Festival Season 2005! Some dates and details.

[William of Walworth]

Well, it's that depressing time of year when summer still seems a very long way off, so this Festographer's sanity-and sunshine-seeking thoughts are naturally turning towards establishing a Festival Calendar for the coming summer.

The following list is completely selective, with a big bias against including any ultra-corporate, ultra-mainstream events like the Carling Crap Label Weekender (aka 'Reading') and the Richard Branson's Profitable Beard Festival (aka 'V').

The list is also far from exhaustive.

But feel free to add more events to this thread as you think of them/hear about them, but try to do what I do and include DATES (most important) and if you know it a location as well, and a link to any website.

So here are a few dates to be pencilled (perhaps!!) into your summer diaries!

Festival Season 2005 Calendar!

Thursday 29 April to Sunday 1 May
Rocket Festival, Andalucia, Southern Spain
Rocket Festival website

Saturday 30 April and Sunday 1 May (Early May Bank Holiday weekend)
Newcastle Community Green Festival
Sat 30th April 12pm-7pm
Sun 1st May 12pm -11pm
Leazes Park, Newcastle Upon Tyne
(behind St James Park football ground)
Free entry
Newcastle Green Festival site
Website is now (4-4-2005) just a holding page, but should be fully online shortly.
Freespirit (one of the organisers) says :
"Newcastle Green Festival for May Bank Holiday. FYI we get something like
10,000 people over 2 days, and will be having 8 music stages this year, all free and in a lovely city centre park. Oh yeah, and lots of green stuff, very kid friendly etc. etc."

Saturday May 7
******THIS EVENT NOW CANCELLED****
See Brixton Forum/Drugs Forum for background behind Lambeth Council's outrageous decision to cancel/in effect ban this Free Festival, without the courtesy of allowing a proper licence hearing

JayDay -- Legalise Cannabis March (from Kennington Park to Brixton) and Free Festival (in Brockwell Park, Brixton)
JayDay Festival website
Actively being discussed on this thread
on the Brixton Forum

Sunday 15th May -- New Date for JayDay, March with no Festival
NB : The event originally planned for 7 May has now been REPLACED by a Legalise Cannabis MARCH from Kennington Park, SE11 to Trafalgar Square (subject, as at 4-4-2005, to the Mayor of London/Greater London Authority's approval). Carnival atmosphee, costumes, samba bands, etc. expected, but no licence likely for any amplified music in the Square
See JayDay Festival website (URL above) for details ... once it finally gets updated ...

Thursday 18 to Sunday 22 May
Holidays in the Sun/Wasted Festival, Morecambe, Lancashire
Punk Festival
Holidays in the Sun website

Friday May 20 to Sunday 22 May
Knockengorroch Festival, Spring (Ceilidh Gall Gallowa')
Galloway, SW Scotland
Ceilidh Gall Gallowa' website

Monday May 30 (late May Bank Holiday, to be confirmed)
Kingston Green Fair, Canbury Gardens, Kingston on Thames.
About £5= to get in.
Another excellent fluffy hippy event! Lovely pub on the riverside, right in the middle of the site. The Kingston Green Fair website appears to confirm that it's happening in 2005, and the date.

Saturday June 4
Strawberry Fair, Midsummer Common, Cambridge, FREE!
The infrequently updated Strawberry Fair website is still showing 2004 details (bloody hippies part II!) but word reaches me from sources close to the SF Committee that the first Saturday in June will, as usual, be the date of the original and the BEST! one day free festival.
Stig and I will be there Friday to Sunday as usual.

Friday 3 to Sunday 5 June
Wychwood Festival, Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire
This is a new and very interesting looking weekend festival -- shame it clashes with Strawberry Fair though ...
Wychwood Festival website


Wednesday 8 to Wednesday 15 June
or
Wednesday 15 to Wednesday 22 June
(or both weeks)
Unsound Beach Party, Southern Italy
As anticipated by many Urbanites! Note closeness of dates to Glastonbury though.
Unsound in Italy website
Extensive Urbanite discussion on the Music Forum

Friday 16 to Sunday 18 June (??? website still shows 2004 dates)
Sonar Festival, Barcelona, Spain
Sonar website

Friday 17 to Sunday 19 June 2005
18th Umsonst & Draussen Festival, Wurzburg, Germany
Umsonst & Draussen website


Wednesday 22 June to Monday 27th June
Glastonbury 2005
Licence now granted. It has also just been confirmed that there will be no Glastonbury in 2006, which will definitely increase demand this year.
Official Glasto site
The much superior EFestivals site (also has loads of information about other festivals).
Aloud.crap site (official ticket agency)
Wayahead/Seetickets site (official ticket agency)
<2 March 2005 edit> :
Full ticket buying information now available on this page of EFestivals
Most useful of all, here is Tort (of this site)'s superb all-round guide to all aspects of Glastonbury! -- I feel deeply unprofessional as a Festographer when I shamefacedly compare my sporadic, occasional, disorganised bits and pieces of advice over the years, to the consistent quality, usefulness and practicality of EVERYTHING you will find here! Warning : image heavy and not very dialup friendly!

It's not known year which of the above two ticket links will work best for buying Glasto tickets this year, but Aloud and Wayahead/Seetickets are all part of the same corporate empire ... there have also been rumours of a dedicated Glasto tickets server with it's own web address ... all to be clarified later ...
NB Tickets go on sale at 9 am on Sunday 3 April and are expected to sell out VERY fast (within a very small number of hours). Tickets will this year cost £125= !!!
But worth it for the dedicated -- this year will be my eleventh.
TICKETS NOW OFFICIALLY SOLD OUT (Monday 4 April 2005)

Friday 1 to Saturday 16 July
Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux website

Friday 8 and Saturday 9 July
Blissfields Festival, Bradley Farm, Bradley, Alresford, Hampshire.
Tickets are FREE but you need to pre-reserve
Blissfields website

Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 July
Cornbury Music Festival, Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire
Cornbury site
Recommended by sheriff rosco, which is good, but I hear through other grapevines that it's 'terribly posh' which isn't ... make your own mind up though!

Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 July
Ashton Court, Bristol
Ashton Court website

Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 July (likely dates, not confirmed)
Lambeth Country Show, Brockwell Park, Brixton, FREE!
No website running yet, as far as I know.

Friday 15 to Sunday 17 July
The Glade Festival, probably not far from Reading, Berks.
Glade Festival website
Here also is the efestivals page on it

Friday 15 to Sunday 17 July
Larmer Tree Festival, Larmer Tree Gardens, Tollard Royal, 16 miles west of Salisbury, Wiltshire
Larmer Tree site
This is an excellent festival -- I will miss it this year, but it's thoroughly recommended!

Friday 22 to Sunday 24 July
Warwick Folk Festival
Warwick Folk Festival website

Friday 22 to Sunday 24 July
Carhaix Festival, Carhaix (is there such a place???), France
Carhaix
Don't know anything about this one ...

Thursday 21 to Sunday 24 July
Village Pump Festival, Wingfield, near Trowbridge, Wiltshire
Village Pump website

Saturday 23 to Sunday 24 July
Truck Festival, Steventon, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Truck Festival website

Saturday 23 to Sunday 24 July
Wickerman Festival, Kirkcarswell, nr Dundrennan, Solway Coast
SW Scotland
Wickerman site
"Scotland's alternative Festival"

Thursday 28 to Sunday 31 July
WOMAD 2005, Rivermead, Reading
Ticket details yet to be confirmed. One day visits likely still to be possible (and encouraged, if you can't make the whole weekend)
WOMAD site

And annoyingly, clashing with the above :

Thursday 28 to Sunday 31 July
Cambridge Folk Festival
Folk Festival website



[see post seven below for continued, ever growing list ... ]

[hiccup]

The Sunday Best organised Bestival has been confirmed for 10th - 12th September on the Isle of Wight.

Great way to close the festival season, imho.

[Reg in slippers]

sterling stuff WoW,

could we also mention:


Sonar, 16-18 June

Montreux, 1-16 July

Larmertree, 13-17 July

Carhaix, 22-24 July

Cropredy, 11-13 August

Country Lodenica, 26-28 August

[sherriff rosco]

Nice one William you`ve been confirming all my dates ( and clashes ) for the year !

Don`t know if anyone went to The Cornbury Fest` last year...they had Blondie , Jools Holland , Hothouse Flowers etc . very laid back , family orientated festy. Had a great time with my three year old and they are putting on a lot more this year as last one was the first and a bit of a trial run!

Well it`s on again this year...9th to 10th July.

Some info at their homepage... www.cornburyfestival.com

.p.

[Skim]

Nice work, William... it's taken my mind off the freezing cold today.

I'm definitely going to try and make Strawberry Fair, I reckon. And J-Day of course. At least they're not clashing this year.

[William of Walworth]

I'm definitely going to try and make Strawberry Fair, I reckon. And J-Day of course. At least they're not clashing this year.

WE HOPE!!!!

Oh well, if April this year is ultra rainy again , Shane knows this time not to make the rearranged JayDay clash with SF -- I told him off on line about that last time

Should be fine

[William of Walworth]

Festival Season 2005 Calendar!
[continued from post one above]

Thursday 28 to Sunday 31 July
WOMAD 2005, Rivermead, Reading
Ticket details yet to be confirmed. One day visits still possible (and to be encouraged, if you can't make the whole weekend)
WOMAD site
5-4-2005 : Tickets NOW on sale ....

And annoyingly, clashing with the above :

Thursday 28 to Sunday 31 July
Cambridge Folk Festival
Folk Festival website

Thursday 28 to Sunday 31 July
Rock and Blues Custom Show, Pentrich, Derbyshire
"A Motorcycle and Music Festival for Bikers"
As their website clearly indicates ...
Recommended by Riff ...

Sunday 31st July (probably -- 2005 date to be confirmed)
Ambient Green Picnic, Shalford Park, Guildford, Surrey
One day free festival : hippy, green, Strawberry Fair-esque
Ambient Green Picnic website (website still showing 2004 details for now)

Monday 1 to Saturday 6 August
Sajeta Festival, near Tolmin, Slovenia
Sajeta website (not yet updated for 2005, as at 4-4-2005)
Chris on this thread said : "Nice chilled out atmosphere, a river/beach to swim in and gorgeous mountains if you fancy a break. ~20,000 people"

Friday 5 to Sunday 7 August
The Big Chill at Eastnor
Big Chill website

Wednesday 3 August to Monday 8 August
Big Green Gathering, Mendip Hills, near Cheddar, Somerset
Useful EFestivals BGG page
Rubbish and currently (26-1-2005) un-updated official BGG website (bloody hippies part III!)

Tuesday 2 to Saturday 6 August
Great British Beer Festival, Olympia
Details to be confirmed.
CAMRA website

Tuesday 11 to Saturday 14 August
Bulldog Bash, Shakespeare County Raceway, Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire
Bulldog Bash website
Another Bikers' festival

Friday 12 to Sunday 14 August (I think! Website not clear)
Cropredy Festival, Cropredy, near Banbury, Oxfordshire
Cropredy
Fairport's annual bash. Folkie, real ale fuelled, chilled, laid back, wonderful (says he on the basis of his one and only visit in 1983!!!)

Friday 12 to Sunday 14 August
Shambala
The organisers don't like this to be publicised.
It's an utterly crap hippy festival anyway
Spacehopper, chegrimandi and zora (and others if you want to risk it!) PM me for details.

Friday 19 and Saturday 20 August 2005
Stemweder Open Air Festival, Germany, Free
Owlfeiert/Stemweder website (all in German I fear)

Friday 19 to Sunday 21 August
Beautiful Days, Escot, near Exeter, Devon
This is an excellent festival organised by the Levellers (who will headline on one of the days) -- they aim for an old school countercultural Green Fields of Glasto type vibe. Beer provided by an excellent local brewery, Otter Brewery of Honiton. This year the licence looks like it will be expanded to cover approaching 10,000 (instead of 6,000) people, and the festival will become a three dayer instead of just two days as last year.
Beautiful Days website
Levellers Website
Tickets NOW on sale (as from 4 April 2005)!

Thursday 25th to Monday 29 August (Bank Holiday weekend)
41st Towersey Village Festival, near Thame, Oxfordshire
Towersey website

Friday 26 to Sunday 28 August
Solfest, Tarnside Farm, Tarns, Silloth, West Cumbria
(on the Solway Coast)
Solfest website
Strongly recommended by Flip (a festie mate of Moose, Tort, and myself) who has persuaded the mooses and Tort to make the long journey up to Cumbria for this one -- beautiful site apparantly, and great music. But a step and an extra festie too far for us this year, sadly!

Sunday 28 and Monday 29 August (Bank Holiday weekend)
Carnival!, Notting Hill area, W11, FREE!!
If anyone can supply a website I'd be most grateful ...
<edit : many thanks to hiccup for this information on Carnival websites> :
My Notting Hill site -- Carnival information
is usually updated a couple of months before Carnival, with the route and other info.
The BBC have a good carnival site too :
BBC London -- Carnival site
But, again, this probably won't be updated until much nearer the time.
There's some good information and a fancy route map here too

Friday 26 to Sunday 28 August (Bank Holiday weekend)
Country Lodenica Festival, Slovakia (?)
Country Lodenica
As obscure ones go, Reg the Slipperman has surpassed himself! Looks good for European roots music though ....

Friday 2 to Sunday 4 September
Off the Tracks, near Castle Donnington, Derbyshire
No details yet.

Friday 9 to Sunday 11 September (I think -- bloody hippies part IV -- website displays normal hippy date confusion about which dates are Friday, Saturday and Sunday in 2005)
Bestival, Robin Hill, Isle of Wight
Bestival site
Recommended by hiccup ....

Friday 9 to Sunday 11 September
Dove Street Community Arts Festival, Bristol
Fat Hamster says : "annual street party plus an Art Trail, theatre performances, workshops and the Bath Ales/Hillgrove Beer Festival all rolled into one"
No website

Friday 9 to Sunday 11 September
Bromyard Folk Festival, Bromyard, Herefordshire
Bromyard Folk Festival website

September, dates tbc (was September 17-19 in 2004)
Knockengorroch Festival, Autumn (Hairth O'Knokrath)
Galloway, South West Scotland
Hairth O'Knokrath website (not yet updated)


October (dates tbc -- 2004 was Friday 22 to Sunday 24 October)
Whitby Musicport. Whitby, North Yorkshire
Whitby Musicport site
Indoor Festival! But strongly recommended by our fellow-Urbanite festival freaks moose and Tort ....


Unknown date
The Urban 75 Festival 2005, somewhere or other rural!
Being discussed at great length on this thread on Community (latter part of thread for 2005-relevant contributions)

Han -- if this thread can be pinned that would be all to the good!

I can and doubtless will edit the above to add more dates and details and events as they come up ...

See you near a beer tent!!!

Best link so far on this thread, here is Tort's utterly suberb all round guide to all aspects of Glastonbury! Gratuitously repeated to remind you of how SUPERB all festivals are!!! Check the pix ...

[Hollis]

J-Day clashes with Duxford VE Day Air Show. Never particularly liked J-day anyway.

[William of Walworth]

J-Day clashes with Duxford VE Day Air Show. Never particularly liked J-day anyway.

Bloody militarist warmonger!!!

[boing!]

Good work WOW.
Heres the link for the glade festival. Last years was superb, i shall definatly be hoping to go to this again.

www.gladefestival.com

[mr steev]

Looks like the Glade is on a week earlier this year... good news for me as I can't make the week after due to work comittments (was gutted to miss it last year)

Birng on the summer

[Lysistrata]

Excellent! That means a weekend between the Glade and WOMAD which will definitely be needed. I'm also up for Kingston and Glastonbury and any others which can be squeezed in. It's good to think about festivals at such a cold time of year.

L

[moose]

For world music lovers who don't mind venturing inside when the weather turns chilly, there's the excellent Whitby Musicport in October (2005 dates tbc)

[William of Walworth]

Looks like the Glade is on a week earlier this year... good news for me as I can't make the week after due to work comittments (was gutted to miss it last year)

Birng on the summer

Mr steev -- concerning the Glade, where did you get that 'week earlier' iinformation from??

Their website still (incompetently) shows dates for 2004

Have added website link (cheers boing) to my main post above anyway ... and left dates unchanged for now.

I will make all other amendments/extra festival additions to the main list tonight, I hope ...

[mr steev]

Mr steev -- concerning the Glade, where did you get that 'week earlier' iinformation from??

Think I was a bit confused I thought it was on in the last week of Juky last year, then glancing through the list the 15th sounded like the week before... but that's when it was Think I've mixed my dates up, keeping fingers crossed that it won't clash with work again.

[han]

Nice one Will! You are a star. This will be useful for all our diaries and calendars! Thread stuck.

[Velouria]

Mmm nice one

I skimmed the vbulletin manual about calendars btw. It says you can create additional ones if you want and set people up with rights to post in them soo.... if WoW wanted to, we could create a festivals calendar and make him moderator* of it and enter them in there. Does anyone else think it's a decent idea?

* a calendar moderator can't moderate forum posts or ban people, to clarify before anyone brings that up

[William of Walworth]

All sounds too complicated ... I'll just try and keep this thread up to date ...

[William of Walworth]

Which I've now done -- all new details now added to main list. Thanks folks!!

(Can roll spliff now!!! )

<edit to add> : Cheers han for making this thread as sticky as Glasto mud (not that there'll be any this year! )

[Velouria]

All sounds too complicated ... I'll just try and keep this thread up to date ...

All it basically means by 'moderation' is 'you fill it in'

[Velouria]

Anyway...

(gets out re-railing equipment).

May I add the following non-ultra-corporate, non-ultra-mainstream events for the benefit of us oop north...

The Knockengorroch festivals, spring and autumn: 'Knockengorroch festivals have been running twice yearly Celtic/ Roots/World music festivals in the hills of Scotland's Southern Uplands since 1998'
20th to 22nd May: Ceilidh Gall Gallowa'
September (dates tbc): Hairth O'Knokrath

There's also Beltane Fire Festival on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, but I'm not sure when it is and its site has vanished in a blizzard of popups May sometime

I volunteer to fill in a festivals 2005 calendar if an admin creates one; if I can delegate posting rights to it so that others can help fill it in too that would be even nicer...

[fat hamster]

It's only small and local, but it'll be good: the Dove Street Community Arts Festival (i.e. our annual street party plus an Art Trail, theatre performances, workshops and the Bath Ales/Hillgrove Beer Festival all rolled into one) takes place in Bristol on 9th-11th September.

[jellybean]

Truck Festival 23-24th July www.truckrecords.com

Tiny(ish) Festival, in the middle of the Oxfordshire countryside, With the atmosphere like an early day Glastonbury apparently. but no free milk.

[tobyjug]

Friday 22 to Sunday 24 July
Carhaix Festival, Carhaix (is there such a place???), France
Carhaix
Don't know anything about this one ...

As this is called the festival of the old ploughs I will try and find out some more about this when I am in Brittany in a few weeks time. (I might want to go myself)

[felixthecat]

Village Pump Festival 21th-24th July at Stowford Manor just outside Trowbridge (sunny Wiltshire) is worth a drop in if you are in the area - mainly folk and roots music. As its not manned by hippies (specially for WoW!) the website is up-to-date. http://www.trowbridgefestival.co.uk