CANADA: Snowbombing has announced that 2017 will see the first ever Canadian edition of Snowbombing, launching in association with Coors Light. Taking place at Sun Peaks Resort in British Columbia from April 6 – 10, the alpine festival’s debut will feature the same hybrid of music and winter sports as its Austrian antecedent. “20 years ago when we started Snowbombing it was a very distant dream to one day do it in North America. Now, with the help of an iconic brand like Coors Light, that dream is to become a reality and we are so proud and excited to…
Author: Festival Insights
Emma Webster is currently the Research Associate on the Impact of Festivals project at the University of East Anglia. Emma is a co-founder and co-director of Live Music Exchange and has been researching live music for the best part of a decade. Before that she worked professionally in acid techno, opera, and world music. Her first festival was Glastonbury in 1995. George McKay is Professor of Media Studies at the University of East Anglia, and Arts & Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellow for its Connected Communities programme. He has been researching festivals for over two decades, most recently in his…
UK: A married couple and their two children have decided to tackle the problem of not having much to do in the summer holidays by launching the Big Family Festival, set to take place from July 30 – 31 at Dunton Hall, Curdworth. Angela and George from Sutton Coldfield have been running big dance events for the last 15 years and realised there was a gap in the market for an event that was suitable for all the family. Featuring magicians, clowns, drama and singing workshops held by BBC’s Dragons Den’s Razzamataz, dance workshops by Britain’s Got Talent finalist Tin…
DENMARK: Beyond its music line-up, exotic food, and colourful campsites, a standout fixture of this year’s Roskilde Festival was Edward Snowden’s live interview with activist duo The Yes Men. The famous US whistleblower’s talk – streamed via satellite from Moscow – followed a much debated prank conducted by The Yes Men that involved them setting up fake signs stating that the festival would be collecting and indefinitely storing all text and phone conversations while on festival grounds. Before the nature of the signs was revealed, many festivalgoers demonstrated both despair and anger. This was exactly what The Yes Men had…
UK: Appearing at British Summer Time Hyde Park for the fourth consecutive year, Martin Audio’s flagship MLA PA delivered its best performance ever thanks to the new system optimisation created by its Display prediction software, now in its final beta test stage. From the opening blast of Massive Attack through to the closing weekend with Mumford & Sons, Take That and Stevie Wonder, the event showed that it continues to evolve in terms of technical development. Credit for this is due to Martin Audio rental partners Capital Sound, who provided the advanced sound transmission infrastructure, including a digital returns system…
UK: Utopium lit up Grillstock Festival as it returned to Bristol Harbourside for a weekend of meat, music and mayhem from July 2 – 3. This year’s Grillstock Festival boasted performances from The Fratellis, The Stranglers and the Cuban Brothers as it welcomed over 14,000 BBQ lovers to the two-day event. Complete with a King of the Grill barbeque showdown, two music stages and a multitude of food vendors, Utopium was tasked with creating rip-roaring stage sets and lighting for the festival areas. For the bar lighting, site lighting and stage lighting, Utopium supplied 20 Chauvet Q-Wash 419Z LEDs, 12…
USA: eBay has announced its agreement to acquire Ticket Utils, a leading independent provider of software that helps large ticket sellers manage inventory and distribution. Ticket Utils will become part of eBay’s StubHub platform, the largest ticket marketplace in the US. With this acquisition, StubHub will enable its large sellers to enjoy a best-in-class solution for inventory management, ticket distribution and internationalisation of their inventories. Ticket Utils is already a favourite among ticket sellers because of its ease of use, reliability and multi-device accessibility. Ticket Utils’ platform and feature set are expected to help maximise sell-through and better automate the…
UK: Working with some of the biggest names in UK live entertainment production, VER kicked off the festival season delivering a range of equipment packages to both Glastonbury and the Electric Daisy Carnival. For the second year in succession, VER were contracted by the Glastonbury Festival Pyramid and Other Stage production team to work with video production coordinators Production Network, supplying the main camera image screens to both stages, along with installed screens onstage to be used with associated control equipment for a mixture of artists. On the Pyramid Stage VER had a clean sweep of headline acts, with screens…
GERMANY: A crowd of more than 10,000 festivalgoers gathered at the Stoppelmarkt in Vechta, Germany, for the inaugural edition of Tante Mia Tanzt on May 5. Staged for the first time by local agency plus2event, the festival boasted unique staging, spectacular special FX and top-flight sound reinforcement for all areas. Audio service provider Acoustic Sound, a local outfit from Vechta, opted to deploy brand new RCF systems at the festival. The crew equipped the main stage – dubbed ‘Aunt Mia’s Dance Garden’ – with two sets of 12 HDL50-A three-way active line array speakers and 18 SUB9007-AS dual 21″ subwoofers…
UK: The Northern Festivals Network has unveiled its 2016 calendar of arts programming for family audiences. Led by Wild Rumpus, award-winning producers of Just So Festival, the Network includes some of the most exciting and varied festivals in the UK today, including Underneath The Stars, bluedot, Cloudspotting, Kendal Calling, Just So, Festival Number 6, and Ramsbottom Festival. The Network has recently been awarded Arts Council strategic touring funding to continue its shared commitment to raise the bar of family programming at greenfield festivals, increasing the amount of high quality touring arts for families and creating an environment where it can…