Stonedeaf

A one day festival isn’t all that common, particularly not a stand alone one day event. Stonedeaf is a bit cool. It was founded by some veterans of Monsters of Rock and Donnington festivals. They got together on a Facebook group and decided to put together a festival. This is already one that I like the sound of.

Last year they attracted Skid Row, Quireboys, Anvil and Wolfsbane. The initial line up for this years event was announced last night, with Glenn Hughes announced as headline act. Hughes will perform songs from Deep Purple, with whom he played from 73-76.

He is joined on the line up by Diamond Heat, The Amorettes and Massive. Another five bands will be added to the line up, with the gig taking place on August 24th.

Camping tickets are £60 and arena tickets are £50

Live Nation snags Camp Bestival – Rob da Bank still at helm

Reports abound that Rob da Bank is back at the helm of Camp Bestival after a deal with Live Nation and Creditor Richmond Group

It appears that Live Nation Gaiety and SJM have done a deal with Richmond Group who had bought the business out of administration last month.

A Statement on the the Camp Bestival website said: “With the help of Live Nation Gaiety and SJM we will really be able to bring more of our creative vision to life with the support structure needed going forward.

A few things remain unresolved. Today’s statement talks about Camp Bestival, there is still no mention about Bestival.

The other outstanding issue relates to competition. The UK’s Competition watchdog had to approve Live Nation Gaiety’s take over of the Isle of Wight Festival in 2017. It remains to be seen whether this deal will be subject to approval.

All Time Low nail a Slam Dunk

Just a few days after their controversial announcement, moving outdoor in Leeds and cancelling the Birmingham leg, Slam Dunk has announced their first tranche of bands.

Leading the way, with a UK exclusive performance will be All Time Low. The Maryland Rockers headlined Slam Dunk before in 2013.

NOFX and New Found Glory were the other big names announced today. Also announced were Waterparks, Story of the Year, Gallows, Mad Caddies and Silverstein.

The bands will play Leeds on May 25 and then move south to Hatfield in Herts on May 26th.

Tickets which are priced about £65 per day, will go on sale on Friday 19th. Further details are available here.

Slam Dunk has the Birmingham Blues

Best UK Metropolitan Festival winner in 2017, Slam Dunk. has announced changes to their operations for 2019. The festival which had been running in three locations, Leeds, Birmingham and Hatfield in Herts, will now reduce to two days, with Birmingham losing out.

In addition to pulling the Birmingham leg, organisers are changing the format of the Leeds event, moving from a number of venues to one single outdoor venue at Temple Newsam Park, just outside Leeds City Centre.

Organisers have also promised to improve facilities at the Slam Dunk Festival South site at Hatfield Park. They indicated that they would be paying particular attention to feedback on toilets and car parking. They have asked festival goers to contact them with more feedback regarding the site at info@slamdunkmusic.com

2018 saw Good Charlotte and Jimmy Eat World tour the country with the likes of Frank Carter and Taking Back Sunday. Organisers say that they will be announcing the first acts soon.

Midlands festival goers are being urged to take specially arranged buses from Birmingham to both venues. Given the number of festivals out there, that may be a stretch.

Madon-no and Fleetwood Lack for Glastonbury

Sorry, that is truly terrible. Rumours abound that Emily Eavis has ruled out Madonna, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin as headliners for next years Glastonbury festival.

Twitter Account, The Glasto Thingy reported on answers supposedly given by Eavis at a charity event in Taunton.

Madonna was favourite with some bookies. Fleetwood Mac were also fairly highly backed to appear. No mention of other favourites, The Cure.

Vote for your favourite festival

The UK Festival Awards will take place in December, in a no doubt very lavish ceremony, that neither you nor I will be invited to. The awards are in their 15th year and offer recognition for the hard work that goes in to running the festivals that we know and love or indeed know and hate.

The 2017 awards included the following winners;

Award	2017 Winner
Best Festival Production	Lost Village
Best Metropolitan Festival*	Slam Dunk
Best New Festival*	Trnsmt
Best Festival for Emerging Talent	Dot to Dot Festival
Best Grassroots Festival*	2000 Trees
Best Overseas Festival*	Outlook Festival
Best Family Festival	Camp Bestival
Best Non Music Festival	Bournemouth 7s
Best Small Festival*	Lost Village
Best Medium Sized Festival*	End of the Road
Best Large Festival*	Latitude
Line up of the Year	Liverpool Music Week

* Decided by public vote and panel of experts

Organisers are looking for the ordinary man and woman in the street to have their say. While the more technical awards are adjudicated by a panel of experts, the public get to determine the shortlist for some of the major awards. Once shortlisted, the industry boffins then pick the winners.

It’s easy to say that awards don’t matter but screw that. As punters we often complain we dont get a chance to have our say, well this is part of having our say. So get out there and vote.

You can vote for your favourites here.

Wilderness and Black Deer updates

Two slightly smaller festivals, Wilderness and Black Deer issued updates in the last few days.

Wilderness is possibly the most British and (upper) middle class event I have ever seen. Set in the beautiful Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, Wilderness is a celebration of music, food, thought and life. With an attendance of circa 10,000, this is firmly at the more boutique end of the spectrum. The presence of opera, world class chefs and an extensive ‘wellbeing’ element – christ i hate that word – only serves to further nail home the boutiqueyness (real word). Early bird tickets are on sale here and so are the posh accomodation options. I am guessing these involve gold plated cutlery.

It’s easy to be cynical but this looks like a lot of fun. Tickets from £168

A very different kettle of bourbon, Black Deer is a festival celebrating Americana and Country Music. Taking place in Eridge Park in Kent, 2018 was the festival’s first year. They did such a good job that they are up for a best new Festival award gong at the National Association of Outdoor Events annual awards.

Iron and Wine and Passenger were the 2018 headliners. In addition to a strong representation of the genre, there were custom motorbikes, strong whiskey and smoked meat. Y’all stop on by now….. hmmmm.

Tickets are from £115 plus booking fees for weekend camping. They have a 4 for the price of 3 offer which is pretty good, which would reduce the cost to about £86 plus fees, which to be fair is a pretty good deal. Tickets here.

Glastonbury does what Glastonbury does

There was nothing more predictable than Glastonbury selling out quickly. It did, in just under 30 minutes.

If you haven’t managed to get a ticket, there is still hope… a little hope. People who have secured tickets have until the first week in April to pay for them. Any that are not paid for will go back on sale.

Who knows, you might be lucky.

I never met a poor bookie

Bookies are differing on who will headline Glastonbury next year.

Paddy Power, the bookmakers and serial japesters, has stopped taking bets on who will headline Glastonbury 2019. Madonna is now the red hot favourite to make her Glastonbury debut.

Among Paddy Power’s other favourites are Kendrick Lamar, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John and the Arctic Monkeys.

SkyBet have The Cure as favourites. Paul McCartney, with a new album to promote, is second favourite. Stormzy and Madonna are third and fourth favourites respectively.

I never met a poor bookie, and PP in particular seem to think that word has crept out from Glasto HQ.

Gone, gone, gone

The annual (near annual) competition to find out who can you the refresh button most often commenced this evening, with Glastonbury coach tickets going on sale and then selling out in under half an hour.

Tonights wedge of tickets were sold with coach travel to the festival. The festival has always sought to promote public transport as the best way of getting to Worthy Farm.

General admission, non coach tickets, go on sale on Sunday Morning at 9am. You need to be pre-registered in order to buy tickets.

Glastonbury ticket sale Sunday celebrated in the world’s oldest gif