Newcastle’s Ignition Festival cancelled over venue doubts

A two-day music festival due to take place in Newcastle this week-end has been cancelled.

Ignition Festival, which was to be headlined by Calvin Harris, Echo and The Bunnymen, Frank Turner, Feeder and local bands Little Comets and We Beat the System was due to take place this weekend at Newcastle Racecourse.

Organisers had been looking for a new venue after Newcastle Racecourse announced concerns about letting it go ahead.  Talks with Newcastle City Council to try to relocate the festival have broken down.

The festival was originally due to take place at Newcastle Falcons rugby union club’s Kingston Park ground but that idea was abandoned after complaints from residents. The venue was then changed to Newcastle Racecourse and tickets continued to sell.

However, a statement released on Thursday said the festival was cancelled and racecourse management were “bitterly disappointed”. They said the organisers failed to submit an event safety plan, details of security, first aid provision and planning documentation. They said they also failed to make payment to some suppliers.

The organisers then had talks with Newcastle City Council but failed to come up with an alternative venue at such short notice. (more…)

Festival Weekend Survival Kits just got cheaper! If you’re lucky enough to have festival tickets make sure you’ve got one of our Festival Survival Kits.

We are giving away an extra £1 discount on our Touch of Ginger Festival Weekend Survival Kit until the end of this month. All you have to do is enter the discount voucher code shown below when you checkout.

The Festival Weekend Survival Kit is full of the really useful essentials you will need at any music festival. You’ll never guess what you need until you need it – so get one of our Festival Weekend Survival Kits today.

When you get to the checkout enter the following coupon code in the box marked “DISCOUNT CODES” to get an additional £1 discount:

FESTIVAL

If you are unlucky enough to only be going to a music festival for the day you might just need the Festival Day Survival Kit which is packed full with all the the goodies you will need for your day out.

T in the Park have announced their 2010 line up with some fantastic acts yet again. This year features Muse, Eminem, Kasabian, The Black Eyed Peas, The Prodigy and Jay-Z plus another 40 additional artists so far.

T in the Park 2010 line up

Tickets for T in the Park 2010 sold out in less than 90 minutes, so unless you’ve got one already you had better hope one of your friends has as spare.

We will publish this years T in the Park Camping Tips soon to help make your festival planning a little easier. Meanwhile why not get one of our Festival Survival Kits to make sure you are well prepared.

Keep your eyes open at the T in the Park official website at www.tinthepark.com for updates to the line up.

Tickets for next year’s (2010) Glastonbury music festival have finally gone on sale this morning at 9am.

Glastonbury festival takes place next year on June 23rd to June 27th. Camping is included in the ticket price and the campsite is open from Wednesday June 23rd to Monday June 28th. For more details see www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk.

Next year will be the 40th anniversary of the Glastonbury festival, which is held at Worth Farm in Somerset, and its organiser Michael Eavis has said “expectations are really high, as we’re trying to get the best headliners in the world”.

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Visit the Thai Festival at Greenwich Park, 8th & 9th August 2009!

If you’ve never been to Thailand before, it’s well worth taking the time to travel to Greenwich Park to see what you’ve been missing.

Greenwich Park, the oldest of the Royal Parks, will host its second Thai event on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th August, when the Greenwich Park Bandstand will be transformed into a beautiful Thai village.

The festival will open with a parade of elegant Thai dancers from the St Mary’s Gate (Greenwich Park main entrance). Thereafter there will be a whole host of typically Thai attractions, from sampling a range of authentic Thai food from some of London’s best Thai restaurants to Thai dancing, martial arts, Thai boxing, authentic Thai massage and a Buddhist ceremony. If you are unlucky enough to miss the opening parade, there will also be contemporary and classical Thai dancing on the main stage during the event, along with live traditional music by The Thai Music Circle in the pavilion throughout the day.

So if the delicious tastes and smells of exquisite Thai cuisine are your favourite or you simply want to try something new, visit Greenwich Park for a taste of Thailand. As an added bonus, your ticket also includes entrance to a prize draw to win a return flight to Thailand.

The Thai Festival will be open from 11am to 6pm with tickets priced at £5 at the entrance or buy in advance online for only £3. For more details visit Amthai Festival.

As Latitude draws to a close, all eyes are now on the next big event in the festival season – Global Gathering this coming Friday 24th and Saturday 25th July at Long Marston Airfield near Stratford upon Avon.

Global Gathering is one of Europe’s biggest dance festivals and is due to be a sell-out again so get tickets while you can from www.globalgathering.co.uk. Some of the headliners this year are The Prodigy, Orbital, Pendulum, Paul van Dyk, Armin van Burren, David Guetta, Carl Cox, Sasha, Dubfire, Fedde Le Grande, ATB, Tiga and Sander van Doorn to name but a few! And brand new for this year is “The Godskitchen Boombox” which is going to be fantastic.

However, to make sure you get the max out of the music its worthwhile doing a little preparation before you travel to Stratford to start the festivities. So here’s our Top Ten Tips for camping at Global Gathering this year:

1. Charge everything up to the max! No, not the credit card – that comes later, your electrical items. Charge up your mobile phone, ipod, camera and any other electrical items you will be taking with you, you don’t want to carry around dead weights.
2. Check your camping cooker! Make sure that your cooker works AND that you’ve got a fresh gas canister. There’s nothing worse than running out half way through cooking when you’re hungry – that’s where you max the credit card! (Of course, if you’re awash with cash and can afford it, enjoy some of the great food on offer for the duration of the festival.)
3. Travel light! Pack only the bare essentials and certainly minimise on any valuables you take with you. Use travel size toiletries where possible, everything from shower gel to toothpaste – you’ll be surprised how much room you can save in a cramped tent.

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If you’re heading off to T in the Park festival this week it’s about time to start thinking about packing your stuff for the campsite.

The real key of what you pack for camping is to keep the size and weight of everything down to a minimum. So don’t take full size products with you, buy travel size toiletries instead! These little beauties will SAVE their weight in gold when you are trying to fit everything (including the kitchen sink) into a rucksack or bag.

Here are our travel size toiletries top ten for this year’s T in the Park festival:

1. Body Wash – The showers are open every morning and you’ll find them in Red 11 at the perimeter fence. But remember that all the body wash / soap / shower gel used should be phosphate free to help protect the environment of Loch Leven. Dove Go Fresh body wash comes in a tiny 55ml pocket size and has the great fragrance of cucumber and green tea.
2. Shave Oil – Nuage Shaving Oil with menthol and eucalyptus comes in a mini 20ml can that’s only 11cm tall. It makes you wonder why you’re taking a wash bag!
3. Hair Care – Salon chic shine serum comes in a travel size 50ml pump action bottle, only 11cm tall, that gives your hair instant shine and lustre, smoothing frizz and frayed ends.

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Film makers are hoping to record the largest official gathering of zombies at this year’s Big Chill Music Festival.

Festival-goers at the Big Chill in Ledbury on 6th August have been asked to be extras in “I spit on your rave”, a collaboration between WARP films and Film4.

People have been asked to arrive in costume for filming but make up will be on hand to get that authentic zombie look!

1,227 people took part in the largest official “zombie walk” so far in Nottingham in 2008 but at this year’s Big Chill Festival at Eastnor Castle in Ledbury they hope to smash this and get into the Guinness Book of Records as the “Most Amount of Zombies Captured on Camera”.

This year’s Big Chill Festival runs from 6th – 9th August with a line up including Andy Askins, Annie Nightingale, Basement Jaxx, Jazzie B, Marina and the Diamonds, Orbital and Wonky Pop to name but a few.

If you going along to the Big Chill make sure you’ve got your Festival Day Survival Kit or if you’re lucky enough to be there for the 3 days, your Festival Weekend Survival Kit and travel size toiletries.

No – it’s not a new band headlining at the Glastonbury Festival!

With less than two weeks to go before the Glastonbury Festival starts, it’s our pick of the top ten travel size toiletries you can get to save valuable space when you pack your rucksack for your camping trip to Glastonbury.

With nearly a million of us enjoying this years “sell-out” Festival season you can’t start planning your trip to Glastonbury early enough and make sure you’ve got your travel size toiletries in advance.

1. Simple Travel Size Companion Mini Set – 4 travel size toiletries inside a clear plastic zip lock bag. Perfect skincare for the Festival in a tiny wash bag.
2. Carex Travel Size Hand Gel with Aloe Vera – The tiny travel size 50ml bottle provides up to 100 applications and kills 99.9% of bacteria without needing soap and water.
3. Nuage Anti-Perspirant Deodorant Spray – A slim line 25ml travel size deodorant that gives you 24 hour protection for the (hopefully) hot days and warm nights.

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Hampton Court Palace Festival 2nd – 13th June

In a truly unique setting, the historic Hampton Court Palace courtyard plays host to some of the biggest names from the world of music to bring an eclectic mix of concerts over 10 nights in June.

There is no better setting on a warm summer night for some of the world’s leading musicians to provide an unforgettable experience.

If you can get there early enough why not pre-order one of Carluccio’s picnics and relax and enjoy it in Hampton Court Palace’s stunning 17th Century Gardens before the concert.

The free car park opens at 5pm and the Palace Gardens open at 5:30pm for you to enjoy the surroundings and picnic. The Palace Courtyard opens at 6:30pm so you can take your seats before the performances which begin at 7:15pm or 9pm.

Tuesday and Wednesday saw stunning performances from Jose Carreras, Faryl Smith and Jools Holland, with the rest of the 2009 line up as follows:

• Thursday 4th June – Russell Watson
• Friday 5th June – Level 42
• Saturday 6th June – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
• Tuesday 9th June – Beverley Knight and Lemar
• Wednesday 10th June – James Morrison
• Thursday 11th June – RPO’s Best of Broadway with Rachel Tucker
• Friday 12th June – Jools Holland
• Saturday 13th June – Beethoven Festival Finale

If you’re planning to make a full day of it and visit London make sure you check out one of our iPod Tube Maps and the London City Visitors Kit.

For more information on booking and travel visit the Hampton Court Palace Festival site.