Festival frenzy: New events scheduled for 2021
The global festival sector has gained a slate of new events for next year and beyond, signalling an increasing optimism about the return of live music in the coming months. Alongside the previously announced Montreux Jazz China, Secret Sounds Australia and UK festivals One Out, Unlocked, and Creation Day, IQ looks at three of the most recent festivals that are due to pop up in Australia, Finland and England.
Summer Sound, Australia
Latvia’s EDM festival Summer Sound is expected to wash up on Australian shores in 2022, says the festival’s newly recruited local promoter Gareth Lott.
Lott says the team will be looking at locations in Adelaide and along the east coast and, while the festival’s location and format are yet to be confirmed, he has confirmed that the event will be outdoors with multiple stages, featuring ‘massive EDM acts’.
“We’re excited about the potential of bringing Summer Sound Festival to Australia – wide open spaces and the Aussie summer sounds very attractive right now,” said Summer Sound co-founder Alex Kunnari in a statement. “Plenty of international EDM talent would love to head down to Australia next season!”
Lott commented: “EDM festivals took a bit of a hit five years ago because of skyrocketing talent fees, but we believe we have a formula that will make Summer Sound Festival a success.”
“It’s only early days but we know we’ll be outdoors with multiple stages, and we’ll have some massive EDM acts on the bill – but it’s not just the line-up that will make people want to come back. This is going to be a lot of fun!”
The festival has been running since 2012, taking place in Liepāja, a port city on Latvia’s west coast, and previous lineups have hosted DJs including Avicii, Armin van Buuren, Axwell, Dash Berlin and Eric Prydz. Last year’s festival in Latvia attracted 32,000 visitors across two days.
Summer Sound co-founder Alex Kunnari says the event will be outdoors with multiple stages, featuring ‘massive EDM acts’
Kaisa Rocks, Finland
Live Nation recently announced a new fixture in Finland’s festival calendar with Kaisa Rocks, a three-day music event scheduled to take place in August next year.
The festival will take place in Kaisaniemi Park in Helsinki between 12 and 14 August 2021, offering a fully domestic line-up.
Finnish rock titans including Eppu Normaali, Popeda, Battle Beast, Stam1na, Klamydia, Arttu Wiskari, Anssi Kela, Turmio Kätilöt and Vesterinen will deliver performances.
“It’s great to launch a brand-new outdoor event in Helsinki,” says promoter Niksu Väistö. “The August weekend in Kaisaniemi will be full of performances by top Finnish artists, which are highly anticipated.”
Väistö says the event will be organised in accordance with official regulations and the instructions of health authorities and necessary changes to the event will be made to ensure the safety of the event.
Tickets go on sale today (1 December) and range from €49 for a one-day pass to €125 for a VIP one-day pass.
Finnish rock titans including Eppu Normaali, Popeda, Battle Beast, Stam1na will perform at Kaisa Rocks
Signals Festival, England
The Cribs, The Charlatans, Ghostpoet and Liz Lawrence will all be paying a visit to the English countryside next summer for the brand new Signals festival.
The family-friendly event will take place in the grounds of Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire on Saturday 12 June 2021, offering an eclectic mix of entertainment, culture and film.
Music aside, The Charlatans frontman, Tim Burgess, will also bring a live, in-person edition of Tim’s Twitter Listening Parties to ‘Tim Peaks Diner’ which will host gigs, talks, DJ sets and more from the singer’s special guests.
Each festival ticket includes entry to the historical village, with an old-style sweet shop, retro pub, vintage printing press, and Victorian Tramway Museum. Festivalgoers can roam the cobbled streets before riding one of the original trams up to the main site.
First release tickets cost £55 for adults (17 years +), £25 for children (6–16 years), and infants up to the age of 5 go for free.
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Y Not Festival cancels final day
Bad weather forced the cancellation of Friday’s headline act and the entire final day of the UK’s Y Not Festival, as the site became a mudbath.
Sunday was due to see artists such as Happy Mondays and Two Door Cinema Club perform at the 25,000-capacity festival. Friday’s headliner The Vaccines were also unable to play due to the weather.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry about last night. Were all ready to come out and play for you when we were told it wasn’t safe,” the band tweeted.
Organisers have told fans they’ll provide information about refunds “in the coming days”.
In a statement, they say: “Unfortunately we’ve had to take the difficult decision to cancel Sunday due to the adverse weather conditions across the weekend, after consulting all the relevant authorities.
“Ending Y Not like this was an incredible difficult decision and we are as disappointed as you are.”
“The safety of our guests, performers and crew is our primary concern and the potential risk was too severe for Sunday to go ahead. We are very sorry for the disappointment and disruption caused to everyone who was looking forward to the final day of the festival.
“Ending Y Not festival 2017 like this was an incredibly difficult decision and we are as disappointed as you are.”
Y Not was bought by media giant Global in October last year. As well as 14 festivals, the company owns Global Radio (Heart, Capital, Smooth, Classic FM), Global Television (Capital TV, Heart TV) and Global Entertainment, which includes music publishing, management and live and touring divisions.
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