UK: This year’s Henley Festival – set to take place from July 5 – 9 – will partner with BBC Music to showcase upcoming local artists and under-the-radar talent. BBC Music will be supporting artists performing in the festival’s Bedouin Tent, including Cecil, Ed & Ollie Goodale and Lucina, on BBC Radio Berkshire and online with live performances, photos and interviews. Linda Serck, who presents a local music show on BBC Radio Berkshire, said: “Supporting unsigned, under-the-radar or undiscovered talent is always a thrill as you have the privilege of nurturing upcoming artists at a grass roots level and watch…
Author: Festival Insights
SWEDEN: Backyard Sessions XL is a two-day open-air festival that will be held in Malmö from August 26 – 27. An evolution of the original Malmö Sunday party series of the same name, Backyard Sessions XL aims to create a cosy electronic fiesta by combining high quality music, fine food, art, games, and a family-friendly atmosphere. Already announced to perform at the inaugural festival include Anna, Claptone, Finnebassen, Giorgia Angiuli, Recondite, Simini Grigoriu, and Sonja Moonear. The festival’s offerings will also comprise street food by Malmö’s finest chefs; a Lebanese brunch on Sunday morning; a boule court; a ping pong…
Field Day took over East London’s Victoria Park on June 3 for a truncated single-day showcase that featured sets from the likes of Run The Jewels, Flying Lotus, Slowdive, Dr John Cooper Clarke, Death Grips, and more. The sold-out 11th edition saw the arrival of The Barn, a 15,000 capacity indoor arena where Nina Kraviz, Moderat, Nicolas Jaar and more delivered sets throughout the day before Aphex Twin made his live return with a two-hour audiovisual headline set that was live streamed in collaboration with NTS. Insights spoke with Field Day promoter Tom Baker about the festival’s decision to consolidate…
SWEDEN: Way Out West has added more names to its 2017 line-up, with Vince Staples, Migos, Beth Ditto, Actress and more set to perform in Slottsskogen Park from August 10 – 12. The new additions join already announced acts such as headliner Frank Ocean, as well as The xx, Chance The Rapper, Danny Brown, Lana Del Rey, Major Lazer, Pixies, Young Thug and more. Aside from the international talent booked for the festival, there’s a multitude of Scandinavian talent newly confirmed, including DJ duo Rebecca & Fiona, Rhys, Anna of the North, Sarah Klang, DJ Courtesy, Art Alfia, and Sandra…
Piers Alington is the co-founder and Managing Director of Feedback Ferret, based in Buckinghamshire. The company was launched to answer the need for a comprehensive end-to-end solution for managing and making sense of open-ended customer feedback comments. Alington and his co-founder, Mark Spicer, developed a unique text analytics engine that consolidates and analyses multi-channel feedback, and provides results quickly and easily to the people who need it. From the all-important music line-up and ticketing to payment systems, food, bars, Wi-Fi, security, queues, camping, toilet facilities and more, the list of considerations any festival organiser has to make is long. Note,…
Parklife will return to Manchester’s Heaton Park from June 10 – 11, treating 80,000 revellers to sets from Frank Ocean, The 1975, Stormzy, Boy Better Know and many more across its two sold-out days. Aside from a multitude of characteristically prescient bookings, this year’s edition has also been marked by its auspicious and cryptic marketing campaigns, further investment into production and hospitality, and sadly, increased security measures undertaken in response to the UK’s recent terror attacks. Insights spoke with Ground Control Managing Director Jon Drape and Parklife organiser Sacha Lord about the festival’s logistical considerations, its approaches to both marketing…
CANADA: The Festival de musique émergente en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (FME) has released details for its 15th anniversary edition, taking place from August 31 – September 3 in the Canadian city of Rouyn-Noranda. Nearly 70 artists will perform across the weekend, and although the full schedule is set for release on July 11, the festival has confirmed several of the acts that will appear. Names confirmed so far include A Tribe Called Red, Pierre Kwenders and La Bronze. On September 3, the group of artists responsible for the tribute album Desjardins, on l’aime-tu, will perform at the outdoor stage at Kiwanis Lake…
UK: The UK Festival Award-winning virtual reality platform, MelodyVR, has raised £5 million to expand globally and aid its original content strategy. MelodyVR CEO, Anthony Matchett said: “MelodyVR was founded with the simple vision of enabling music fans across the globe to connect with the artists they love via next-generation technologies, enabling consumers to virtually stand on stage at any concert or in the recording studio with their favourite artists. “Since founding the business three years ago, the VR market today is near incomparable. Hardware manufacturers such as Facebook, Samsung, Sony, Microsoft and Google have all shipped VR hardware and…
UK: Afropunk LDN has revealed the day splits and additional artists for its second edition, set to take place at The Printworks from July 22 – 23. New names joining the line-up are The Internet, Kiah Victoria, Lia Bailey, and Don Letts & The Bots. They will join acts such as Danny Brown, Thundercat, Nao, Lianne La Havas, JME, Willow Smith and more. On top of this, the festival has also released details for its marketplace, ‘Spinthrift Market’ – which comprises arts, crafts, tattoos, and clothes. Additionally, this year Afropunk will host a Battle of the Bands competition in conjunction…
UK: Ticket Arena and Event Genius have served over one million customers using radio-frequency identification (RFID) cashless payments in the last 12 months, new figures show. The statistics, released by the Leeds-based primary ticket seller and event technology provider, reveal that customers used Event Genius’ RFID solution to make over three million payment transactions. That’s the equivalent of 7.5% of all the card payments (40.5 million) made every day in the UK. From data analysed across numerous RFID payment enabled events, the Event Genius team also reports that event organisers see a 10-25% increase in overall customer spending and have,…