Kite: new festival from Love Supreme team to debut in UK

The inaugural Kite Festival, a three-day live music and ideas event, is taking place in the grounds of a stately home near Oxford, UK, this summer.

Announced today, the new festival is a joint venture between Universal Music Group’s live music arm U-Live – in which Chinese entertainment giant recently acquired a stake – and Neapolitan Music, who together promote Love Supreme Jazz Festival, as well as Tortoise Media, the brainchild of former BBC new director James Jarding and ex-Wall Street Journal and Down Jones president Katie Vanneck-Smith.

The festival will host a combination of live music, comedy and educational talks, with a main stage featuring headline artists and a second stage showcasing more experimental acts. The Big Top Tent and the Bookshop stages will see pop-up performances, with emerging artists performing on the Bandstand. The ThinkIn Village area will provide a space for discussion.

The launch of the festival comes with a call-to-action for ‘festival founders’ to become involved in the project and give financial backing via creative projects fundraising platform Kickstarter. Founders will gain access to the best ticket prices for all future Kite festivals.

“We are very excited to develop a new festival that puts equal emphasis on both music and ideas”

“We are very excited to develop a new festival that puts equal emphasis on both music and ideas,” comments festival director Ciro Romano. “Alongside our founding community and the teams at U-Live and Tortoise we can deliver a festival that is perfect for the new decade.

“Across the board we see festivals dedicated to literature, politics, science but we couldn’t see anywhere that was programming music and debate on an equal footing. We will deliver a pioneering line-up with legendary and contemporary artists alongside world class public figures, thinkers and cultural icons.”

“All the team at Tortoise are thrilled to be part of creating Kite,” adds Harding. “Building on everything we’ve learned during Tortoise’s first year, the ThinkIn Village at Kite will bring together global politicians, comedians, business leaders, authors and others who are interested in how we understand our world – and do something about it.”

Kite Festival is taking place from 12 to 14 June in Kirtlington Park, Oxford, in the south east of the UK. More information can be found on the festival website.

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