Festival News

Bez has announced a new anti fracking festival featuring the Happy Mondays, Alabama 3, Bad Manners, The Troggs, and Toyah Wilcox. The event will be staged in association with Fleetwood Town FC, LiveWyre - aka Frack-Free Sunday - will take place on the 1st June at Highbury Stadium, Lancashire. Bez said: "It's a proud day for me to announce that the first major event I've ever put together is being held in the North West. I'm over the moon that Fleetwood Town FC have come on board to help me organise this event. I couldn't have done it without them. If they do well in the play-offs we'll be having a double celebration on the day!" adding  "It's brilliant that so many people are supporting the anti-fracking message, and I'm personally doing everything I can to support the cause and raise awareness. Come and support us. Let's make some serious noise!"

A new company has been launched with the aim of introducing worldwide festivals to Indian music lovers through package deals including festival tickets, flights and accommodation.
Muzenly was set up by Mumbai-born Sudhama Bhatia following his completion of a Masters at New York University, a five-year stint with Goldman Sachs and a year at start up Knewton

INSIGHT: How Event Technology is Transforming The Festival Market: Steve Jenner and Paul Pike, from Intelligent Venue Solutions, share their insights on the technological shift currently reformatting the festival landscape

London's Field Day is striking an official partnership deal with Transgressive Records, in celebration of the latter's tenth anniversary and a number of Transgressive signings including  Mystery Jets, Dry The River, Thumpers and Marika Hackman will be DJing all over this year's Metronomy and Pixies-headlined festival, which takes place in Victoria Park on 7-8 June.

UK festival-goers were among the biggest victims of ticket scammers last year, police have said and the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said unsuspecting consumers handed over a total of £3.7m to fraudsters in 2013 - much down to internet fraud. Among the 4,555 reports were 22 victims who lost £10,000 or more. Almost half the cases involved flight or concert and festival tickets, although people buying tickets for sporting events were also targeted. Fraud reports peaked in the summer music festival season, Acpo said, and spiked for flight tickets again in December. The Glastonbury Festival is warning potential ticket buyers to be aware of fake tickets with Michael Eavis posting a website article saying "We would very much like you to be aware that there are people out there who will try and sell fake Glastonbury tickets to unsuspecting, willing and innocent potential purchasers. Photos on tickets, which we introduced ten years ago, should eliminate this to a very large extent. If you are offered a ticket it is unlikely to give you access to the Festival. The BBC will be covering even more of the Festival this year so please be content with the TV for now."

The “unprecedented” spread of so-called "legal highs" has left doctors and nurses “powerless” to treat drug users - who are almost always unable to identify what substances they have taken, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has warned. Others are buying drugs believing they are more common substances such as ecstasy or MDMA without realising they are actually a new designer drug, the UNODC added in its report on synthetic drugs.

As the Thai political crisis continues, Bangkok’s Hua Hin Jazz Festival in its full form has been cancelled, organisers have announced. The Thai government will hold a small-scale form of the event without the participation of Passion4Share, the creative agency behind the jazz festival.

And finally,  Looe Music Festival in Cornwall has been awarded a £2,500 bursary towards security wristbands as the winner of ID&C’s 2014 Grass Roots Festival Bursary. The annual event, located on the South East coast of Cornwall, is a not-for-profit festival and has grown from a modest 100 attendees at its inaugural 2010 event, to 6,000 in 2013. The festival pipped over 40 other UK festivals to the post and as winners, will be receive £2,500 to cover the cost of its access control requirements for this year’s event.