Crowning the festival’s main stage on Saturday and Sunday respectively, these two artists lead the first line-up announcement for Parklife’s third annual party. The finest pop, indie, electronic and crossover sounds are represented throughout the bill, as much-loved familiar names join many fresh faces tipped for the top in 2012’s ‘Ones to Watch’ lists. Everything is poised for a fantastic year that could very well be Parklife’s third and ‘hat trick’ sell out.
Headliners across the festival’s other arenas include dubstep chart toppers Nero, Parisian duo Justice – Live, Mixmag’s ‘Breakthrough DJ of The Year 2011’ Maya Jane-Coles and raucous electronic Canadians Crystal Castles. The Parklife Weekender also welcomes a number of clubland’s most respected labels with Crosstown Rebels and Hospital Records sending a number of their roster to Platt Fields Park. Also pitching up for the weekend are some of the UK’s hottest promoters with Metropolis and Chibuku invited to host their own arenas.
Elsewhere the festival’s performers come from the cream of the recent music crop. The newest additions to major radio playlists, magazine cool lists and blogger best of lists, namely Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Azealia Banks, Django Django and Ghost Poet are all part of Parklife’s stand out line-up for this year.
Over 100 artists perform across two days on 7 arenas for only £64.50 making The Parklife Weekender what could be the best value festival on offer this year*.
2012 may only Parklife’s third year but already the festival is a huge draw, tickets to both 2010 and 2011’s events sold out at least eight weeks in advance. To avoid disappointment promoters strongly advise fans to act fast and ensure their place at the start to Manchester’s summer.
LINE UP AS CONFIRMED SO FAR:
Saturday 9th June
Mainstage The Flaming Lips Noah & The Whale Kelis The Cuban Brothers DJ Yoda Krysko & Greg Lord + special guests: Chic ft. Nile Rogers
Metroplex Nero (Live) Pendulum (DJ Set) Zane Lowe Sub Focus (DJ Set) Jaguar Skills Tempa T DJ Hype Goldie 16 Bit North Base
Crosstown Rebels Damian Lazarus Art Department Maceo Plex Clive Henry Danny Daze Subb-an
Now Wave Crystal Castles Tom Vek Spector Friends Spector Django Django Phenomenal Handclap Band Stay+ To Kill a King Now Wave DJs Will Tramp! + special guests: Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaus
Thrasher arena Redlight Pearson Sound Araabmuzik Jackmaster Ben UFO Thundercat presents Archimedes (Live) Daedelus Space Dimension Controller Lone B Traits Damu
Chibuku Fake Blood James Zabiela Simian Mobile Disco Tensnake D/R/U/G/S Justin Robertson Screendeath James Rand
Kaluki Heidi Marco Effe & James Mile Romano & Luca Bear Ellesse & Josef K Us & Them Pete Zorba
Sunday 10th June Mainstage Dizzee Rascal Labrinth Azealia Banks Delilah (Live) Murkage Mista Jam Juicy DJs + special guests De La Soul
Metroplex Justice (Live) Annie Mac Erol Alkan Madeon Busy P Will Tramp + special guest: Jacques Lu Cont
Now Wave The Rapture Mount Kimbie Gold Panda Ghost Poet Twin Shadow Other Lives The Field Jessie Ware Now Wave DJs + special guests: Factory Floor
Hospitality High Contrast Netsky London Elektricity Danny Byrd Loadstar Logistics Nu:tone SPY Jessie Alan Fred V & Graffix MCs: Wrec, SP & + special guests: Zinc (Jungle set)
Wax:On Maya Jane-Coles Claude Von Stroke Julio Bashmore Todd Edwards Joy Orbison Miguel Campbell Eats Everything Kysko
Ape Carnival Sounds Fresh (Live) Buraka Som Sistema (Live) Caspa Shy FX David Rodigan Dam Funk & Master Blazter Dot Rotten Toddla T Onemand DJ Derek Rich Reason
Footwork Soul Clap Wolf & Lamb DJ Harvey Floating Points Bicep Drop The Mustard Zutekh DJs
Nottingham City Council is pleased to be working again with DHP to bring Splendour back to Nottingham for a fifth year.
Joining Dizzee Rascal on the mainstage will be BRIT award winners Razorlight and rising UK garage/dub-step starlet Katy B. Headlining the second stage at this year’s festival will be alternative favourites The Levellers.
Splendour’s full line up across three live music stages and comedy stage will be announced soon and festival goers can expect another special day for all the family with entertainment for children, fairground rides, food and craft stalls and bars.
Once again Splendour is teaming up with NUSIC.org.uk, who helps young Nottinghamshire musicians get exposure and experience within the music industry, with a competition for a local act to take the opening slot on the main stage at Splendour. Details of how to enter will be available shortly.
Splendour saw its most successful turnout last year with capacity topping the 20,000 mark. The festival has sold out for the past three years so those wanting to get their hands on tickets are advised to buy sooner rather than later!
Tickets go on sale next week – from 1st February (Wednesday) from 9am and again there are excellent discounts for city residents with a valid Citycard.
Tickets are available online at www.splendourfestival.com or in person from the Rock City Box Office on Talbot Street or the Royal Centre Box Office. Tickets will also be going on sale at all City Council leisure centres from 1st March.
2012 ticket prices are:
£27.50 adult city residents (with a valid Citycard)
£15 11-17 year old city residents (with a valid Citycard 360)
£27.50 11-17 year old non city resident (with an NG postcode)
£37.50 standard entry
FREE for all children 10 years and under
Set in the stunning grounds of Wollaton Hall, the festival has grown to become one of the region’s biggest music events, attracting over 20,000 people of all ages.
Previous headliners to grace the stage include the Scissor Sisters, Blondie, Pet Shop Boys, Madness, Calvin Harris, The Pogues, The Charlatans, Paolo Nutini and Ash.
City residents buying online will need to enter their Citycard number so have this ready.
If you are a city resident – and that means that you pay your Council Tax to Nottingham City Council – and haven’t yet got a Citycard, you can call in at the NCT travel centre on the Old Market Square with proof of address and age (for the Citycard 360). You can also get the adult card at any Council leisure centre or library.
Councillor Jon Collins, Leader of Nottingham City Council said: ‘Being able to bring Splendour back for a 5th year is great news for the City Council and great news for the City. It’s become one of the region’s most popular and high profile music events and attracting such a world class headline act shows that Splendour is making waves nationally and internationally. It’s a great event, in a great location, with great music, a great family feel and at a really great price. We’re really pleased to be able to work with our partners DHP to put on such a good show for Nottingham.’
George Akins Chairman of DHP said: “We are really excited about this year and feel that this is the strongest line up we’ve put together to date with even more diversity for the whole family. We expect this year to sell out in record time.”
Mark Del, founder of NUSIC and Splendour’s main stage host said: "I'm really excited NUSIC have managed to once again secure that Splendour main stage slot for a Nottingham artist, its such an incredible opportunity, last years's Future Sound of Nottingham winners The Money are still buzzing up the walls from last year."
To keep up to date with all the latest Splendour news visit www.splendourfestival.com or like Nottingham Splendour Festival on Facebook.
The other inclusions in the line-up are music star Dizzee Rascal, the rising crooner Ghostpoet, North American MC YelaWolf, backed by Eminem, Tiga (in charge of closing SonarLab on Friday night), oOoOO (the third cornerstone of the Brooklyn label Tri Angle showcase) and the showcase by the Italian label Stroboscopic Artefacts, among others.
Sónar continues to seek out the most interesting artists working in Spain right now and this year has selected 10 more names for inclusion in the Barcelona festival line-up.
Sónar Galicia adds 5 top level shows to the line-up: James Murphy, Four Tet, the techno-dubstep producer Martyn, the tech-house maestro Radio Slave and the French house duo DJ Mehdi Vs. Brodinski.
In anticipation of further confirmations, Sónar, the 18th International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art – which will be held in Barcelona days 16, 17 and 18 June – now features a total of 125 shows with these 22 new additions.
New international additions to Sónar Barcelona 2011
James Murphy, one of the most important characters in music so far this century, comes to Sónar after his tremendous recent farewell concert for his band LCD Soundsystem, to give us two sets of exquisite disco-funk-house: one at Sónar Barcelona and the other at Sónar Galicia.
Four Tet is one of the essential names in contemporary music working today. A top drawer producer, a maestro of meticulous electronica and a dj with unquestionable taste, this English artist will be presenting tracks from his most recent album, “There Is Love In You”, and his recent collaborations with Burial, Thom Yorke and Caribou both at Sónar Galicia and Sónar Barcelona.
Dizzee Rascal, probably the best MC to come out of the United Kingdom in the last decade and one of the cornerstones of the British urban sound, returns to Sónar by popular demand after his excellent show last year.
As well as Dizzee Rascal, the festival also presents his fellow British artist Ghostpoet whose debut “Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam” – a treatise of modern hip-hop, tending towards blues and the dark side of trio hop – is one of the most pleasant surprises of this year.
As is the music by the enigmatic oOoOO, one of the cornerstones of Tri Angle who joins the showcase by the Brooklyn label to provide a set for horizontal listening halfway between a live show and a dj session.
Sónar also presents the showcase by the Italian label Stroboscopic Artefacts (dark and penetrating IDM with the brand new names of Lucy and Dadub); the renowned Canadian dj Tiga, who will be responsible for bringing Friday to a close on the SonarLab stage; and one of today’s most interesting MCs, America’s YelaWolf, an Eminem protegé with a powerful personality able to rap at truly devilish speeds. The international additions are rounded off by the Canadian Marc Messier’s unusual Sewing Machine Orchestra, whose name says it all: it is an orchestra consisting of amplified computer-controlled sewing machines.
New Spanish additions to Sónar Barcelona 2011
In its global tracking of the most stimulating talent working today, Sónar looks particularly carefully within Spain’s borders to select the best of the country’s electronica and advanced music.
There are ten new additions to the Sónar Barcelona line-up, all of which are outstanding in terms of their contemporary sensitivity and their commitment to quality: the Barcelona darkwave duo Stendhal Syndrome (with visuals by Alba G. Corral); the disco-house-pop magic of Pffff; the amalgam of styles of Shelby Grey (the new project by Barcelona’s Vicknoise); Aster, the outstanding new duo of djs on the Hivern label; the fascinating world of the electronic luthiers of the Barcelona Laptops Orchestra; the tender and intimate IDM of Ragul; the Aragonese dj Chelis, one of the most creative djs in Spain; the mixture of jazzy grooves and beatboxing of Beat’A’Boom; and selectors from Spain’s two leading music publications: Half Nelson and Vidal Romero (Go-Mag djs) and Joan S. Luna (MondoSonoro), as well as the showcase by Natura Sonoris, one of the country’s leading techno labels, with its main man Henry Saiz and the dark and profound Sistema.
Latest international additions to Sónar Galicia 2011
With these 5 new additions, Sónar Galicia 2011, the 2nd Festival of Advanced Music which will be held in A Coruña on 17 and 18 June now has a total of 27 confirmed shows.
As well as the star turns by James Murphy and Four Tet, Sónar Galicia includes four of the most consolidated and renowned names in modern European electronica in its line-up.
Holland’s Martyn, a key figure in the new school where dubstep and electronica converge, will be presenting tracks from his forthcoming album on Brainfeeder – Flying Lotus’ label – with his new live show.
Matt Edwards, the man behind Radio Slave, has been giving us remixes and his own tunes in the best European tech-house tradition for more than decade, while always keeping the quality threshold high.
Finally, the French duo consisting of DJ Mehdi + Brodinski (sharpshooters of carefully woven house and techno on a party tip on Ed Banger and Turbo respectively) promises to provide some of the highlights on the SonarHall stage at Sónar Galicia.
List of new confirmed additions
Sónar Barcelona 2011
James Murphy (DFA/US) Four Tet (Text/UK) Dizzee Rascal (Dirtee Stank/UK) Ghostpoet (Brownswood Recordings/UK) Tiga (Turbo/CA) Yelawolf (Shady Records/US) oOoOO (Tri Angle/US) Sewing Machine Orchestra (CA) Chelis (Lo-Fi Funk/ES) Stendhal Syndrome (ES) PFFFF (New York Club/ES) Shelby Grey (Holographic People/ES) Barcelona Laptop Orchestra (Esmuc/ES) Ragul (Discontinu/ES) Beat’A’Boom (Col·lectiu Cazique/ES) Aster (Hivern/ES) Half Nelson + Vidal Romero (Go Mag/ES) Joan S. Luna (ES) Showcase Stroboscopic Artefacts :: Lucy + Dadub (IT) Showcase Natura Sonoris :: Henry Saiz + Sistema (ES)
Sónar Galicia 2011
James Murphy (DFA/US) Four Tet (Text/UK) Martyn (3024/NL) Radio Slave (Rekids/UK) DJ Mehdi vs Brodinski (Ed Banger-Turbo/FR)
Amongst the first names of the Pop-Rock Main Stage you get Pulp, coming back on stage after a long period of silence and already announcing that 2011 will see them playing only a few big festival gigs – including Sziget Festival, of course – in their classic line-up. Dizzee Rascal was chosen as the best male performer at last year’s BRIT Awards, and this time all Sziget-fans will have the chance to see why. Main Stage will also host Chicago-based melodic hardcore act Rise Against, Californian rockers Smash Mouth and folk-punk icons Flogging Molly. Interpol is currently on tour with their new album and without any doubt they are going to be one of the most awaited bands of this year’s Sziget Festival. The delicate, enchanting chamber-pop of The National has already fascinated the audience of the world’s most important festivals, and it was definitely not by accident that they received the album of the year prize from Q magazine. Sziget-fans were crazy about Gogol Bordello, so we are more than happy to announce that they will return this year, while Chemical Brothers also promise a spectacular new show for 2011.
The newest venue of Sziget Festival is called Europe Stage, aiming to present bands from various parts of the Old World. These bands are typically very popular in their own countries, often filling arenas and stadiums, but not yet achieved break through on an international level. Sziget Festival does its best to open up gates for bands like Triggerfinger, often referred to as the Flemish AC/DC, or the Belgian Queens of the Stone Age, promoting their new album All This Dancin’ Around. The Europe Stage also welcomes one of the most popular Italian alternative rock bands Verdena and make sure you get ready for Söhne Mannheims, German allstars formed of a dozen of outstanding musicians and covering a wide range of styles from r’n’b to reggae, rock, hiphop and pop.
World music fans get a five-day roundtrip of various genres and as usually, Sziget Festival’s World Music Main Stage will focus on the latest revelations and the biggest shots of the scene without geographical or stylistic limits. A fine example is AfroCubism, one of the greatest sensations of the past few months. We should also mention Cuba-based Eliades Ochoa and band, teaming up with Mali giants Kasse Mady Diabaté, Toumani Diabaté, Bassekou Kouyaté and Djelimady Tounkara to make an unforgettable show. The Argentine-Swiss-French combination of Gotan Project will once again present an undoubted skill in pushing the borders of tango, while the world music venue also offers a fine selection of Balkan music: Goran Bregovic will play beloved Romany anthems together with his remarkable Wedding And Funeral Band. A great news for fans of flamenco as well as hiphop is the gig of Barcelona-based Ojos de Brujo, playing at Sziget as an important station of their farewell tour. Rotfront from Berlin will try their best to be even more successful than they were last year… quite a challenge to say the least. And this is still just a prelude of happiness. France, a clear stronghold of folk- and world music will also have a firm representation with two beautiful bands. Old friends Les Hurlements d’Léo will create a special merge of the sensitivity of French chanson and ‘merciless’ punkrock, while Debout Sur Le Zinc will play the first Sziget show of their 12 years career, revealing their irresistible style of Celtic-Klezmer-tango-rock-gypsy-fusion.
The A38-WAN2 Stage has been offering a wide selection of trendy and cult bands year after year and this process goes on also in 2011. The venue will host Marina and the Diamonds, who is not only a fashion-dictator, but was also nominated for BRIT, BBC Sound and NME music awards, and has even received the prize of the best British/Irish band of the year at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Another great band playing on this stage will be Skunk Anansie, a band hard to label in terms of genre, playing an interesting merge of metal, reggae, electronics and post new-wave. And we should not forget about Hurts, flagship of contemporary British synthpop, awarded as best new band on the 2011 Shockwaves NME Awards.
The Party Arena is the place to be at nights if you are into dj’s and partyculture in general. But even more than that: before the sun goes down this is also an exciting live act scene. Some of the artists playing here will include The Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77, one of the most talented players of the electronic scene and new rave allstars Hadouken! Fans will also get the chance of listening to Crystal Castles, aiming atan audience that is open to visualize unknown and fantastic levels of musical existence. Those who have already seen them play live are captured by their sound and charisma forever. So make sure you arrive early to fit in the tent.
Sziget Festival has also a lot to offer for the fans of harder styles. This year organizers will make sure that rockers can get out of their well known tent and enjoy some fresh air with the introduction of the Metal Main Stage. The venue will present rock and metal acts in an open-air scenery with two international and two domestic stars playing each day. For this stage the focus is not necessarily on following the latest trends, rather on highlighting brutal guitar-riffs and some of the legends of the scene. The two early names announced suggest that this venue will be one of the most popular stages of the festival this year. Who are they? According to some fresh news, one of the most important metal bands of all times, Judas Priest is going on tour for the last time ever and they will definitely visit Sziget to make sure fans get stiff necks after a crazy night of headbanging. Motörhead will also return to Hungary, playing a thundering, high-speed, friendly and evil gig like they always did throughout the thirty-five years of their career. If you have ever seen them before, you already know that they simply ignore the age factor, so their live shows are as crazy and wild as the ones you get from musicians half of their age. Co-headliners playing at the venue will include Finnish power-metal heroes Sonata Arctica, already crowned with four golden records and surely considered as one of the most striking bands of the scene.
Although this is just the beginning, only a fragment of all the star-performers to be announced later, it is already clear that music fans from all over the world will have a great time at Sziget Festival also this year.
Last but not least, another great piece of news: you can buy your Sziget Festival tickets in 2011 for the same price you did last year. Early bird weekly tickets (including camping) are available for 170 Euros till 30 April and if you are not the camper type you can buy a non-camping weekly for 140 Euros. The prices will go up 30 Euros each after the early bird period is over, so it does make sense to think ahead. Daily tickets will be available for 45 Euros.
