The Association of Independent Festivals has reached 100 members. Eisteddfod Yr Urdd became the 100th AIF member in January, with the milestone being announced today (February 1) at the opening of this year’s Festival Congress in Bristol. An annual Welsh-language youth festival of literature, music and performing arts organised by Urdd Gobaith Cymru, Eisteddfod Yr…
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Liverpool Sound City, the UK’s independent music conference and AIM UK’s ‘Conference in The North’, today announce its first wave of speakers and panels for the upcoming 2023 conference. For over 15 years, Sound City has remained at the fore of global music conference and industry leadership, welcoming leading industry figures, emerging artists and aspiring…
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Continuing its international expansion, Rolling Loud has announced the lineup for Rolling Loud Thailand 2023. Headlined by Travis Scott, Cardi B, and Chris Brown, the newly-announced lineup is an eclectic mix of current stars, respected veterans, and rap stars from Thailand and other Asian countries. Bringing three action-packed days of hip-hop at a picturesque beachside…
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Tempers fray in the launch video as the investigation into line-up leaks reaches a climax. Gopuff delivers Wireless Festival released a stellar 2023 Line-up with the release of a slcik, narrative-driven launch video. Returning to its spiritual home in London’s Finsbury Park, Festival Republic announced three massive UK exclusive headliners Travis Scott, Playboi Carti and…
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In this 8th year of Vision: 2025’s annual Industry Green Survey for outdoor events, 119 festivals and events with a combined audience of over 2.1 million took part; from community events to the largest summer music events in the UK. The results give insight into trends and practices, challenges faced, and what event organisers are…
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UK drug checking charity, The Loop, is dedicated to reducing drug harm. We asked their recently appointed CEO, Katy Porter, along with The Loop Colleagues to update us on the research and data that underpins their service. Music festivals are leisure environments where larger numbers of people take larger quantities of legal and illegal drugs,…
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Image by wirestock on Freepik Originally reported in The Times this morning, Government officials have suggested that Home Secretary, Suella Braverman is pushing for a ban on the sale or possession of nitrous oxide. Discarded nitrous oxide cylinders are a common sight, with almost one in 10 16- to 24-year-olds reporting having used the substance…
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Team Mustard, the source of ticket sales for over 100 events. Mustard Media, the events marketing agency, have today released their yearly ticket tracking figures, showing their most robust year for ticket sales on record. In 2021 they set a goal to help their clients sell 1.2 million tickets in 2022, which they surpassed with…
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Deki Alem at ESNS23 Pic: Ronnie Zeemering Every year at ESNS, the ESNS Exchange team gathers the wishlists of ESNS Exchange festival bookers to see which ESNS23 acts stood out the most and will most likely be booked a lot in the summer. As ESNS Exchange starts its twentieth year of existence, and with ESNS…
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Legendary Jamaican reggae and roots reggae recording artist Max Romeo, stopping by on his last-ever UK tour is a highlight of the second wave of artists announced for City Splash, London’s biggest celebration of Caribbean and African culture taking place in Brockwell PArk on 29th May this year. Next to him is amapiano queen Uncle…
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Priding itself itself on a dynamic celebration of independent music and counter-culture featuring left-field indie, post-punk, electronica, techno and everything in-between, Wide Awake has announced another round of acts to appear in London’s Brockwell Park on Saturday 27th May. The second phase includes Alex G, Viagra Boys, Black Country, New Road, Two Shell, Tirzah, Los Bitchos,…
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Tomorrowland will begin the countdown to the ’23 festival season with a brand-new digital spectacle ‘Adscendo, A Digital Introduction’, set to take place on Saturday January 28th from 14.00 ’til 21.45 CET. Everyone who pre-registers for the ticket sale of Tomorrowland Belgium 2023 will be able to join the digital experience for free and enjoy…
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Set to provide what they describe as the perfect start to the 2023 festival season, Fly have boosted their 20 & 21st May line-up with a second wave announcement including the recent addition of high energy Berlin duo DJ HEARTSTRING, Irish up-and-comer Fionn Curran, Blackpool-based techno breakout star Azyr b2b, Glasgow rave sensation AISHA, and…
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The Association of Festival Organisers (AFO) has announce that its conference will return as a virtual event on 25th February. Having had to cancel the November face-to-face Conference planned for Stoke on Trent due to an industrial dispute and other issues, AFO concluded that a virtual conference was the best way for everyone to get…
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The not-for-profit organisation The Power of Events Ltd was set up in June 2022 –http://www.thepowerofevents.org/ – with the mission to set up a comms platform designed to showcase, value and respect the power of the UK events industry to those outside the industry whose influence might not otherwise be matched by their knowledge of its…
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Accreditation in a former mobile chlamydia screening unit disguised as a train carriage? A swimming pool under a roof supported by the ribs of an old boat? If the Wombles ran a festival, surely it would be on Wimbledon Common, but this is Lancashire’s Beat-Herder, a festival with a purpose to repurpose, and immerse their…
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World renowned house label Defected is heading for a full takeover of Leeds for the first time in five years on Coronation Bank Holiday Sunday, May 7th with a 10-hour event line-up including Gorgon City, Hannah Wants, Low Steppa, Sam Divine, Arielle Free and Rio . The venue will be Canvas Yard, the recently revealed…
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Bluedot Festival one of ecolibrium’s founding festival members. Pic: George Harris ecolibrium doubled its active members in 2022 uniting festivals and event companies in environmental restoration ecolibrium and balancing 13.4 million travel miles with climate investments. In 2022, 60 festivals, events, suppliers and music companies engaged with ecolibrium to understand how best to tackle audience,…
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Scottish electronic music festival, Terminal V, is back with another vast indoor and outdoor festival on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th April 2023. Across six stages with cutting edge production and world class sound, a mix of homegrown talent and global tastemakers soundtrack a truly action-packed weekend in Edinburgh. The likes of Charlotte de Witte,…
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The NTIA has released the full programme for the Night Time Economy Summit hosted at E1 London. This second in the series of conferences focused on Night Time Economy across the UK has an ambitious programme of speakers and panelists approaching a huge range of topics from Brexit, Diversity, Harm Reduction, Safeguarding, Women’s Safety, Health,…
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AGF (A Greener Festival) has revealed the 43 festivals and events from 13 countries that achieved the AGF Certification for sustainability in 2022. AGF Certification is the world’s first and most comprehensive standard for sustainability in the live events sector, for festivals and events reducing waste, emissions and enhancing equality and biodiversity. Successfully certified events…
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Festival Congress will return to Bristol on February 1, with tickets now on sale. This year will see Festival Congress move to Bristol Beacon – a larger venue following 2022’s sell-out event. Produced by AIF, Festival Congress brings member festivals and carnivals, as well as other independent festival professionals and event operators from across the…
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A new industry-facing website has launched, with the goal of getting more agents, promoters, venues and indeed artists, involved ahead of consumer launch. The site provides free resources and advice for event organisers to direct fans to safe, official channels to buy resale tickets. It also offers a clear overview of ticket resale laws country…
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Tomorrowland’s mythical CORE stage recently made its debut in Tulum, Mexico More than 15,000 music lovers celebrated together at the closing of Zamna Festival, dancing to the finest sounds curated by Vintage Culture, Maceo Plex, Channel Tres (DJ set), Nina Kraviz, Brina Knauss, Mind Against, Cellini and many more across 3 stunning stages in the…
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The Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI15), the conference for sustainable events, is delighted to announce the renowned musician, producer and visual artist Brian Eno will be joining the event for a special Keynote conversation with Grammy award winning artist Jacob Collier. Brian Eno returns to GEI after taking part in an inspiring talk with…
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Moda Living in partnership with New Citizens is launching a dedicated new event space in Leeds. This 103,000sqft venue will be the largest open-air events space in the city centre and will play host to music, sports, cultural and arts events. It is the first development in the site’s plans to become a vibrant new…
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With the 12th edition of the European Festival Awards set to take place on January 18th in Groningen, The Netherlands, the European Festival Awards are proud to announce that this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Roskilde Festival, its full team and volunteers in Denmark. They will receive their award in person at the…
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ESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag), the key exchange for emerging European music talent is gearing up for its 2023 edition, which will be the first in-person event post pandemic. Taking place from 18th to 21st January 2023, the event has proven essential in breaking new European acts into live music scenes throughout Europe and beyond and is…
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Recently Keychange, the pioneering international initiative for gender equity in the music industry, welcomed 74 new participants to its 2023 Talent Development Programme. Bringing together a multitude of different skills and networks through the Keychange Pledge and Talent Development Programme, Keychange offers a unique ecosystem with international collaboration at its heart. Selected by industry and…
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Wireless 2023 – NEC Group hope that this is the first of many. The NEC Birmingham, part of the NEC Group, has joined the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) and the Association of Festival Organisers (AFO) to explore new opportunities within its events diversification strategy. The NEC Campus, which has 387 acres of hard-standing ground…
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Andrew Teverson, Managing Director of The Stage Bus, on the misconceptions surrounding solar power – and how you can measure the power consumption of your event. Every single mobile stage in the Stage Bus fleet is 100% solar powered – but I don’t always tell people that straight away. You might think that, in 2022,…
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Lottery Winners’ Thom Rylance (R) and Gigseekr Gavin Barnard at the band’s December show at Moles in Bath. Lottery Winners have collaborated with Gigseekr on a headline UK tour, to help bring their highly acclaimed live performances to an expanding fanbase. Catchy tunes and great musicianship were intertwined with frontman Thom Rylance’s everchanging interaction, bringing…
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Organizers of festivals, cultural events and night mayors from Slovakia, Canada, Georgia, Latvia and North Macedonia recently spent 5 days visiting 7 Ukranian cities Ukraine. During 5 days they visited 7 cities and took part in two educational events in Kyiv and Lviv. The project was organized by the Ukrainian Association of Music Events (UAME)…
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Figen Murray In a move designed to step up the UK’s resilience to terrorism, the Government has announced details for the Protect Duty, now to be known as ‘Martyn’s Law’ in tribute of Martyn Hett, who was killed alongside 21 others in the Manchester Arena terrorist attack in 2017. Working closely with security partners, business…
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Prodigy return to Exit, their favourite festival. The first 23 names for EXIT Festival 2023 can be revealed today and they include the legendary return of the most influential electro-punk band of all time, The Prodigy, with more to come in the next few months. After a multi-year break, the band are to return to…
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Fresh from its Sarah Nulty Community Impact Award win at the 2022 UK Festival Awards, Beat The Streets Festival has revealed a further selection of artists that will be performing at the 2023 event. The festival will take place at city centre venues on Sunday 29th January 2023 with an array of local artists confirmed…
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The company behind the 2022 edition of Scotland’s Doune The Rabbit Hole has gone into liquidation, with the 2023 edition set to be run by the company behind the 2018 and 2019 editions, Festival Beverage And Property Services Ltd. A statement on the festival’s Facebook page reads: “Doune The Rabbit Hole 2022 (and the company…
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Rolling Loud , one of the world’s premier rap and hip hop festival makes its Asian debut on April 13-15, 2023. This first ever edition plays out on the stunning beaches of Pattaya, Thailand with the one and only Travis Scott the first headliner with Ski Mask, The Slump God, Robb Bank$, Dj Scheme &…
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Harvey Goldsmith set to deliver Night Time Summit keynote. Following the successful launch of the First Night Time Economy Summit in Bristol, the NTIA have announced the second in the series of conferences focused on night time economy across the UK, with an extremely ambitious programme of speakers, panels and workshops. Taking place at E1…
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The Afro Nation audience, soon to be booking through Easol’s platform. Easol, the leading experience commerce technology platform, is announcing the launch of its partnership with some of the biggest names in UK and European festivals. Easol will be the official booking platform partner for the world’s biggest afrobeats festival Afro Nation Portugal & Ghana,…
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