Glastonbury and INMusic new talent finalists announced

The Glastonbury Festival have announced the eight acts that have made it through to the live final of their 2015 Emerging Talent Competition.

The invite only finals take place in Pilton next Saturday (11th April) and the judges include a number of main stage bookers for the Festival, as well as judges from BBC Radio 1 and PRS For Music. The winner is guaranteed a slot on a main stage at the 2015 Festival, and £5000 from the PRS for Music Foundation Talent Development fund. Two runners up will also each receive £2,500 from PRS for Music Foundation.

You can hear all eight finalists on Soundcloud here. The finalists are:

Declan / McKenna

MoD Music

Princess Slayer

Lucy Kitchen

Isaac Lee-Kronick

SHIELDS

Jakl

K.O.G. & The Zongo Brigade.

The eight acts were selected by Glastonbury judges from the longlist of 120 artists which was compiled by 40 of the UK’s best online music writers, who chose their selections from thousands of entries. Emily Eavis told us: “We’ve been blown away by the interest in the competition this year. To have more than 6,000 acts from the UK and Ireland enter is just incredible. Our team of judges did a fantastic job of whittling all those entries down to 120 acts, and it certainly wasn’t easy for us to choose eight finalists from the longlist. But I’m really excited about the quality and variety of the eight acts we’ve ended up with. I’m really looking forward to seeing them play at the live finals.”

And the finalists for this years All About The Music have been announced with "5 great bands take part in the final trying to rock your socks off for a chance to play on the main stage at this years INmusic festival in Croatia (June 22nd - 24th) alongside the likes of Placebo , Death Cab for Cutie, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Eagles Of Death Metal. Those finalists for the 3rd May final at the Corporation  in Sheffield are:

AWOOGA
Native Braves
Katalina Kicks
DIVIDES
All To Ruin

Plus last years winners Stop Drop Robot will take to the stage.

For more information and to check out a track each of the bands see: http://aatm.dscvr.uk/

Festival News

Kendal Calling have released their final tranche of tickets as the award winning Cumbria festival approaches a sell out in 2014. Featured headliners and performers at the August 1st - 3rd show at the beautiful Lowther Deer Park include Frank Turner, Suede, Example, Tom Odell, the Pig Ignerents, Colt 45, Bird, Miles Kane and the Happy Mondays.  KENDAL CALLING // 1 - 3 August 2014 www.kendalcalling.com // @KendalCalling

The Australian Sprung hip-hop festival will return to Brisbane this year following a disastrous attempt at expansion to Melbourne in 2013. Festuval Insights reports that the festival is one of Australia’s premier hip-hop events and will run for a fourth consecutive year in Brisbane, this year at the outdoor area of the Eatons Hill Hotel. Last year, the festival tried to expand to host a second leg in Melbourne, but were met with licensing and venue issues that led to its cancellation. Other hip hop festivals, such as Rap City festival, Movement and Supafest, also pulled the plug in 2013. More here.

Hadra Trance Festival will not take place at its home location of Lans-en-Vercours from next year after new the mayor of the town said he would not allow it to take place there from 2015. The 2014 edition will go ahead as preparations had already commenced and organisers had already booked a number of  artists and the mayor decided not to cancel this as his office would face paying a large sum in compensation.

Music festival travel company Eufest and Band Crusade have announced the winners of their now annual All About The Music band competition - which sees the successful  band gaining an all expenses paid slot at the INmusic festival in Croatia which this year features The Black Keys, Pixies, Foals and MGMT at INmusic in Zaghreb in June: electronic rock act Stop Drop Robot from Sheffield beat of strong competition from soul/rock band The River 68s from Glasgow, classic rock outfit The Black Hands from Sheffied, the marvellous indie rock band BETE from Manchester and melodious musical trio Faitala, also from Manchester.

The Hard Rock Cafe has announced a new partnership with the Isle of Wight Festival, to give new artists and undiscovered talent chance to play at the event on a new stage called Hard Rock Rising. The debut partnership between the festival and the brand will see over 30 new bands perform at the 12-15 June event. Festival-goers visiting the Stage will have the opportunity to enter a competition to win a trip for two to the newly opened Hard Rock Hotel in Ibiza. Headliners include Biffy Clyro, Calvin Harris, Kings of Leon and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

And the Exit Festival have announced the line up for their Explosive stage  36 bands from 14 countries over four days - from "guerrilla underground to worldwide renown mainstream names" for ll fans of metal, punk, rock, and hardcore including Sabaton, Madball, 7 Seconds,  Arkona, Death Before Dishonour, Angel of Death, Heller, Hobbs Angel of Death, Jambinai,  the Pig Ignerents, Violentor and 6th Awakening. Main Stage and Dance Arena headliners include Damon Albarn, Gloria Gaynor and Jamiroquai along with Skrillex, Disclosure, Carl Cox, Rudimental and Example. 10 -13 July 2014.

Festival News

Promoter Marcel Avram is launching a new electronic music festival in Switzerland, Turkey and Israel. Isle of Dreams will feature local DJ talent alongside the biggest international artists. Each event will take place over a three day period in August 2014 and are planned as the major electronic music event for each country. Confirmed artists include Above & Beyond, Alesso, Apollonia, Avicii, Axwell, Calvin Harris, Chuckie, Fedde Le Grand, Gareth Emery, Jamie Jones, Nervo, Paul Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk, Pete Tong, R3hab, Sebastian Ingrosso, Sasha, Steve Aoki and Zedd.


Hungary's Sziget Festival has moved its dates a week later from the busy first weekend in August period, in order to attract more international artists.

Irish festival Oxegen will not take place this year, its organiser MCD have confirmed, citing a "lack of suitable headline acts" combined with an increasing financial strain on the event.

AAA tells us that Liverpool Sound City is going cashless. The May 1-3 event has teamed up with ZNAP, a global mobile business platform, and hopes to improve the Sound City experience by offering mobile payment services. To use ZNAP at Sound City, ticketholders must download the app (available from the Google Play or Apple App stores) and register their credit or debit card details. Once they have arrived at the festival, they can pair their near field communication (NFC) wristbands with the ZNAP app. Wherever a ZNAP sign is displayed, punters can tap their wristbands on the NFC reader to pay.

Croatia's INmusic festival have announced the finalists of their talent contest organised by festival travel company eufest and Band Crusade - All About the Music. the 500 emerging acts from across the UK have been whittled down to just five for the final on May 2nd -  soul/rock outfit The River 68s, indie-pop trio Faitala, electronic rock act Stop Drop Robot, blues rockers The Black Hands and Manchester based alternative rock band BÊTE.