Bloomsbury Festival Programme Announced

The programme for London’s Bloomsbury Festival has been announced: a weekend of live music, theatre, dance, walks, talks and food this October. Bringing together The British Museum, Wellcome Collection and more than 60 other venues, The Bloomsbury Festival takes over the parks, squares and buildings of the area with a unique programme of more than 100 events and activities, all of which are free to attend.

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The Irish Festival of Oulu

Rated the #1 festival in Oulu Region by Kaleva Newspaper in 2009, the 5th anniversary Irish Festival of Oulu brings the city a wide range of cultural entertainment for all ages. Organised by The Irish Music Society of Oulu, the festival celebrates the richness of Irish culture including theatre, poetry, film, dance, and plenty of the best Irish music in the world.

The Irish Festival of Oulu – Fleadh Éireannach na Oulu

The scintillating festival line-up includes four top Irish acts: Misneach, a rhythmic traditional band from South Sligo; Beoga, one of the hottest Irish musical experiences today; Marianne Green, a singer-songwriter with a beautifully gentle voice; and the legendary Altan, arguably Ireland’s biggest name in traditional Irish music. These artists will deliver a dazzling weekend of world class Irish music.

Cultural activities at the festival include the screening of Gabriel Byrne – Stories From Home, a revealing and evocative insight into the life and creative impulse of one of the world’s leading actors. Director Pat Collins will be hosting a discussion session afterwards.  Aidan Dooley will present his award winning theatre piece Tom Crean – Antarctic Explorer about the adventurous Antarctic explorer brought to life in this dramatic and humorous solo performance. We also welcome the award winning Irish poet Harry Clifton to present his poetry at the festival.

The festival also features the incredibly talented local Irish bands The Brogues, Cascade and The Soap Pig. Come enjoy the numerous workshops, the popular weekend dance course, Irish films, storytelling, and daily traditional Irish music sessions open to everyone.

We welcome you to Oulu, Finland for the northernmost Irish festival in the world. The organisers would like to thank our supporters, sponsors, volunteers and fans for five years of dedication and fun!

Festival website – www.irkku.fi

Fuzzbox Brings Fizz To First Shifnal Festival

Fuzzbox, the princesses of power punk pop, are to headline the finale night of Shifnal’s first art festival.

The Midlands girl group, who have had five Top 50 hits such as Pink Sunshine and International Rescue, are headlining a day-long series of events on Saturday September 25th at Idsall School. It will be one of the band’s first concerts since reforming after a break of almost 20 years.
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Introducing Rebellion

Glastonbury Festival was borne out of love some 40 years ago. As big and great affair it is now, you hear stories of how it was before thru the years. The music and people that inspired its fun time success and you wish that you could have had the chance to experienced it.

Forward winding to the 2000’s, you wonder if some of the same flavours are reminiscent in a current unique festival that has been running for the past 16 years.

Spawn out of the UK Punk Scene, Rebellion festival has grown into one of the largest independent alternative festivals around.

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Dominican Republic Jazz Festival 2010 Dates Announced

The Dominican Republic Jazz Festival is a festival full of rhythm, flavour and colour that each year is wrapped in the fragrant air of the North Coast of the Dominican Republic. Renowned for merengue it is no surprise that the annual event attracts a line-up of some of the best Latin jazz performers and this year promises to be no different. Musicians participating at the Festival will include internationally renowned jazz musicians such as Chucho Valdez (the world-famous Cuban pianist) and Danilo Perez (one of Panama’s great jazz pianists).

This year the Jazz Festival runs from 25th – 27th November and the event kicks off on 25th November in Santiago at the “Gran Teatro del Cibao,” the country’s second largest theatre. Santiago is located some 45 minutes south of Puerto Plata.

After the grand opening, the music festival will move to the beach at Cabarete on the 26th and 27th November. Cabarete is located only 20 minutes away from the Puerto Plata International Airport on the northern shore of the Dominican Republic. The venue could not be more perfect. The festival will have as a backdrop to the music being played the murmur of the waves.

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World-class African line up for opening showpiece

Johannesburg – The 2010 FIFA World Cup is set to kick-off in colorful, energetic, distinctly African musical fashion with a dynamic Opening Ceremony which is expected to be watched live by hundreds of millions of viewers in 215 countries.

The 30-minute ceremony, with its cast of 1 581 world-class artists, dancers, musicians and performers, will start at Johannesburg’s iconic Soccer City stadium at 2pm on 11 June 2010, ahead of the historic first African FIFA World Cup’s opening match between hosts South Africa and Mexico at 4pm. [Read more…]

Jazz in Juan, First 5 Artists Names

The longest running European jazz festival and a model to the others, Jazz in Juan is celebrating this year 50 years of existence!

Since 1960, it has imposed itself as a legendary place where jazz history is created, but also and especially where jazz is eternally reborn.

The Antibes Juan-les-Pins Tourist Office, organiser of the festival, and Jean-René Palacio, artistic director, intend to celebrate in style the jubilee of an event which remains one of today’s cultural highlights of jazz life in France and in Europe. Many events are planned, not forgetting the many prestigious guests on stage for whom Jazz and Juan are inseparable. Prior to the press conference, when the full programme will be revealed, five of them have already confirmed their presence.

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Garmin 2010 Music Festival Location Guides

Garmin global leaders in satellite navigation today launched the latest summer music festival free guide 2010 for all its nüvi range of sat-navs. From big-stage pop productions to local alternative events, Garmin has packed all the information you need into a quick and easy to download set of GPS coordinates and information on festival across the UK at  garmin.co.uk/uk-festival-locations. for full story  Garmin 2010 Music Festival Location Guides

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Jools Holland To Perform At SO 2010

Legendary musician and television presenter Jools Holland and world-renowned street theatre performers complete the line up of headline acts for SO Festival 2010 in Skegness.

The host of BBC2’s ‘Later…’ and New Year’s Eve ‘Hootenanny’ shows, Jools Holland will officially kick off this year’s festival with a performance at the Embassy Theatre in Skegness, on Thursday 22nd July.

Jools will be joined on stage by his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra drummer, Gilson Lavis, as well as vocalists Ruby Turner and Louise Marshall. There will also be a special guest appearance from former Soft Cell frontman, Marc Almond.

On the Saturday night (24th July) Skegness will be transformed into an aquatic wonderland, when world famous French street theatre performers, Plasticiens Volants, present their critically acclaimed mobile show, Perle.

Massive inflatable sea creatures and giant puppets will float and dance over the crowds and transform the Skegness skyline into a magical oceanic display, featuring seahorses, multi-coloured fish and colourful crustaceans. This will launch the 2010 illuminations display and include a fire display as part of the performance.

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Lee Mead leads the line up for SO Festival 2010

First it was flying drummers and the best of Lincolnshire’s unsigned bands, now it’s the West End stage that’s coming to Skegness as part of the SO Festival 2010.

Lee Mead will bring his show to the Skegness Embassy Theatre on Sunday 25th July.

The singer, who hit the big time after winning BBC series Any Dream Will Do, will be performing songs from his latest album Nothing Else Matters, as well as well-known West End classics.
Lee is about to take on the role of Fiyero in the musical Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre from May 10th 2010 before touring the UK with his second studio album.

Speaking of the chance to perform at the Embassy Theatre, Lee said: “I remember doing some work experience at similar theatres to Skegness Embassy at The Cliffs Pavilion, Southend, assisting with the spotlight. I used to think, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be great if it was me on stage one day’, and now it is. It’s all a bit surreal, but amazing at the same time.”

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