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.

IOW faces review after weather chaos

Isle of Wight MP Stuart Love is calling for a review of the way the Isle of Wight Festival is organised and licensed after the chaos caused by the previous week's weather. The Isle of Wight event wasn't the only one hit by the bad weather this weekend: The second day of festivities at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, due to be headlined by Paul Weller, had to be cancelled over health and safety concerns, in Cumbria the outdoor stages at Cockermouth Live! were cancelled after nearly 10cm of rain fell on Friday, while in Liverpool the Africa Oyé event was called off, though a smaller in-door event featuring many of the festival's line-up was staged.

UK weather causes more problems

Flooding caused chaos for people heading to the Isle of Wight Festival this weekend after heavy rain led to access problems at Seaclose Park, Newport.  The Festival is being headlined by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Pearl Jam, Biffy Clyro, The Vaccines, Elbow and Bruce Springsteen, There has been traffic gridlock on the island with people forced to sleep in their cars overnight. The BBC reported that Police have been escorting motorists stuck in traffic to Newport Football Club where shelter and refreshments are being provided. About 65,000 festival-goers are expected to attend the three-day event. Traffic on many of the island's roads has been at a standstill throughout Thursday and into Friday and hundreds of motorists have been queuing for up to ten hours to access the site and have been left stranded in their vehicles. 

in London it looks like the big BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekender (with 100,000 people attending over the weekend) with the likes of Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kasabian, Lana Del Ray, Jack White, Florence & The Machine, Ed Sheeran and Professor Green on Saturday and Sunday might escape the worst of the weather as forecasts for the weekend show that London may just escape the heavier rains. Both the Isle of Wight and the BBC plumped for what would have been the 'Glastonbury' weekend which became free as Michael Eavis decided to take one of his regular breaks to rest his land at Worthy Farm. Parts of Scotland and Northern England can expect up to 100mm of rain and there are now nine  flood alerts across the UK including the South West  in the wettest June since record began 230 years ago. The Met Office forecast a fourth wet weekend on the spin, warning of 'showers and longer periods of rain will affect many places,' with blustery winds as well,  forecasting showers followed by a band of rain on Saturday and a washout on Sunday on the North and South coasts, with the Midlands overcast.