- Hot Chip covered Prince at T In The Park, while Ian Brown covered Rihanna
- Primal Scream played some new material and went down a storm at EXIT
- An endearing account from a musician at EXIT: “Upon arriving, we were happy to find out that we were scheduled on the main stage, alongside the very famous US hip-hop act N*E*R*D.”
- Some acts at Oxegen might have bruised egos when faced with the claim that “the sun” was the star performer

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Monday July 14th, 2008 at 11:10 am

- How’s this for a way to kick off a festival? At Exit in Serbia, acrobatic jet planes opened the festivities – and apparently festival attendees can contact them to go for a ride as well
- Oxegen opens today, with the “wires” abuzz with that summer editorial staple, festival survival guides, as well as free condoms and tighter safety guidelines following trouble last year
- Meanwhile Amy Winehouse, performing at both Oxegen and T The Park, might find herself homeless by the time she gets back to London. The most shocking part of this story for me is that Amy Winehouse is living in a rented flat. If she can’t get on the housing ladder what hope the rest of the country, etc etc etc
- Rick O’Shea’s The Whole Curiosity Blog is coming live from Oxegen this weekend. Let’s hope he doesn’t get mud in his wi-fi

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday July 11th, 2008 at 11:06 am

- Hecklerspray has a handy guide to T In The Park, including a rundown of the acts on the bill. Of The Kooks, they offer: “As enjoyable as spending

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday July 10th, 2008 at 12:11 pm

Everyone’s had one of those “friends” who, if they don’t attend an event, goes to great lengths to assure everyone else who wasn’t there – and some who were – that the party in question was rubbish. Tom Meighan of Kasabian is the rock equivalent of that friend.
In what could be seen as comments intended to back up his fave man-crush Noel Gallagher, Meighan has banged on about about how crap the festival was this year, even though he wasn’t there as either a fan or a performer.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday July 10th, 2008 at 10:32 am

- Are festivals the latest extravagance to be hit by the credit crunch? Tickets for Ireland’s Oxegen fest, taking place this coming weekend, have failed to sell out and are going dirt cheap on secondary ticket sites
- While those who have shelled out for tickets can apparently expect rain at various points during the event
- Virtual Festivals have a handy guide to the long-sold out T In The Park festival which also kicks off this weekend

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday July 9th, 2008 at 10:30 am

Clare Joslin writes:
Being a big Boosh fan, a lover of all things Garth Marenghi, and an established stalker of old men in eyeliner (hellooo Gary Numan), the new Mighty Boosh Festival at Hop Farm, Kent was pretty much a dream come true for me.
Joined in a field by thousands of equally fanatical fans, I wasn’t surprised to see the show’s characters out in force. Acquaintances I made included Sandstorm (“glove love”), Mr Susan (minus his mirrorballs), a gang of bright pink Tony Harrisons, Betamaxx, and a number of crack foxes, to name but a few. Oh, and of course there were plenty of the obligatory Ol’ Greggs.

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Posted by Clare Joslin on Monday July 7th, 2008 at 3:00 pm

What you need to be able to take a shower at a festival this year:
1. One Pocket Shower, which is a small item that unfolds to become a reservoir able to hold enough water for a seven minute shower. It also warms the water, if you happen to be bathing on a sunny day. It’s waterproof and the shower head has “graduated apertures so that you get even spray dispersion”
2. Some water that isn’t full of mud and poo
3. A tree or similar branch-like thing from which to hang your Pocket Shower
4. A desire to remain clean that is so resolute you’re willing to get nekked and shower in front of thousands of drunken strangers
Available from IWantOneOfThose.com
[via Coolest Gadgets]

For more gadgetary goodness, teleport over to Shiny Shiny and Tech Digest

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Monday July 7th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

- Morrissey played some new songs at London’s O2 Wireless Festival
- Jay-Z continues to emerge from the Glasto brouhaha with more credit than Noel Gallagher; the Oasis songwriter is even backtracking on his original comments
- Wild In The Country was cancelled after headliner Bjork pulled out, with rumours abounding that this led to other acts on the bill cancelling their appearances
- Mark Ronson has worked with everyone except new festival stars The Mighty Boosh, so it makes sense for him to remedy that by producing a single for them
- And Zoo8 Festival’s PR people have some serious work to do – it’s getting a slaughtering from attendees

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Monday July 7th, 2008 at 11:33 am

“Sound art” doesn’t sound like the most tempting of entertainments, does it? Ah, but what if I was to tell you that this aural art was taking place underwater? Now you’re interested, right?
Wet Sounds is a touring “underwater festival” which uses special underwater speakers to allow you to swim while being submerged in sound waves. Apparently sound moves four times quicker underwater, so… um… actually, I’m not sure what effect this would have. Maybe you hear the sounds before they actually occur or something.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday July 3rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm

Isabelle, editor of Brandish, is outraged at the review of Jay-Z’s Glasto appearance that has appeared in the cuddly old Daily Mail. It’s written by the supremely irritating Liz Jones, but could also be read as some kind of parody of how your Mum might review the world’s largest performing arts festival. Behold:
Jay-Z emerged on the stage like an only slightly slimmer version of American Vogue’s fashion director Andre Leon Talley, dressed, despite the warm evening and the pitch dark, in a duffle coat with hood, thick scarf and giant sunglasses, and proceeded to shout at us, making us do all the work.
I hate it when stars do this, making us sing and wave our arms, when we have paid them to do the entertaining. It was truly dreadful. ‘Thank y’all for embracing my culture,’ he yelled, over and over again.
There’s more over the page…

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Tuesday July 1st, 2008 at 3:30 pm