail each day, taking revellers on a voyage along the Adriatic with a soundtrack provided by some of hip-hop’s finest DJs and crews. This year’s line-up includes the likes of UK party starters Melody Kane and Faded, who head out with Bonafide Magazine & Croatia Wave with DJ Cut Killer taking the helm. On land UK hip-hop icon Tim Westwood will bring a taste of his radio show on Capital XTRA to the poolside parties, which will also see takeovers from GRM Daily. VICE’s Noisey will be hosting a special…
USA: Behind the scenes, the festival lighting designer is often placed in a difficult situation as they must mix and match the perfect rig full of lighting instruments that can provide the artists with the various looks needed for their individual performances. This was the task at hand at the M3 Rock Festival for lighting designer Mike Lurz, but this year his job was made a little easier with the use of VL4000 BeamWash and VL4000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite. “I’ve been involved with the M3 Rock Festival since 2009 and putting the design together for this type of…