Archie Hamilton is the founder and Managing Director of Split United, a group of companies he formed in China in 2006 with his partner Nathaniel Davis. As one of the first integrated live entertainment companies in the region, Archie leads a team of almost 40 young and vital Chinese and foreign staff in wearing the hats of promoter, booking agent, festival owner, conference organiser, and brand consultancy. Split United pioneers the brand // entertainment // technology model in China, and Archie prides himself on pushing amazing bands and helping innovative brands, pulling a young Chinese population away from traditional music…
Author: Festival Insights
UK: The UK Festival Awards – set to take place at The Roundhouse in London on November 28 – has revealed that the host of its 13th edition will be international DJ, radio presenter and music journalist, Mary Anne Hobbs. Having worked as a presenter for BBC Radio 1 and XFM, Hobbs now hosts the BBC 6 Music Weekend Breakfast shows, as well as her 6 Music Recommends show. Notable highlights from her eclectic career include working on the Grammy Award-nominated soundtrack to Black Swan and winning Best Radio Show at the Dubstepforum and DJ Magazine Awards. Her early years…
UK: Bristol’s pioneering multi-venue festival Simple Things has announced a second wave of artists for its 2016 edition, including two new headliners: seminal noise-rap group Death Grips – appearing as part of their first UK tour in three years – and prolific Russian selector Nina Kraviz, whose gritty take on acid techno makes a welcome addition to Simple Things’ already-extensive late-night programme. Further live additions include LA garage-rockers the Allah-Las, experimental math-rock trio Three Trapped Tigers and the caustic punk of Bad Breeding plus DIY upstarts Dream Wife. Celebrated electronic composer Anna Meredith will also appear along with a full…
USA: Leading Belgian automations, engineering and scenic construction specialist WIcreations was asked by staging experts StageCo – in tandem with production company Insomniac – to produce key scenic elements of the main circuitGROUNDS stage at the 2016 Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. Staged at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and attracting around 450,000 people over three days, EDC is one of the largest EDM events worldwide. Dutch design company Jora Entertainment has worked on the event for many years, and EDC’s stage environments are known for their high-impact visual appearance and intricate attention to detail – an area in…
UK: On behalf of Festival Republic, Dick Tee of EnTEEtainment was asked to look after the technical production management of the recent Electric Daisy Carnival show in Milton Keynes Bowl, working alongside his counterpart – world renowned Production Manager Jake Berry, who was representing Los Angeles based Festival producers Insomniac. The main stage built by Serious Stages was 70m wide and incorporated a huge owl, a dragon and two ‘guardians’ as well as a massive 400m2 LED screen and a fully functioning waterfall. “It was a great challenge to be able to combine such a huge stage based construction with…
SINGAPORE: With just six weeks to go until show time, Ultra Singapore has unveiled the second phase of the line-up for its inaugural edition, taking place from September 10 – 11. The names confirmed for the festival include trance supergroup Above & Beyond, Swedish superstar Alesso, and the enigmatic producer Zhu, plus Nicole Moudaber, Reboot,Shaded and Technasia for its techno-centric Resistance Stage. Also added to the bill are Carnage, Gryffin and W&W, and the new wave of artists will be joining the already announced Afrojack, Axwell^Ingrosso, deadmau5, Kygo, Nero, DJ Snake, Far East Movement, Jauz and Marshmello. The two-day extravaganza…
UK: Coldplay recently headlined the first concert at Kensington Palace – a 3,000 capacity benefit for Sentebale, Prince Harry’s HIV / AIDS charity. Fresh from Glastonbury Festival, the band performed on a Star Events 15m x 12m SAM platform, the largest single truck mobile stage in Europe. Since 2006, Sentebale has been helping children in the south African kingdom of Lesotho affected by HIV / AIDS, and Coldplay’s 11 song set culminated in current single Up & Up accompanied by the Basotho Youth Choir and the charity’s founder. Working to the tightest deadline – in on Sunday night, show on…
UK: The Social Festival has announced that this year’s event is raising money for The Quest School, which is dedicated to helping children with autism lead happy lives. Saved Records boss and The Social’s main man Nic Fanciulli is behind this project and will be driving it hard, as will his brother Mark and Rumors boss Guy Gerber, who are also involved and greatly supportive. The Quest School in Kent is an ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) School which helps children overcome difficulties, reach their full potential and enable them to get the most out of their childhood and help them…
The 11th edition of Kendal Calling drew to a close on July 31 in spectacular fashion, as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds saw out the festival in style. The sold out Lake District music and arts festival was bathed in glorious sunshine for four days as 23,000 festivalgoers were treated to huge performances from over 200 artists – alongside the first ever Carnival Of Colour Parade, the stunning art installations of Lost Eden, fine ales at the Real Ale Festival, the tranquil settings of The Woodlands and all sorts of unexpected musical and literary surprises at Tim Peaks Diner who…
UK: For Massive Attack’s headline performance at BST Hyde Park on July 1, PRG XL Video continued its relationship supplying lighting and rigging services to the festival, as well as working with Video Director Icarus Wilson-Wright to deliver a show fizzing with topical content and novel use of its video screen technology. Barclaycard presents British Summer Time has taken place in Hyde Park since 2013, when organisers AEG Live acquired the rights to hold concerts there. PRG XL Video has been a major supplier to the event since its inception. Account Director Yvonne Donnelly Smith takes care of the project…