Festival Focus: Snowbombing, FIB, Download

Broadwick Live’s music ‘n’ ski event Snowbombing today announced an avalanche (geddit?) of new acts for the 2017 festival.

Blossoms, Slaves, De La Soul, Grandmaster Flash, Giggs, Dixon, Shy FX and more will join previously announced headliners Chase & Status for six days of “luxurious spas, igloo raves, rooftop hot tubs, forest parties [and] snow-yoga” at the Mayrhofen ski resort in Austria from 3 to 8 April.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’ll also be “special guest appearances” from everyone’s favourite spandex-clad ’90s early-morning TV fitness instructor, Derrick Evans (aka Mr Motivator), and loveably inept British ski jumper Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards, whose life story was the subject of a recent film starring Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman.

Fingers crossed for a Grandmaster Flash/Mr Motivator duet.

In today’s other major festival news, Red Hot Chili Peppers will be headlining Festival Internacional de Benicassim (FIB) next July.

The American four-piece, who wheadlined Reading and Leeds, Lollapalooza Chicago, T in the Park, Fuji Rock and more this year, are also confirmed for Super Rock Super Bock in Lisbon the same weekend (13–16 July) and Rock in Rio in September 2017.

FIB, which takes place in the Spanish coastal town of Benicàssim, is promoted by Maraworld, part-owned by Denis Desmond’s MCD Concerts. (Anthony Kiedis/Red Hot Chili Peppers photo by M. Krobath/ANSPress Society News.)

The second edition of Live Nation France’s Download Paris has announced its three headliners for 2017.

System of a Down – revealed last month as the first act confirmed for the new Download Spain, the second international spin-off from the long-running UK metal festival – will join Linkin Park and Blink-182 at a disused airbase in Le Plessis-Pâté, in Île-de-France, from 9 to 11 June.  (System of a Down photo by Macarena Viza.)

Also playing will be Rage Against the Machine/Public Enemy/Cypress Hill supergroup Prophets of Rage.

The first line-up announcement for the UK Download is expected this week.

Update (4/11/16): It’s System of a Down, Biffy Clyro and Aerosmith.

Other notable developments since the last instalment of Festival Focus:

• After increasing its capacity for 2016, the 21st Amsterdam Dance Event was a record-breaker, with 550 speakers, more than 2,200 artists in 140 venues+, 1,000+ events and a best-ever 375,000 visitors from 19 to 23 October
• Primavera Sound’s indoor Primavera Club festival took place across three Barcelona venues from 21 to 23 October. With 37 participating artists from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark and more, the event was, says Primavera Sound, “the perfect opportunity to discover first-hand a great variety of innovative artists, most of whom [were] playing in the Catalan capital for the first time”
• Roskilde Festival has announced its first 14 acts for 2017: Moderat/Modeselektor, Trentemøller, Afenginn, Angel Olsen, G-Eazy, Gangly, Hieroglyphic Being, Jenny Hval, Marching Church, Mats Gustafsson/Hidros Zap, Of Mice & Men, Pig Destroyer, 67 and Romperayo. “With more than 160 acts yet to be announced, next year’s festival is sure to offer both headliners and bands that are ready to break through to a wider audience,” says Anders Wahrén, the Danish festival’s head of programme
• SSC’s New Fall Festival returned for a sixth time on 27–30 October in Dusseldorf and Stuttgart. More than 20,000 attended to see an eclectic line-up including Adam Green, Explosions in the Sky, John Grant, Wilco and Kate Tempest
• Linkin Park will open Sziget’s Volt Festival in Sopron, Hungary, on 27 June (Linkin Park photo by Kristina Servant)

 

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