Keane to Headline Fflam Festival
Lineup for Wales' New Music Festival Revealed
England has Glastonbury, Scotland has T in the Park, Ireland has Oxegen, but Wales hasn't had a major live music festival to call its own - until now.
This summer the Fflam Festival (Welsh for flame) will aim to set the festival calendar alight with three days of rock and dance acts on four stages, with over 50 bands and up to 30,000 festival goers, but with no camping ans stiff competition from other festivals, it may face a tough innagural year.
English band Keane, American rockers Placebo and Welsh legends Manic Street Preachers will headline the event, with bands including Cold War Kids, Enter Shikari, The Ordinary Boys, The Feeling and Feeder also confirmed.
New Welsh Talent
Festival organisers have also promised that the event will provide a platform for emerging Welsh talent – including bands that sing in their native Welsh tongue.
The bilingual festival will feature one local, unsigned act each night as the opening band on the main stage – and runners up in the competition will have a chance to play on the ‘new talent’ stage.
Festival promoter John Curd of Straight Music said: "Our aim is that Fflam will become to Wales what T in the Park is to Scotland. As well as giving locals the chance to see some of the best live bands around, we are also dedicated to nurturing new talent and the full line up will reflect that."
Welsh Music Scene
The timing may be right for the festival to make the most of a new wave of popularity in Welsh music. Bands including The Lost Prophets, The Automatic and Bullet For My Valentine have all found international success in the last couple of years, and a new crop of Welsh talent is tipped to emerge throughout 2007.
Yet, despite its location, the festival is still to reveal how it will stand out against other events, such as the infamous Reading and Leeds festival or the quirky Bestival which takes place on the Isle of Wight. Fflam will also face competition from Cardiff's Metro Weekender - a two day music festival due to return in August, with significantly lower ticket prices.
The success of failure of Fflam may ultimately depend on the calibre of its headline acts, but the blend of Welsh music and a warm Welsh welcome may prove a winning combination.
Tickets on sale now, £40 Day tickets, £100 weekend
Further Acts: Dirty Pretty Things, The Levellers, Biffy Clyro, Howling Bells, Fightstar, White Rose Movement, The Hold Steady, New Model Army, Yourcodenameis: Milo, Oceansize, Carbon/Silicon, Dropkick Murphys, Bloodhound Gang, Buzzcocks, In Me, Jaw, Lost Vagueness.
