UK: Africa Oyé is set to welcome back a host of familiar faces to DJ at its 25th Anniversary festival in June. Main stage duties will be taken up by Oyé regulars, BBC 1Xtra star Edu and South Africa’s Esa Williams, whilst broadcaster Andy Kershaw heads up a line-up of DJs who will showcase their sounds across the wider festival site. This year, DJs will not only take residence in the Trenchtown area of The Oye Village, but also in the brand new Freetown, which features a second bar and a bus that hosts a vintage shop as well as…
Author: Festival Insights
UK: April saw the 61st National Student Drama Festival (NSDF) take place at the University of Hull, forming part of the city’s UK City Of Culture celebrations. Rental company SLX provided a range of Yamaha digital mixing consoles and – as a little light relief for participants – Yamaha Commercial Audio UK co-sponsored Yamaha/SLX/NSDF-branded jackets, awarded to the most inventive photos posted by aspiring sound engineers on social media. Technical production specialist Stage Electrics has been involved with the NSDF since 1999. This was the first year that SLX – the company’s rebranded rental division – worked on the event…
UK: The Felix Festival, a live music event that fundraises thousands of pounds for those affected by military and police careers in bomb disposal, is returning by popular demand on September 16 at Silchester in Hampshire. The music event, organised on behalf of the charity Felix Fund which provides financial and wellbeing support to Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel, is this year hoped to raise £30k — surpassing the £25k raised at Felix Festival 2015. In the 18 months since that first-ever Felix Festival, the charity has used the proceeds to support those facing extreme difficulty in the EOD community.…
Ed Priest is the Events Promo Assistant for Hospitality in the Park, a one-day ‘DNB BBQ’ festival in London’s Finsbury Park whose next edition is set for September 23. Hospitality has cemented itself as one of the world leading dance events brands. Adamant in an upfront yet feel-good music policy that sees smiles as valuable as screw faces, there is a true air of unity at Hospitality shows. The music and the people are one, with no hierarchy or snobbery that is so often littered across the music industry. It has become a rule of thumb for Hospitality to bypass…
UK: This year Just So Festival will have a new area for children aged 8 and older, created in association with acclaimed current affairs magazine The Week Junior. The Forgotten Courtyard will be set in Rode’s Italian Garden and will provide workshops, ‘provocations’, debates and talks. Now in its 8th year and recently awarded Best Festival by the National Outdoor Events Association, Just So is an annual, intimate, weekend-long festival – and touts itself as the only arts camping festival in the UK dedicated solely to children and their families. The area launched alongside The Week Junior will comprise a…
UK: The independent music and arts festival Samphire has been announced as the winning recipient of this year’s ID&C £2500 Grass Roots Bursary. The bursary, donated annually by wristband suppliers ID&C, offers small to medium-sized UK festivals the chance to win £2500 towards their security wristband and accreditation. The online competition has been created to lend a helping hand to industry newcomers and recognise festivals which relay a grass roots ethos. This year’s recipient, Samphire Festival, is the brainchild of couple Flora Blathwayt and Josh Beuachamp, who debuted the festival last summer. In launching the event, the two broke a…
NETHERLANDS: Amsterdam Dance Event will host its 22nd edition from October 18 – 22 at several venues across the titular city, with the DeLaMar Theater taking centre stage. After 16 years stationed in the Felix Meritis, the festival will move to the DeLaMar Theater this year to allow major renovations to take place in its old venue. The DeLaMar is situated next to the Leidseplein and De Melkweg and will also allow the event to bring previously separately-housed events such as ADE Dance & Brands under one roof. “Having been sold out for the last seven years, plus with more…
The sophomore edition of Junction 2 will bring an assortment of dance music’s finest selectors and producers to London’s Boston Manor Park on June 10. Founded and organised by esteemed promoters London Warehouse Events, the festival has quickly gained a reputation for its exemplary programming and production, relative lack of commerciality, and meticulous organisation. Insights spoke with LWE’s Head of Production Loz Poulton about the challenges endemic to Junction 2’s unique location, the changes made to this year’s production set-up, its approach to brand activation, and more. Festival Insights: Junction 2 is hosted at Boston Manor Park under the M4…
We can work with you to find a tourist board sponsor that fits the demographic of your festival. With more and more festivals being enjoyed every year, sourcing new and fresh sponsors can be hard to come by. At BrandKiss we can make your task easier as we have strong relationships with travel, tourism, fashion and lifestyle brands that could be sponsors for your festival. Over the years BrandKiss has matched tourist boards with well-known consumer brands in nationwide campaigns. These campaigns have given us a huge list of close contacts in the tourism field who are always looking for…
NETHERLANDS: At this year’s SPOT Festival in Aarhus, Eurosonic Noorderslag presented Denmark as its focus country for 2018. Each year Eurosonic Noorderslag highlights a different country, showcasing the diverse musical talent across Europe. According to Eurosonic organisers, the choice for Denmark was easily made. Since the very early years of the festival, Eurosonic established a fruitful relationship with Denmark, its music-scene and partners MXD Rosa, P6 Beat and P3 Radio. Danish acts are also regular winners of the Eurosonic-associated European Border Breakers Awards (EBBA) with a host of acts such as Agnes Obel, Lukas Graham and MØ, who have gone…