Bestival to move to the mainland

Bestival organisers have said they are moving the festival from the Isle of Wight to Dorset. The four-day event is to be held at the Lulworth Estate in September on the same site as Camp Bestival (pictured right), the family event which takes place in July. Organiser Rob da Bank said the decision was down to the "boring economics of getting people on to the island". Bestival has been held at Robin Hill Country Park, near Newport, annually since 2003.

Suspected Bestival scammer bailed

A teenager from Brighton has been arrested on suspicion of fraud following complaints about non-supply of Bestival tickets.  Eighteen year old Ben Hyland-Ward was arrested by Sussex Police on suspicion of fraud by false representation and released on bail. BBC News reports that police received over 60 complaints from music fans who paid Hyland-Ward for tickets to the 2015 Isle of Wight Festival but failed to receive anything in return.  A spokesman for Bestival estimated as many as 300 tickets had been bought.  A number of his customers set up a 'Stresstival' Facebook group. Hyland-Ward claimed he had set up a 'guestlist' with the Bestival organisers and then 'sold' tickets at a substantial discount. Bestival organisers have denied any such scheme. Hyland-ward has also claimed that he himself had been scammed.  Hyland-Ward has been bailed until November 10.  At one point a group of disgruntled customers surrounded his home and Hyland ward posted on the FaceBook page "I would like to give a huge apology to everyone as well. I am not asking for sympathy but it has been a horrible 24 hours and I have had some full death threats and I am in real danger."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34200344

BESTIVAL HEADS TO TORONTO

Bestival will be heading to North America, landing in Toronto, Canada for the first ever Bestival abroad on June 12th- 13th 2015 at Hanlan's Point Beach, Toronto Island.  Bestival UK has been going for strong for the past 12 years, winning a multitude of awards. The original boutique festival attracts 50,000 fans each year and known for its creative vision and eclectic music including previous headliners Stevie Wonder, Florence & The Machine, The Cure and Kraftwerk. Bestival curator Rob da Bank says: “We have waited 12 years to decide to launch another Bestival outside of the UK and our beloved Bestival, on the Isle of Wight, which has grown into one of the most important festivals in the global calendar. It took a really special city, and an even more exciting site, with Toronto and Toronto Island, to make us take the leap. So, the waiting is over and we are so excited to be launching in North America in June, with a classic Bestival line-up waiting to thrill, intrigue and party! I’d like to thank all our partners, friends, new and old, and supporters in Toronto, for making this happen. We cannot wait!”  http://bestival.ca/

FESTIVAL NEWS

Aiming to gather Spanish festivals and to provide a platform for reflection, BIME and the 'Asociación de Promotores Musicales' (APM) will organize the first 'Congreso de Festivales de Música' (Congress of Music Festivals). The event will take place in Bilbao on 29-31October 2014 with an estimated 50 festivals already confirmed to take part. Topics scheduled to be cvered incude  Ticketing and access systems, cashless and intelligent solutions,  Services for festival-goers, Apps, Crowd funding platforms, Tour operators, Social media integrations, Legal frameworks and  Public and private financing. More information from info@bime.net and APM members contact secretaria@apmusicales.com.

A decision in a dispute between eBay and German soccer team over the re-sale of personalised tickets which was favourable to the online retailer has prompted the organisers of Germany’s Wacken Open Air heavy metal festival to think again about personalising their tickets in 2015. Waken also have a trial pending with eBay over the re-sale of their own tickets, currently personalised, Lamenting a set back in the fight against ticket touts, Thomas Jensen from WOA promoters ICS explained that the same judge is hearing the WOA case - and the judge has previously decided  held that platforms such as eBay do not have to delete offers of the sale of personalised tickets from their sites.  Earlier this year secondary ticketing site Seatwave agreed with German promoters association BDV to remove personalised  tickets from six Robbie Williams concerts from it’s site. 

The Australian iHeartRadio Music Festival has been cancelled with organisers citing the unavailability of a key headliner. With Miley Cyrus, Redfoo and the Faders already confirmed, tickets had gone on sale. The iHeart Radio festival brand was started in the USA.

MTV's Push Festival in Helsinki, Finland, promoted by the channel to champion new talent will become an annual plan after the success of its first year. MTV's flagship event, the MTV Europe Awards will take place at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow on November 9th, 

The sixth edition of the European Festival Awards will take place in Groningen on Wednesday 14th January 2014, hosted by Ben Challis promoted by Yourope, EuroSonic and Festival Awards Ltd.

Spotify has revealed details of the top ten festivals according to their global impact on music streams. Glastonbury Festival was named the most influential festival in the world by Spotify, after it spurred a 78% increase in streams for headliners Kasabian, Metallica and Arcade Fire. Glastonbury headliners experienced a 57% rise in streams in the UK, while achieving a 60% increase in the US. Australia's Future Music Festival placed second on the list, gaining an average 70% increase for its headliners Deadmau5, Phoenix and Pharrell Williams. 

Top 10 Festivals according to global impact on streams

1. Glastonbury, UK
2. Future Music Festival, Australia
3. Way Out West, Sweden
4. Les Vieilles Charrues, France
5. Coachella, US
6. Hove Festival, Norway
7. Laneway Festival, Australia
8. Rock Am Ring, Germany
9. Roskilde, Denmark
10. Bilbao BBK Live, Spain

Top 10 most globally streamed festival headliners

1. Pharrell Williams, Future Music Festival
2. Deadmau5, Future Music Festival
3. James Blake, Laneway Festival
4. The Offspring, Ruisrock
5. M.I.A., Hove Festival
6. Stevie Wonder, Roskilde
7. Phoenix, Ruisrock and Future Music Festival
8. Outkast, Coachella and Way Out West
9. Arctic Monkeys, Roskilde and Les Vieilles Charrues
10. Imagine Dragons, Hove Festival

And over on Festival Insights you can catch up with the UK's Surplus Supper Club: This is an ethical event catering business spearheaded by FareShare South West, the award-winning charity that redistributes in-life, surplus food in an attempt to aid vulnerable people and curb rampant food wastage. The UK food industry disposes of four tonnes of perfectly good food every year, and the Surplus Supper Club repurposes these ingredients into delicious meals whose proceeds go to charity. Moreover, its volunteering opportunities offer a route back into society for the marginalised and dispossessed. More here.
AND DON'T FORGET THIS WEEK - IT'S THE LIVE UK SUMMIT IN LONDON, THE AMSTERDAM DANCE EVENT,  FESTIVAL CONGRESS IN CARDIFF AND MAMA EVENT IN PARIS!

FESTIVAL NEWS

Virtualfestivals.com reports that three outdoor events due to take place at Hylands Park in Essex this month have been cancelled as the organisers claim the site isn't "acceptable". Last Night of the Proms, which was due to take place this Sunday, September 7, and feature Aled Jones and the Philharmonic Orchestra, has been cancelled by the event producers (UK Events & Production) today.  The same production company have cancelled two more Hylands Park events this month: Flashback Festival on September 13th and Wet Wet Wet on September 14th. Flashback Festival was to feature some of the top selling acts of the eighties, including headliner Billy Ocean, Marc Almond, ABC, Hue and Cry, Go West, From the Jam, and The Doctor (of Dr & The Medics). In a statement, UK Events and Production indicated that the V Festival, held on the same site (16-17 August) was contributing factor in the decision to cancel the concerts saying "The site was recently used for the V Festival and after a recent site visit we do not feel that the area within the park we are using is acceptable to put on our concerts."

And residents in Clapham, London, are voicing concerns about the number of festivals on Clapham Comon afre recent rainfall  hit the end of an event and turned areas of the park into a 'quagmire'.  The Evening Standard reports that South West Four (SW4) attracted 50,000 party-goers on the August bank holiday weekend and starred DJs Deadmau5, Eric Prydz and Pete Tong. Heavy rain hit the clean-up, with lorries churning up turf and creating vast patches of mud as they picked up equipment. Campaigners are urging local authority Lambeth to introduce a cap on the number of major events, as Westminster did at Hyde Park last year. They also want a 20,000-a-day limit on the number of revellers. Similar complaints have been made about Finsbury Park after it hosted three-day Wireless Festival in July – which saw rappers Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Rudimental perform – just six weeks after band Arctic Monkeys rocked the green for two days.

AlJazeera America hosts an interstung article on Adam Auctor, the founder of the Bunk Police, an organization that travels to summer music events in the USA to help test the purity of festival goers’ drugs. His business came about amid a unique set of circumstances over the last decade: a 2003 law that held club owners and music festival promoters criminally responsible for knowledge of any drug use at their events, the revitalized big business of music festivals, the rise of electronic dance music and the ascendance of the drug Molly. ..... more here. Bunk Police website here.

Bestival’s magnificent disco ball has set a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title! Topping the tape at 10.33 metres, the dazzling disco beauty is as high as a three storey building, is covered in 2,500 mirrored tiles that would stretch out for a kilometre if you laid them end to end, and is filled with 350 cubic metres of air; equivalent to one thousand beach balls! Verified by Mark McKinley from GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS, the Disco Ball was measured by surveyor Ollie Salter at midday on Sunday (7th September), before clinching the record when it was raised and spun, with a suitably disco-tastic light show, at the start of Chic featuring Nile Rodgers’ epic finale set on the Disco themed Bestival Sunday evening. And Bestival now holds the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the Largest Disco Ball.

The company behind Guilfest 2014 has gone into insolvency, Blaming, primarily, a lack of time to organise this year's event resulting in low ticket sales, and a forecast of bad weather (whIch didn't transpire).
Organiser Tony Scott also confirmed that certain artists on the 2014 bill, which featured headliners in The Boomtown Rats, Jedward, Kool & The Gang, Fun Lovin Criminals and The Human League, have yet to be paid. First established in 1992, Guilfest ran every year till 2012, when it went into administration due disappointing ticket sales), with its parent company Scotty Events facing debts of over £300,000. Live Nation staged an event in the town in 2013, but Scott regained the use of Stoke Park after a social media campaign, and his new company Trowfest Ltd was, back in February, given the green light by Guildford Borough Council. Interviewed by Get Surrey this week, Scott said despite this year's event being "fantastic", Trowfest Ltd had needed to sell a couple of thousand more tickets to cover its costs. He told the site: "Unfortunately we didn't get enough ticket sales to pay all the bills we have got to pay. One of the reasons was that we were a bit short of time to do it all in. We have never done a festival in three-and-a-half months before".

'Legal High' caused festival fan's death

A coroner has ruled that a 35 year old man died by slashing himself after suffering a paranoid reaction to a 'legal high' which he took at Bestival last year. Daniel Parks from Tunbridge Wells took a product called 'magic crystals' which contained a prohibited substance believed to be 4-Methylethcathinone and was found by his wife locked in a toilet having inflicted several wounds to his arms with a kitchen knife. The Isle of Wight coroner ruled Mr Parks had purchased the drugs in advance and was unaware they contained prohibited substances. 

Three dead in Bestival coach tragedy

Three people have died after a coach returning to Merseyside crashed into an oak tree in Surrey on Monday eveming. A number of other passengers were injured and some had to be cut free from the wreckage, with Juice FM DJ Chris McGee named as one of the injured. 53 people were on the coach.

Coach driver Colin Daulby (63) was named as one of the dead, along with 18 year old Michael Molloy from the band Hostile Radio, and 23 year old Kerry Ogden, all  from Merseyside. No other vehicles were involved in the crash and it is thought that Mr Daulby may have suffered a heart attack.  All surviving passengers were taken to hospital and eleven casualties remain, many with 'life changing' injuries.

Bestival for you ... and you ... and you

The Isle of Wight's Bestival will be live streamed to a dedicated YouTube channel for fans around the World covering both the Main Stage and Big Top on September 7th, 8th and 9th. Music fans will be able to watch headline performances from Florence + the Machine and New Order, a UK festival exclusive appearance from The xx and live sets from Friendly Fires, Two Door Cinema Club, Emeli Sande, Bat for Lashes, Orbital, Miike Snow, Azealia Banks and many more. The detailed daily program of the live stream will be available on the Bestival YouTube channel. Once Bestival comes to a close, individual songs from acts will be available on-demand for the next 90 days on the Bestival YouTube channel.




Patrick Walker, Senior Director of YouTube Music, Europe, Middle East & Africa said: "As the premiere destination for music lovers worldwide, YouTube has been working hard to expand our offering of live gigs and festivals to satisfy the hunger for great original content. We're delighted to announce a partnership with Bestival, whose dream line-up of musicians including Florence + the Machine, The xx, Emeli Sande and New Order, will now be made available to anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection." And Bestival Promoter / Curator Rob da Bank commented: "I've been watching festivals such as Coachella and Tomorrowland on YouTube and loving the futuristic new angle on showing festivals in a different light via a medium that nearly everyone in the music and festival worlds is tuned into. We're really pleased that Bestival is the first UK festival to go down this route.”

www.youtube.com/user/bestivaltv

Bestival rape allegation

A 15-year-old girl has reported that she was raped at Bestival in the UK. The teenager has told police that she was with friends in the main arena of the festival at Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight on Sunday when she was approached by a man she did not know. She said she was raped some time between 19.30 and 20.30 near the main arena. The attacker was described as black, in his 20s, approximately 6ft tall, and of large muscular build with braided hair.

Bestival goes 3D!

Bestival, this year headlined by The Cure, Pendulum, Primal Scream, PJ Harvey, Brian Wilson and DJ Shadow will now be broadcast for two hours each day of the Festival in 3D TV in the UK on Sky TV in a deal organised by Whizz Kid Entertainment. Festival organiser Rob da Bank said: "It’s amazing to be part of the world's first 3D TV festival extravaganza on Sky. Bestival in 3D will be a mind-blowing explosion of colour and multi-dimensional music and mayhem and it’s great to be working with Whizz Kid again to bring it to life" There will also be a 90-minute Bestival Special on Sky One following the September Festival.