UK: Reading & Leeds Festival has added Kasabian as the second headliner for this year’s twin events, respectively taking place from 25 – 27 August at Richfield Avenue, Reading, and Bramham Park, Leeds. Kasabian commented: “It’s been five years, and as a band we have come a long way since then. We’re looking forward to playing tunes from the new record and bringing the mosh pit to Reading & Leeds Festival!” Melvin Benn commented: “I’m thrilled to be able to announce Kasabian as the second headliner for Reading and Leeds 2017. It’s been five years since they played; I’m excited…
Author: Festival Insights
UK: Marking the company’s ongoing growth, Symphotech has welcomed four event safety and fire safety professionals as the company looks forward to a busy year. Chartered safety and health practitioner, Eddy Grant, joins the North West office as a legal and safety consultant. With over 30 years of industry experience, Eddy has worked with the Event Industry Forum and HSE to produce the new Purple Guide and has overseen health & safety on a variety of events including The London 2012 Summer Olympics, the Tour de France 2014, and was employed by Liverpool City Council to deliver the city’s 2008…
UK: Following two sold-out years, the intimate forest festival Lost Village will return in August for three days of immersive escapism and an acclaimed music line-up headlined by Moderat and De La Soul. After last year’s myriad of bands, DJs and live acts, 2017’s edition promises to take things to the next level – with modern day innovators Moderat and iconic hip-hop greats De La Soul confirmed for headline sets across the weekend. These headline names lead a carefully crafted line-up, with sets across the village from Dixon, Nina Kraviz, The Black Madonna, Hunee, Craig Charles, Mr Scruff, Dusky, Jackmaster,…
USA: The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) – one of the world’s leading festivals for electronic music – will head to Austin, Texas this March for SXSW, one of the busiest and largest showcase events in the world. ADE will present three showcases there, one with Dutch festival Appelsap and two with the joint effort of Dekmantel and Red Light Radio. ADE Director Richard Zijlma commented: “The Dutch creative industry has a strong global reputation, and represents an [export] value of billions, partly thanks to the dance scene. Through our international activities we intend to increase that value and create a…
UK: National ticketing agency Gigantic has pledged its support to help raise awareness of mental health related conditions in musicians by teaming up with the Roy Stone Foundation. The charity was set up in memory of Nottingham musician Roy Foster, known as ‘Roy Stone’ in the music circuit, who sadly lost his life through mental health issues, and was also a good friend to Gigantic founder Mark Gasson. Alongside accepting customer donations at the checkout on the charity’s behalf, Gigantic is also helping to raise the profile of the charity through messages in its weekly newsletter, distributed to more than…
Tim Wilson is a Director of VAULT Festival, whose 2017 event runs from January 25 – March 5 and features almost 200 performances. Visit the official website for full programme information and tickets. Groupthink is when a bunch of otherwise smart people make a dumb decision. I like to think that the VAULT Festival team is a smart bunch, and I know for sure that on occasion we’ve made some dumb decisions. Particularly, I think we approached some risks in the wrong way. How did it happen, and how do we stop it happening in the future? Some types of…
Liam Negus-Fancey founded StreetTeam with his brother Callum in 2012. Then known as The Physical Network, the organisation grew out of Let’s Go Crazy, an underage events company the pair started, which grew to be the largest in the UK. Let’s Go Crazy sold over 65,000 tickets in two years – nearly all sold through the audience themselves. Based on a peer-to-peer model, friends would sell tickets to their friends, who in turn would sell to more their friends. After the success of Let’s Go Crazy, the brothers Negus-Fancey set out to build a platform that reflected this form of…
BELGIUM: Lead by the Arnau family, the elrow club will this year provide its famed immersive experience on a stage for more than 10,000 people at Tomorrowland on both July 21 and 28. The details of the show are yet forthcoming, but a show fitting of the spectacle-focused setting is assured thanks to the company’s penchant for the sensational: a blend of high energy sets and immersive animation within them, making for a party that is never static. “We are very excited to be in Tomorrowland for the first time,” said Juan Arnau Lasierra, CEO of elrowFamily. “It has always…
UK: Michael Eavis has revealed that the Glastonbury team will present a new event, dubbed The Variety Bazaar, sometime after Glastonbury’s next fallow year in 2018. Speaking on The Variety Bazaar’s potential location, Eavis said: “It’s halfway to the Midlands from here. And there’s only one landowner. I’ve got 22 landowners where I am now. I just wonder whether the next generation will want to negotiate with so many people. It’s a very difficult job to hold it together.” Admitting that undertaking the new event is a “huge risk”, he continued: “I’ve been a risk taker all my life. In…
MEXICO: The organisers of BPM Festival – whose closing party at the Blue Parrot nightclub on January 16 was the scene of a shooting that left five dead and fifteen injured – have addressed the tragedy through an official statement on the festival’s Facebook page. Subsequently, Mexico’s Zetas Cartel claimed responsibility for the shooting via a series of ‘narco blankets’ draped around BPM’s home city of Playa del Carmen on January 17. Signed off by the ‘BPM Festival Familia’, the festival’s statement reads: “It is with great sadness to share that police have confirmed reports of a lone shooter outside…