10/05/2008 - Give It A Name (Sheffield Arena, Sheffield)
Two days of ripping music. Playing Saturday - Thirty Seconds to Mars, Billy Talent, Glassjaw, Silverstein and Evny on the Coast. Sunday - Paramore, Plain White, Chiodos, My American Heart and Mayday Parade, more names to follow. Take lots of glow.
10/05/2008 - Radio One Big Weekend (Mote Park)
Radio One's Big Weekend, lots of great acts, Pete Tong, Judge Jules, Dave Pearce, Annie Nightingale and Eddie Halliwell. Trance, electronics, club bangers, dance anthems, breaks, grime and drum and bass, lots of opportunities to break some glow sticks, and get glowsticking.
15/05/2008 - The Great Escape Festival (Brighton, East Sussex)
Three days and over 200 new local and international artists are showcased in 25 venues over Brighton. Take you own glow sticks!
16/05/2008 - Shepley Spring Festival (Shepley Village, West Yorkshire)
A intimate festival of music and dance for the whole family situated in the West Yorkshire countryside. Three days of great acts including, Bellowhead, The Demon Barbers, Park Bench Social Club, Crucible and many more. A definite festival for some colourful wind art.
16/05/2008 - The Firegathering Festival (Sussex)
A little gem of a festival, top quality acts and a beautiful atmosphere. Nestled in the Sussex countryside this three day event is a perfect family festival. Take along some festival flags and glow sticks to add to the colour.
23/05/2008 - Forgotten Valley Festival (Lake District, Cumbria)
This brand new festival is bound to be success with bands like Reverend and the Makers, The Happy Mondays, Jing Jang Jong, Joe Lean and the Wombats performing. A great location and great music, take along some glow sticks to dance with and a head torch to find your tent, it gets dark up there!
24/05/2008 - Gatecrasher The Summer Sound System (Turweston Aerodrome)
One of the biggest and best dance events in the UK festivals calendar. The line is just huge, two days of dance madness - The Prodigy, CSS, Switch, Audio Bullys, Bloc Party, Annie Mac, The Chemical Brothers, (glowsticks a must), New Young Pony Club, Glimmers... too many to list! There is Fantazia Arena, take along a Glorave 16 pack, 20 Years of Acid House, take along a bigger Glorave 24 pack! Drum and Bass and Dirty Disco. Rave Horns, Glow Sticks, Flashing Mouths, LED Whistles and LED madness, take it all you'll need it!
29/05/2008 - Sunrise Celebration Festival (South Somerset)
The Sunrise Celebration festival has become know as an early Glastonbury. A spiritual family vibe, the Sunrise is a journey through ancient wisdom, modern innovations, creativity and celebration, a relaxed and optimistic festival, very colourful, child friendly and packed with good music, workshops and events. The Orb, The Dub Pistols, Kangaroo Moon, System 7 and other top acts will ensure a great 4 days of camping, food and meditation. A definite festival for flags and streamers, wind socks and wind art. Camp to enjoy the whole festival and take along some fantastic magic lanterns from HQ, the kids love them, and a pole kit to mark your tent.
03/06/2008 - 02 Wireless Festival (London Hyde Park)
The 02 festival is simply the coolest festival in the heart of the city - or so they say! Fantastic acts are included so yep, it's pretty cool. Fatboy Slim AKA Norman Cook he of the Housemartins plays on the 5th, Gogogloglo favorite Underworld, The Whip, Boots Collins and Does it Offend You, Yeah? The 3rd and 4th to be announced but any bets it will be top notch stuff.
07/06/2008 - Rockness (Dores, near Inverness)
If you're up for a party the Rockness is one of the best. Take along plenty of glow sticks, you'll need them for this bash! Fatboyslim, Razorlight, Editors, Underworld, (take along some Glorave packs), CSS, The View, Similan Mobile Disco and loads more. Camping is going to be a squeeze so mark you tent well. You can use glow sticks or an LED Wand - it flashes like a beacon. Use a pole kit to get it well above your patch and you'll see it for miles. For the day time use some great wind art and wind spinners or colourful festival flags, but to really stand out use a Rotor Spinner from HQ. The trick with the streamer flags is to use the colours as a code, let your mates know and they will find you!
09/06/2008 - Beachbreak (North Cornwall)
Join 5000 students for four days of beach party madness. A perfect location and great line up, The Wombats, The Cribbs, Mr. Scruff, Plump DJs and loads more banging bands. Lots of out door activities so take along some active toys, the Flashflight LED disc is great for the daytime and awesome at night with flashing LEDs. Kites, always cool for the beach. And of course a good supply of glow sticks for dancing and lighting up your space on the sand.
Camping is going to be a squeeze so make sure you mark your tent well with some festival flags or wind art, wind spinners and wind socks. Take a long a pole kit, this stuff costs a fortune at festivals! You can use glow sticks placed on the top of a pole to find your way back at night or a powerful LED Wand by Nite Ize.
13/06/2008 - The Isle of White Festival (Isle of White)
The Isle of White festival is huge and an old timer in festival listings, 1968 saw the first. "The IOW pop festivals came about as a result of the Isle of Wight Swimming Pool Association, of which I was a member, wanting to raise funds. It was suggested we employ a fund-raiser. I said I knew someone; that person was Ronnie Foulk. We then proposed, after some discussion with Ray, that we have a pop festival. The committee allocated £750 and we set about putting a festival together."
This year sees some cool rock acts along with indie, Ian Brown - The Master Monkey, The Kooks - from Brighton so must be good, The Wombats, KT Tunstall - probably doing her Oooooo, Oooooooo set, Kaiser Chiefs, The Zutons and the oldest anarchists in the book, the Sex Pistols. There are many other named acts including The Cribs, Delays and crazy gawd blimey Kate Nash - lucky not to work at Tesco! The IOW is a rock festival but that's no reason not to take along some festival gear to liven the old timers up, gawd knows some of them need it - The Police? more like the Old Bill!
Still, three rocking days and already sold out, how many people can they fit on that tiny rock anyway? If you've got tickets and need some cool then we have lots of stuff, tent markers, torches, wind art, glosticks and lots more. Have fun.
27/06/2008 - Glastonbury (Glastonbury)
The History of the Glastonbury Festival
Although now recognised as the biggest and "must do" UK festival, Glastonbury started out with humble roots. The very first Glastonbury festival run by Michael Eavis was born on the 19th September 1970 and held on the day after Jimi Henrix died. The very first acts included: Marc Bolan, Keith Christmas, Stackridge and Al Stewart. It cost just £1 to attend and included a free bottle of milk from the local herd.
The following year saw the festival move to the more spiritual date of the Summer Solstice, 20th - 24th June 1971. The festival was known as the Glastonbury Fayre, a rejection of the commercial path other festivals were taking at the time and supported a zero entrance fee. The festival was dominated by traditional music, dance, poetry, theatre and spontaneous entertainment, most probably helped along by the heavy use of substance abuse! The acts included: David Bowie, Hawkwind, Traffic and other acts unknown to most of the worlds population. Approximately 12,000 freeloaders turned up.
By 1979 the Glastonbury festival had become a three day event, still know as the Glastonbury Fayre, and with a ticket price of £5 attracted 12,000. Financially it was donkey and plans for 1980 were sketchy.
By 1981 the festival took a massive turn around, run by Michael, and became a somewhat activist festival backed by the CND. With permission the CND logo was used to turn the event into a profitable business. The Pyramid stage was rebuilt using telegraph poles and metal sheeting, without the CND logo as it was too heavy to secure, and a heft £20,000 was handed over to the CND for their next bash. All were happy! Acts included New Order.
The CND were still involved in 1982 taking charge of the gates and information. This was a very muddy year with the highest rainfall in 45 years. Attendance had shot to 25,000.
By 1985 Worthy Farm was too small to hold the festival so the neighbours were bought out and 40,000 people turned up to see Echo and the Bunny men, The Boomtown Rats, The Style Council and others. The CND and other picked up a cool 100,000!
Up until 1990 the festival grew to 70,000 and things got out of hand with damage and arrests. It was however the first year that the festival took on the name: Glstonbury Festival for Performing Arts to reflect the many acts and events the festival encompassed. The CND and others were rewarded yet again with a whopping £100,000 pay day.
Throughout the 1990s the festival just grew and grew. 1993 saw 80,000 attending, 1997 up to 90,000 and 1998 the 100,000 barrier was broken.
By 2002 the event had grown so large that high security measures had been adopted and the Ring of Steel fence erected to keep out non paying guests, so much for the early days of free festival? The numbers had risen to 140,000 with tickets selling out in days and prices had risen to £97. By 2003 attendance had increased to 150,000 and only big named acts played, REM, Flaming Lips, Radiohead, etc.
The next two years grew and grew but the weather got worse. Rained out and muddied up, still worth it though. The Dance tent was replace by the Dance Village bringing in more glow sticks. By 2007 the organisation had turned into a super efficient festival, not really a festival at all, more like a slick corporate happening. The weather was bad but the line up good, The Arctic Monkeys, Bjork, Iggy Pop and many other big acts ensured a great experience. 153,000 people turned up and partied!!! If you managed to get tickets for the 2008 festival then make sure you take lots of festival gear along. There are a lot of tents at Glastonbury so a telescopic pole kit is essential as is festival flags and wind art. Glow sticks are a must along with wind art and streamer flags to make sure you get back to your patch.
27/06/2008 - Wakestock (Abersoch, Cardigan Bay, North Wales)
What is Wakestock? In their own words... Relentless Wakestock is Europe’s largest wakeboard music festival, combining the cultures of music and the world's fastest growing watersport in a weekend of high-octane excitement! Sound good? Well this will, acts include Groove Armada, The Streets, Funeral for a Friend, Duffy - 60s inspired Welsh blues singer, the fantastic Young Knives and lots, lots more. Take along lots of festival toys, flying discs, poi and wind art.
11/07/2008 - Oxegen Festival (Ireland)
Oxegen is Ireland's biggest three day ROCK event. Its five main stages will cram in the biggest acts around, The Stereophonics, REM, Hot Chip, The Prodigy, Counting Crows, The Chemical Brothers, Ian Brown, Rage Against the Machine, The Kings of Leon and many more. A well spent three days of festival fun. Rock on! Take along a Glopaddy pack, you'll stand out for sure.
11/07/2008 - T in the Park (Balado, Kinross-Shire)
T in the Park is another banging fest. BIG names are playing including The Kaiser Chiefs, The Kooks, REM, The Womabts, Panic at the Disco, The Fratellis, The Felling, KT Tunstall, Biffy Clyro, We Are Scientists, The Pigeon Detectives, Kings of Leon, Shed Seven and bags more rock. Camping, lots of entertainment and a great part of the world. Include some essential torch light, you'll be lost without it.
16/07/2008 - Larmer Tree Festival (Larmer Tree Gardens, Wilts./Dorset border)
The Larmer Tree Festival is truly a beautiful event. Laid back and spiritual this is a great little festival for the whole family. The festival history, in their own words....
The 100 year history of parties, events and music at the Larmer Tree was the initial inspiration for James Shepard who fell upon the Gardens in 1990.
The first festival was a day of jazz and blues and about 200 people came (James knew most of them!). Over the next four years the festival grew into a two day party. Julia Safe came on board in 1993, and in 1995, the event extended to include Friday night and on-site camping. By this time, the Larmer Tree Festival had a glowing reputation and firmly established itself on the festival circuit, with a loyal and enthusiastic audience. It has now expanded into a five day festival for 5,000 people and for the last 13 years, weekend tickets have sold out months in advance.
Sticking firmly to their original concept, directors James and Julia remain fiercely independent having rejected several tempting sponsorship proposals from major companies. So with no big sponsors to push them around and with their small team they are free to develop an intimate and extraordinary event of entirely their own creation.
This years bands include: The Levellers, Bellowhead, Black Bart, Jools Holland, Erib Bibb, 12 Stone Toddler, Kora and lots of world music. Take along some festival flags and streamers, camping is very close but tents are always hard to find.