There’s not long to go now before the start of the 2015 edition of Lancaster’s award-winning music festival.
Once again, the festival has grown to bring you an astonishing 345 individual performances from 185 acts in 42 different locations spread across five days from Thursday 8th until Monday 12th October (Lancaster’s very own unofficial Bank Holiday Monday). And it’s free.
Full details of all the acts taking part can be found on the festival website (www.lancastermusicfestival.com) which has been completely upgraded in partnership with local media hosting and design company Nublue.
Nublue are also sponsoring the main stage which, for the second year running will be hosted by The Duchy of Lancaster in the historic surroundings of the castle. The stage will have its usual eclectic line-up of acts from Friday to Sunday with headliners including local favourites The Feud and last year’s international sensations, Sensory Hoverload, joining a wide range of local, national and international acts covering many genres, all for a single pound coin. Yep, £1 entry.
Festival Coordinator Ben Ruth says “This year is set to be our biggest festival ever showcasing not only the fantastic variety of local acts but national and international acts from as far afield as Australia, Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Poland and the USA. The range of talent on display is breathtaking and as one of our sponsors says – if you can’t find music you like in Lancaster, you probably don’t like music!”
Once again, the festival, in conjunction with Lancaster Business Improvement District (BID), will be offering family-friendly performances in the main squares (Market Street, Sun Street and Dalton Square) over the weekend and for good measure this year will include international performances outside the Judges Lodgings in conjunction with More Music Morecambe.
Also new for this year, the festival will have its own app courtesy of local developers All Apped Up. Festival-goers will be able to view up to date information whilst on the move with full details of how to find their way around all the venues.
And many of those venues will be selling the festival ale produced by Lancaster Brewery and designed by the festival team. It will be jolly, frothy and a bit nutty.
For those festival-goers who want a more traditional “festival in a field” experience Lancaster Cricket Club have opened their grounds to camping with full showering facilities, cooked breakfasts and a late bar in the club house all under the looming gaze of Lancaster Castle.
There will of course also be festival brochures on sale at all the venues in the run up to and during the festival. Priced at just one pound, the 80-page brochure is packed with listings by Venue, by Date and Time and by Artist together with comprehensive information on all the headline acts not available elsewhere.
Once the festival is over the music doesn’t stop. Lancaster is host to 19 regular live music venues putting on between 40 to 50 shows per week. On the back of this fantastic program, the city is slowly regaining its place on the national and international circuit for larger acts. The weekend following the festival renowned keyboard virtuoso Rick Wakeman will be playing two shows at Lancaster Priory. The fact that tickets have now almost sold out proves the discerning folk of Lancaster know when they’re onto a good thing.
As Ben Ruth says “There’s nowhere else quite like Lancaster for the quality, quantity and sheer diversity of live musical entertainment concentrated in such a small area. The festival is a showcase of this talent and it’s thanks to the people of Lancaster who support events week in week out that it continues to flourish”.
Oh, and did we mention, it’s free.
You can keep in touch with the festival via the website www.lancastermusicfestival.com, on Facebook www.facebook.com/LancasterMusicFest or on twitter twitter.com/LancsMusicFest
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