Bestival announces even more acts - Skepta, Wiley and The Chuckle Brothers

Bestival announces even more acts - Skepta, Wiley and The Chuckle Brothers

With over 25 stages, revolutionary soundsystems, zombie love-ins, psychedelic woodland adventures, 24-hour free haircuts, and a host of dazzling new attractions, Bestival’s Summer of Love is already looking pretty damn fit. But as ever, we want to get everyone we love involved, including this rather sultry bunch of musical marvels that will have you rockin’ Robin Hill all weekend long this September 10-13.

Love commando Rob da Bank says: “I’m well excited with this new batch of acts we’re announcing tonight. With so many identikit festivals about with similar acts and bills I’m proud that 12 years on we don’t go with the flow. If the indie amazingness of Drenge isn’t your bag then grimy faceslaps from Skepta and Wiley might be, and if you’re insane and don’t like the legendary junglist brilliance of Roni Size and his live Reprazent show then perhaps, just perhaps, you’ll be singing ‘to me, to you, to me, to you’ whilst dancing in a pair of ill-fitting tropical shorts to the Chuckle Brothers. No matter what, there’s plenty more fish in the sea to come, as our Summer of Love really starts to heat up. See you down the front.”

Bringing on the love with big fat beats, we’ll have main stage appearances from grime pioneer Wiley, who completely smashed it as our secret guest in 2012, plus the unstoppable skank machine, Dub Pistols.

Dub Pistols legend Barry Ashworth commented: “The Highlight of the year for us will always be playing Bestival, this year we are back on the main stage, it doesn't get bigger than that, and if that’s not enough you can always catch me spinning tracks and drinking in the Sunday Best Cardboard Record Shop! There’s only one Bestival!”

Not quite true, Barry, there are two Bestivals, but we know what you mean! Big love to all our Canadian brethren! More Isle of Wight-based Bestival main stage action will come from cool chanteuse Gabrielle Aplin, sing-along faves Dodgy, and the Isle of Wight’s own Xockha and Yrslf.

Old blue, Bestival’s beloved Big Top will be playing host to some mighty sounds this summer, too, including the much requested return of Joseph Junior Adenuga AKA Skepta and an absolute must-see live set from drum n bass hero Roni Size and Reprazent. We’ll also have recently expanded noiseniks Drenge, our favourite scratch master DJ Yoda Presents: Breakfast of Champions, with his brand new hip-hop band busting up the Big Top live, and then the man himself will be taking on Bollywood for a typically special DJ set, and we’ll have one of the coolest bands ever to grace a festival, Sunday Best favourites, the utterly incomparable Kitty Daisy and Lewis.

Commenting on their latest Bestival appearance, Kitty Daisy and Lewis uttered as one: “We’re so excited to be coming to Bestival again this year, we always have a great time. Sunday Best know how to throw a festival!”

The Big Top will also welcome a high-voltage rock assault from Dinosaur Pile-Up, plus sets from Kero Kero Bonito, Lloyd Yates, Seafret and - we’re not sure it’s possible to express quite how excited we are about this - The Chuckle Brothers! Yes, it’ll be history in the making with be-mulleted slapstick to me, to you. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

As if all that wasn’t enough to get you all giddy with joy, he was one of the smash hits acts that started our summer in finest style at Common People, so we’re extremely pleased that turntable ninja, Jaguar Skills, will be joining us to destroy the dancefloor at The Port.

Digital Love: www.Bestival.net/ Facebook /  Twitter /  Tumblr

#Bestival15 / #SummerofLove

BESTIVAL TICKET LINKS & INFORMATION:

www.ticketline.co.uk/bestival-tickets / 0844 888 4410

FKA twigs joins Bestival's Summer of Love 2015

FKA twigs joins Bestival's Summer of Love 2015

Things are really starting to hot-up in the Bestival bunker, as our Summer of Love draws ever closer, and we unveil news of yet another stellar act joining our jamboree. One of the most exciting stars to have emerged in the past couple of years, we are absolutely thrilled to announce that FKA twigs will be crossing the Solent to blow us all away this September 10-13, at Robin Hill Country Park.

Rob da Bank says: “I picked up a white label record by an artist called twigs in 2012 and started playing it on my Radio 1 show, with no idea who or what was creating this fantastic sound… Three years on and it’s exciting to see FKA twigs breaking through, still forging such a leftfield sound and winning! We can’t wait to welcome her to Bestival’s Summer of Love 2015… and I’ve still got that white label!” 

The consummate polymath, FKA twigs has recently announced her video-directorial debut for Glass and Patron, the lead track taken from her forthcoming EP, which moves the story on from where her Mercury Prize nominated LP1 left off, exploring her stunningly unique brand of slo-mo RandB and sylphlike vocals. With a truly astonishing live presence, her Bestival show is a guaranteed must-see event, alongside unmissable appearances from The Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Duran Duran, Tame Impala, The Jacksons, Annie Mac, Jungle, Jurassic 5 and lots more.  

BESTIVAL TICKET LINKS and INFORMATION:

www.ticketline.co.uk/bestival-tickets / 0844 888 4410

40,000 attend Liverpool Pride 2011

PROUD MERSEY

OVER 40,000 ATTEND LIVERPOOL PRIDE 2011

Over 40,000 people turned out to enjoy Liverpool’s second official Gay Pride festival this Saturday, which was held at the city’s iconic waterfront.

The number of attenders was almost double that of Liverpool’s first Pride Festival, which attracted 21,000 to the city in 2010, with 35,000 attending the main Pier Head festival site and a further 5,000 revellers visiting the Stanley Street fringe events. 

Thousands of people lined the streets as the as the Liverpool Pride march passed through the city centre. The march, lead by members of murdered teenager Michael Causer’s family, saw 2,500 of the LGBT community in addition to their friends and family flow through the city in a blaze of sound and colour. Numerous organisations including Homes for Everyone, Merseytravel, Merseyside Fire and Rescue, UNISON North West and numerous clubs and bars including Superstar Boudoir, The Lisbon, Masquerade and Garlands also took part.  

At the Pier Head, Pride goers were treated to two stages, over fifty stalls, Zumba sessions, caged football matches and a whole host of street entertainment. On the main stage, acts including soul divas Rowetta and Kym Mazelle, accompanied by the Liverpool Pride Dance team from AJ Dance, blew the crowds away with stunning performances, the main stage line up also included House of Suarez, Nikki Belle, Cubstars, Bears Aloud and Diva Bliss, whilst up and coming local artists including Oh My, Alan Cross and Cocabelle entertained the masses on the second ‘Summer of Love’ stage. The day ended at the Pier head with a dramatic balloon release, with hundreds of colourful balloons floating over the River Mersey. The Pride fringe events held in the city’s gay quarter also attracted a large number of revellers, with several bars being packed to capacity well into the early hours of Sunday morning.

A further 2,500 people took part in Chill Out Sunday events, which were held at arts and cultural venues and restaurants across the city. The Big Gay Brunch event, which took place at Franklins @ FACT, The Bluecoat, TATE Liverpool and The Egg Cafe was well attended by pride goers enthusiastic to recover and catch up on the main day’s events. The Gay Gardens at The Bluecoat attracted a large crowd of budding LGBT gardeners and the Costume Drama talk at Sudley House had visitors gasping in both amusement and wonder at the fashions of times past. The afternoon was capped off with a northwest premiere screening of LGBT film, The Cost of Love. The weekend ended on a massive high at the glittering closing party at Homomodo.

Tommy McIlravey, Chair of Liverpool Pride said: ‘It was an absolutely brilliant day, everything went to plan and we were even blessed with good weather. We didn’t think anything could top last year’s event but this surpassed our wildest dreams. We smashed last year’s attendance of 21,000 with 35,000 coming along to enjoy Pride this year, which was incredible, at one point, 20,000 people were on the festival site. The whole of Merseyside was represented, which is what the event is all about, people brought along their children and their grandparents, there was such a great mix of people. Having the festival at the Pier Head in front of the Liver Building proved a huge success and we’ve had fantastic feedback about the festival site and our wonderful programme of events. Rowetta and Kym Mazelle, who was drawn to the event because of the site, really got the crowd going and everyone who came along really enjoyed themselves.’

Pride goer Carol Foley from Liverpool said: “Pride being held at the pier head was a great idea as it meant people could be around longer as there was lots of seating there, which means we could relax and listen to some of the fab talent, they had on the stage’s and there was definitely more of a buzz about the day than last year, a moment i loved was when Pete Price had us all singing, Ferry across the Mersey, to hear it in such voice was heart –warming”

Pride goer Lara Sproson said ‘I had a fabulous day - even the walk between Pier Head and Stanley Street was fun as the crowds flowed backwards and forwards across Liverpool. Will be back next year, bigger and brighter than ever!’

Collections on the day raised over £1000 to go towards the cost of Liverpool Pride 2012 and more fundraising events are due to be held in the coming weeks, with a screening of BREAK MY FALL, an LGBT film at FACT this evening (Monday 8^th) and a Liverpool Pride Zumbathon on Sat 20 August – more info at www.liverpoolpride.co.uk.

Before 2010, Liverpool was the largest city in the country that hasn’t had its own official pride festival. At the launch of the LGB&T Network the public voted for a pride festival to engage, empower and involve the LGB&T communities within the city and this was fully endorsed by Liverpool City Council in January 2009 and Liverpool Pride kick stated into action, following the inaugural event in 2010, Liverpool Pride 2011 celebrated the diverse community of one of Europe’s leading cultural cities in spectacular style, cementing the city’s reputation as THE city to be in for great arts, music and culture.

HERE’S TO NEXT YEAR!

LIVERPOOL PRIDE 2012 HERE WE COME!

Keep up to date at liverpoolpride.co.uk

 

Liverpool pride 2011 moves to Liverpool Pier Head

The move comes after organisers agreed that the site was more financially viable in the current economic climate and also that it was better suited to this year’s ‘Summer of Love’ theme. Moving to the city’s waterfront will allow Liverpool Pride to deliver a festival which the city’s LGBT community deserve and can be proud of. 

Tommy McIlravey Chair of Liverpool Pride said ‘We are delighted to be able to use the Pier Head for Liverpool Pride 2011. It is a wonderful space and part of the iconic waterfront of Liverpool that is recognisable throughout the world. Being there is a real symbol of how much Merseyside is behind the Liverpool Pride event. We have always strived to make lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people more visible and more valued, and this feels like the perfect place to do both.

Obviously, we were disappointed to have to move out of Dale Street and the gay quarter but, like just about every charity at the moment, we have had to tighten our belts in order to survive. Closing such a huge area of the city centre is a difficult and expensive operation, so we had to look at a range of alternative spaces for Liverpool Pride, including some outside the city centre. None of the other options even came close to the Pier Head in terms of accessibility, grandeur and, dare I say, fabulousness! It is a nice big space to so there is room for tens of thousands of people to come and celebrate the Summer of Love with us on the 6th August – please make sure you are one of them.

The route of the Liverpool Pride March has been finalised, with organisers certain that it will still start at St George’s Plateau at 12pm and process through the city’s streets, taking in Lime Street, Queen Square bus station and Whitechapel before turning into Lord Street and carrying on along Castle Street, turning left at the Town Hall and continuing down Water Street, crossing The Strand and arriving at the new festival site on the Waterfront at around 1.30pm. Organisations and individuals who wish to take part in the march are encouraged to sign up at www.liverpoolpride.co.uk/march

                               

Despite the main festival site, which was to be located on Dale Street, being moved to the Pier Head, there will still be some activity taking place in and around the Gay Quarter. All of the Gay Bars and venues including those on Stanley Street, Victoria Street and Cumberland Street will remain open throughout the day and night for revellers to enjoy and Gbar and Garlands are to join forces, producing a dance area that will be situated in close proximity to the Eberle Street venues.

The Liverpool Pride programming team is hard at work finalising the line up for this year’s festival, which will be announced in due course. The new Pier Head site is sure to be transformed into the perfect ‘hippie hangout’ with exciting live acts, side show performances, entertainment, music, market stalls, food outlets and bars, ensuring that Liverpool Pride 2011 is as much of a hit with the LGBT community as the inaugural 2010 event.

For more information, please visit www.liverpoolpride.co.uk 

Before 2010, Liverpool was the largest city in the country that didn’t have its own official pride festival.  Liverpool Pride came about following the launch of the LGB&T Network in 2009, at which the public voted for a pride festival to engage, empower and involve the LGB&T communities within the city. This was fully endorsed by Liverpool City Council and the first official Liverpool Pride Festival saw over 21,000 people take to the streets of Liverpool in celebration of all things LGBT.  It is hoped that Liverpool Pride 2011 will build on this success and will celebrate the diverse community of one of Europe’s leading cultural cities once more.

Liverpool pride will be held on the 6th August 2011