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Sep 19

Lancaster music festival live up revealed

With the award-winning festival’s line-up finally confirmed, the festival brochure hot off the press and the website bursting with acts from blues, rock, folk, indie, EDM, funk, soul to samba, brass bands, vaudeville, classical and choral.  October 9th – 13th.

It is expected that Lancaster Music Festival will be the busiest weekend Lancaster has ever seen and certainly it’s most musical. It certainly was in 2013 and this year is set to build on that.

Along with local favourites such as the highly irreverent edgy country of Lumberjack Cowboy Heartbreak Trucking Company, blistering indie with Carpe and Lake Komo, samba act Batala, 60’s Hammond groove with Get Carter, classical ensembles from players from the Haffner Orchestra and the nationally known pop act Lovely Eggs there will be acts from around the UK including 2014 Open Mic UK winner and BBC Introducing pick Heidi Browne, Southampton acoustic duo Eagle & Weeks, Manchester’s one man band genius Paddy Steer and another Mancunian with seriously fast fingers Franco and the Dreadnought to name a few.

The festival’s international programme will again feature Viennese songbird Marina Zettl (her 3rd year at the festival), a Vienna newcomer with Armenian fire, Ozlem Bulut, a Swedish neo-folk band with the deceptively descriptive sobriquet of Gibrish, a bombshell of a west coast rock and roller top 40 in the form of the racy Lacy Younger, soul sensation Andria Simone from Toronto (who will also close the festival on Monday night), deliciously deft modern jazz from Tel Aviv’s Shalosh, Ghanaian drum and chant from Kakatsitsi and the blistering funk rock of New Jersey power trio Sensory Hoverload.

The festival is free and all the city venues are within easy walking distance of each other while a regular bus service connects with Lancaster University.

This year also welcomes some new venues including at least one bank (incidentally, the banks will be open during the “unofficial bank holiday weekend”), a music shop, two additional outdoor squares including the newly installed plinth in Market Square, a wine and beer shop, a horse-drawn beer wagon, and of course Lancaster Castle.

For the first time in 1000 years Lancaster Castle will be hosting live bands with 23 concerts over the three days. Entry to the Castle is a nominal £1.

Only one venue is ticketed for nationally known acts and the fees are nominal even there.

The festival will also host street theatre, mini ale festivals and plenty of food both in the venues and the market stalls. The event is family friendly during the day and evening with adults being able to enjoy live music through the wee hours with at least one venue open 24 hours and another two licensed to 4am.

The 64 page festival brochures produced by @Lancaster Magazine is available NOW in the participating venues and Lancaster and Morecambe Visitor Information Centres and costs £1.

General enquiries to: [email protected]

Please note: Music applications for the festival ended on July 1st. The festival is still accepting sponsorship up until September 25th (for specific events only). Any one interested can contact the festival coordinator Ben Ruth at [email protected]