Fatboy Slim and Madness will headline Hi Tide, a new festival taking place at restored amusement park and live event space Dreamland Margate, as part of the venue’s 100th birthday celebrations.

DJ Fatboy Slim, real name Norman Cook, will perform alongside special guests on Saturday 4 July, with ska band Madness heading up the bill the following day.

The launch of the event saw Cook and Madness frontman Graham McPherson, or “Suggs”, give away 100 free weekend tickets from an ice-cream van on the seafront of the town of Margate, in south-east England.

The festival is one of the headline events marking Dreamland Margate’s 100th anniversary this year. Organised by Fifty Six Group, the creators of Gorillaz’ Demon Dayz festival which took place at Dreamland in 2017, Hi Tide is the biggest music event that the 15,000-capacity vintage amusement park has hosted since it reopened in 2015.

“This is a going to be phenomenal event for Dreamland, and for the people of Kent,” comments Dreamland CEO Eddie Kemsley.

“We are thrilled to present not one but two incredible headline artists over one epic weekend at our beautiful park in our centenary year”

“We are thrilled to present not one but two incredible headline artists over one epic weekend at our beautiful park in our centenary year. We can’t think of a better birthday party,” continues Kelmsley, adding that the team is “really pleased” to work with Fifty Six Group again.

“After Demon Dayz we really saw there was a need to bring a major festival to Margate and for the local Kent community,” says Fifty Six Group CEO Mags Revell. “Hi Tide will become a yearly event that we hope will be taken into the hearts of the local community and in turn they will help us create its personality as it grows.”

Dreamland was last year singled out in a UK Government report as the most notable contributor to the success of the regeneration of the seaside town of Margate.

Upcoming events at the venue include performances by Julian Cope, Mike Skinner, Faithless, Annie Mac, Andy C and De La Soul.

Tickets for Hi Tide go on sale at here at 9 a.m. (GMT) on Friday 31 January. Day tickets are priced at £72.50, with a weekend pass costing £130.

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Swiss festival mainstay Baloise Session has unveiled its 2017 line-up, with Alicia Keys, Madness, Chris Rea, Goldfrapp, Kool & the Gang and Clean Bandit among the big names appearing on this year’s characteristically genre-bending bill.

The indoor festival, which takes place in an “intimate club-like setting by candlelight” at Messeplatz in Basel, this year runs from 21 October to 9 November, and, as is tradition, features a series of themed shows, including ‘Electronic Cosmos, ‘Pop Superstars’, German- and Icelandic-themed nights and two “Evenings with…” Keys.

The number of dates has been trimmed from 12 to ten for Baloise Session 2017 – its second festival following the passing of founder Thomas Müller last July – something festival director Beatrice Stirnimann says is a reflection of its philosophy that “less is sometimes more”. “We’re focusing on quality, not quantity”, she said at a press conference earlier this week.

The full line-up is below:

Tickets are on sale at 8am next Wednesday (30 August) from www.baloisesession.ch and Ticketcorner.

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Byron Bay Bluesfest this year recorded one of its biggest-ever attendances, with more than 105,000 people passing through its gates from Thursday 13 to Monday 17 April in spite of being down two headliners.

Both Neil Young and Bee Gee Barry Gibb were confirmed for the 28th Bluesfest, but cancelled within weeks of each other last December, with Young apparently deciding “to take 2017 off from touring” and Live Nation calling off Gibb’s planned trek “due to a change in international commitments”.

Despite the setbacks, attendance still matched 2015 levels, and beat 2014’s 104,526 – but fell short of 2011’s Bob Dylan-headlined mega-event.

Promoter Peter Noble OAM comments: “I think everybody that came this year will tell you that this has been one of the great Bluesfests, and in my opinion certainly within our top three.”

“I think everybody that came this year will tell you that this has been one of the great Bluesfests”

Headliners were Patti Smith (performing Horses), the Zac Brown Band, Jimmy Buffett, Santana and Nas, with other performers including The Doobie Brothers, Madness, The Lumineers and an admirably strong contingent of female talent, such as Smith, Mary J. Blige, Laura Mvula, Bonnie Raitt, Courtney Barnett, Corinne Bailey Ray, Nikki Hill and Rickie Lee Jones.

“Backstage is like a rock’n’roll fantasy camp,” said Hill, “and, especially, seeing such a female presence around has been incredible.”

Bluefest will return to Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, New South Wales, for its 29th outing on 29 March–2 April 2018.

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