Robots invade Jodrell Bank

Bluedot is one of the more interesting festivals on the go. Located at Jodrell Bank, the home of a gigantic space observatory, Bluedot has a slightly spacey feel to it. The festival is named after Pale Blue Dot, a famous photograph of planet Earth taken from the Voyager 1 spacecraft and popularised in a book by Carl Sagan In addition to music, there are live science experiments, expert talks and other such clever stuff.

Organisers will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing in 2019. Who better to announce as first headline than the grandfathers of synthfuturism, Kraftwerk. The German veterans will bring their 3-D experience to Jodrell over the weekend of 18 – 21 July.

Bluedot has had rave reviews since starting in 2016. Previous headliners have included The Chemical Brothers, Flaming Lips, Orbital, Pixies and Gary Numan. Attendance is pretty small, only 5,000 per day.

Tickets are available from tomorrow at this page.

All Points on the Horizon

All Points East has revealed another full day of their line up. Bring me the Horizon and Run the Jewels are the two main acts announced, with Nothing but Thieves, Idles, Scarlxrd and Yonaka making up the rest of the bill on Friday May 31.

All Points East will be the only Bring me the Horizon show in the UK next year.

Presale tickets from December 6th.

Primavera is the new normal

One of the big beasts of the European music scene, Primavera Sound, has unleashed its 2019 line up. Solange, Tame Impala, Future, Mac DeMarco, Janelle Monae, Interpol, Jarvis Cocker, Cardi B and Robyn all feature.

Primavera takes place in Barcelona on the weekend from May 30 to June 1. Established in 2001, since then Primavera has been attracting the biggest names in music.

Organisers have indicated that over half of the acts featuring at this years festival are women, In their announcement, the Primavera team have indicated that they want to create a new ‘normal’ for music festivals.

That in a line up there be equality between female and male artists should be normal
That gender barriers and pigeonholing be dismantled should be normal
That all stages, schedules and proposals be provocative should be normal
That the music of the new generations be embraced without forgetting how we got here should be normal

It may be marketing guff, but at least they are practicing what they preach with their line up. Hopefully more will follow suit.

Tickets are from 180 euro and are available here.

Longitude map a course for 2019

Chance the Rapper, A$AP Rocky, and Future are among the first wave of acts announced for Longitude, taking place in Marley Park, Dublin from July 5 to 7 next year . The line up continues a definite shift from a fairly eclectic line up to a more definite rap and hip hop feel in recent years.

Brockhampton, Rae Sremmurd, Lil Uzi Vert, Juice WRLD, Versatile, Aminé, Denzel Curry, $uicideBoy$, Lil Baby, Sheck Wes, Clairo, Slowthai, and Flohio were also announced today.

Promoters MCD have announced that a limited number of weekend tickets, priced at €189.50, will go on sale this Friday at 10.00am via ticketmaster.

The announcement of the names came out of nowhere and is much earlier than previous years. Following on from the early sell out of Electric Picnic, it looks like promoters are hoping to cash in on pre – Christmas sales.

Horses v Deers

Band of Horses have been confirmed as headliners for Black Deer festival. Also announced to headline the festival over the weekend are John Butler Trio and Jade Bird. Black Deer takes place in Eridge Park, Kent from 21-23 June, 2019.

Black Deer is the award winning, new kid on the block in festival land.

Tickets are on sale at blackdeerfestival.com

Bloodstock line up, clotting nicely

15,000 of the most discerning metal heads in the country will descend on Catton Park in Derbyshire for this years Bloodstock. Those glorious bastards are in for a hell of a treat, with a line up that is filling out, thickening, nay clotting nicely.

Latest additions to the line up are Anthrax, Dimmu Borgir, Thy Art is Murder and Tesseract. Confirmed headliners for the Ronny James Dio main stage are Sabaton (Friday), Anthrax (Saturday) and Scorpions (Sunday).

Tickets here

The Darkness of Ramblin’ Man

Having announced Foreigner already, the second main stage headliner for Ramblin Man Fair has been announced – The Darkness.

The Darkness probably never got the credit they deserved in terms of talent. Perhaps their quirky videos were their own worst enemy, making them appear to be a bit of a novelty. If you’ve every seen them live you will know that they put on a great show.

In addition to the brothers Hawkins, former The Black Crowes singer and rock legend Chris Robinson with his band the Chris Robinson Brotherhood will be bringing a bit of southern rock n’ roll to The Fair!

With classic rock, blues, country and folk, there is something for every discerning taste at Ramblin’ Man. Others acts appearing over the weekend include Living Colour Wild Hearts and Beth Hart.

Tickets here.

Good Vibrations at Cornbury Festival

Inaugurated in 2004, Cornbury Festival is very much targetted at a more mature audience. Last years headliners included Alanis Morisette, UB40 and Deacon Blue. This year, they have reached even further back, all the way to California at the start of the 60’s, the era of The Beach Boys.

The legends of surfer rock will headline the Sunday of the festival on Sunday the 7th July, closing the festival.

Tickets for the festival are currently £195 on an early bird special. The early bird promotion will run until Midnight, Sunday December 9th. Tickets here.

FOMO grips Ireland as Electric Picnic sells out

Electric Picnic tickets went back on sale briefly yesterday, for just 15 minutes in fact. That was all the time that it took for the Irish festival to join the elite group of festivals that can sell out without naming an act.

Tickets were initially on sale in the week after this weeks festival in September. Discounted early bird tickets sold quickly and even full price tickets did not last long in that initial sale. The balance of tickets were shifted quickly on Monday.

EP has sold out for the last few years. In recent years, tickets were snapped up within minutes of headliners being announced. Tickets for last years show, which featured Kendrick, N.E.R.D, Massive Attack and The Prodigy were like hens teeth in the weeks leading up to the event. Organisers have even increased capacity by 5,000, to 57,000+ for next year.

Organisers have said they will be releasing the full line up in the New Year. Its not clear whether this will be one big announcement, or whether they will issue a series of announcements through the summer, as is their usual M.O.

One way or another, the power of FOMO has driven the Electric Picnic audience to part with their cash early.

Christine & The Queens for All Points East

All Points East has announced their third day line up. Christine and the Queens will headline the festival on Sunday 26th May. This follows the announcements of Bon Iver and Chemical Brothers as their first two headliners.

Other acts joining Christine on Sunday 26th will include Metronomy, Maribou State, Beach House, HONNE, Kurt Vile & the Violators, Toro Y Moi, Ezra Collective, Baloji, Rina Sawayama, Cuco and many others!

All Points East is a music festival held over two weekends once a year in London’s Victoria Park, run by AEG Presents. The 10 day event comprises two weekends of headline music and four days of free entry and community activities known as In the Neighbourhood. A nice combination. Capacity is around 40,000.

Pre sale tickets for the gig go on sale on December 6th. Plenty of time for Christmas. Tickets for Bon Iver and Chemical Brothers gigs are already on sale. Ticket info here.

Standon Me

Standon Calling has announced their first headliner for 2019, the Award winning Rag ‘n’ Bone Man. The ‘Human’ songwriter will perform on Friday 26th July. Standon Calling takes place from the 25th to 28th July in Hertfordshire.

Having made the breakthrough in 2016, Rag’n’Bone Man has played Standon before and was a major hit with crowds. Last month he released a new track, Photographs, with Professor Green.

Standon Calling is a boutique music festival set in the beautiful Hertfordshire countryside. Celebrating its thirteenth year in 2018, the festival has come a long way since its birthday garden party beginnings. The festival prides itself on being a little bit less commercial than some of its peers.

Each year the festival runs according to a theme, with festival goers encouraged to participate. Previous themes have included Murder on the Standon Express, Gods and Monsters, Running Away from the Circus and last year was all about The Future.

Standon tends to be heavy on up and coming acts, just making their breakthrough. This is a really good place to spot the acts just about to come through. Early Bird and Tier One tickets have sold out. Tier two adult tickets are £139 and they will go up again. Tickets here.