Nothing But Thieves and Franz Ferdinand will perform their first-ever concerts in Bulgaria as part of a new series organised by FEST Team.

The two UK bands will be joined by Finnish-Bulgarian act Hayes & Y for the first concert in the Burgas Summer Live series, on 11 August.

The 11,000-capacity series will take place in the seaside city of Burgas, on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, with more concerts to be announced.

The 11,000-capacity series will take place in the seaside city of Burgas, with more concerts to be announced

Fest Club members tomorrow (24 March) can purchase discounted tickets starting at BGN 88 (€45). The general sale starts on Monday (27), with tickets starting from BGN 99 (€51).

News of the new concert series comes a week after FEST Team, Bulgaria’s largest live music company, cancelled two of its marquee festivals for 2023.

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Poland’s Fest Festival, one of the fastest-growing music festivals in eastern Europe, has announced the first acts for its sophomore edition in 2020.

Fest returns to Silesia Park in Chorzów, near Katowice, next August, growing to three days (13–15 August) for its second outing. In its debut year, the festival is nominated for best new event at the European Festival Awards 2019, and in the New Gig on the Block Category at the ILMC Arthur Awards 2020.

The first line-up announcement for 2020 includes James Bay, Nothing But Thieves, Denzel Curry and Sigrid, as well as Austrian DJ Left Boy/Ferdinand.

One-day tickets and full event passes for Fest Festival 2020, promoted by Follow the Step, are priced at 229 zł (€53) and 349 zł (earlybird; €80) and available from festfestival.pl/bilety.

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The Madison Square Garden Company (MSG) today launched the MSG Next Generation Tour, which aims to inspire young people living in east London, near its upcoming MSG Sphere London arena, to consider careers in music and live entertainment.

The launch event, which took place at Here East in Stratford’s Olympic Park, featured a performance by UK act Nothing But Thieves and was attended by students from Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc).

The tour – which will also visit schools across east London from today (19 November) to Friday 23 November – is led by Glen Rowe, Muse’s former tour manager, who recently retired to set up NEKO Trust, a charity aiming to nurture the next generation of artists and road crew.

Young people taking part will hear from some of the industry’s most experienced tour managers, production crews and technical specialists, including Rowe, Liz Daisley (Glastonbury, Boomtown, Secret Garden Party) and sound designer Nigel Glasgow, about their career journeys and paths into the industry.

Rowe comments: “I love the MSG Next Generation Tour because it opens doors for people who probably don’t know they exist. I’ve spent the last 25 years touring around the world with various different bands, and it’s now time to pass the baton on to the next generation to do what I did – possibly at MSG Sphere London– and to have as much fun.”

“We want to inspire the next generation of talented young people in east London to think about a career in music and live events”

While still subject to planning approval, MSG London – based on the company’s spectacular Sphere concept, which will also be used for a new arena in Las Vegas – is anticipated to be located on a site purchased by MSG directly east of the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London. It is projected to have a capacity of more than 18,000 when it opens in around 2022.

Jayne McGivern, MSG’s executive vice-president for construction and development, comments: “We want to inspire the next generation of talented young people in east London to think about a career in music and live events, and that’s why we’ve created the MSG Next Generation Tour.

“If approved, MSG Sphere London will create exciting jobs on the doorsteps of the young people we’re speaking to. But students don’t need to wait for MSG Sphere – music and live entertainment is a large and growing industry that generates billions of pounds for the UK economy, and thousands of interesting career opportunities.”

Speaking at the launch today, Dom Craik, Nothing But Thieves’ guitarist, said: “When we’re performing on stage what you don’t see is the huge team behind the scenes that help us. I think it’s incredible that during the MSG Next Generation Tour people will get to hear about all the jobs you can do besides being a singer, guitarist or drummer on stage.

“Wouldn’t it be amazing if our future tour manager or sound engineer was here in the audience today?”

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