Features

The Flaming Lips, Manu Chao, Sebatian Tellier, Groove Armada - Lovebox Weekender: Putting the heart and soul back into festivals.

Lewis Townsend 02/07/2008

As music lovers, who regularly immerse ourselves in our music collections - we've all heard of your traditional musical festivals like Leeds, Reading, Download, V and Glastonbury. But amidst these huge corporate ventures, there is a little gem, genuinely hidden away to those outside of the London area. It's called Lovebox Weekender, and it's very very soon, In about a month (The 19th of July), in fact. And it's going be great!

Set in the heart of East London: Victoria Park, its a festival that's been expanding due to popularity since 2003. On site you're surrounded by ancient yet lush parkland, delightfully tasty food, cabaret, cocktail bars... Oh, and then there's the music. Oh, the music. While other festivals customarily recruit acts that are 'going be hot,' Lovebox embraces music to the core, whether electro-synth-hip-hop-breakbeat, contemporary reggae or just plain rock & roll.

It boasts a spectacular line-up, comprised of bands that bravely throw various niche musical genres onto their sonic palette's, bands that love music for what it is, and bands that want to play in an authentic but unique atmosphere. It truly is going to be an unsurpassable experience - for themselves and for the crowd. Organized by musical enthusiasts; people very much like us, who want to introduce and promote fresh and unique music to the world, the line-up is adoringly pieced together to adhere to this sublime criteria.

The festival is split into several areas, stages and arena settings each of which will contain an array of acts non-stop stretching from midday to 10pm.

The Main Stage this year encompasses music from indie, electronica, world music and dance flaunting artists like bilingual, cult pioneer Manu Chao, the extrovertly fun and inspiring Flaming Lips, festival curators and dance legends Groove Armada and the synthy come pop meets RnB sounds of Frenchman Sebatian Tellier. That's just four names out of the twelve confirmed artists on the main stages, with more to be announced very soon.

There may be a focus on the main stage, but this isn't entirely at the heart of what Lovebox is about. There are other themed stages that complement the main stage.

Amongst others, there's the 'Strangelove area,' which choreographs a fine selection of contemporary dancers to dance music's most respected and admired DJ's and artists. There's an opportunity to discover wonderful artists from all over the world from the fields of dub, country, reggae or folk in the 'Amnesty Firefly Stage' and if that doesn't take your fancy, social network website 'Last.fm' will be hosting a fantastic stage with some hand picked artists taken off the up and coming hype chart, no-one fully knows what to expect here, but expect bands capturing new levels of obscurity. Think combinations of Nintendo folk, post-punk disco or contemporary new wave and you might be on the way to imagining what concoction of sounds will be emanating from this stage! On top of these there are six spectacular areas offering a diverse expanse of acts, including a fully immersive film setting reinventing 70's New York, with music curated by London's "Horse Meat Disco", and the 'Great Escape' stage, lining up a great handful of adored indie acts.

So it's clear for a more low-key, genuine, raw music festival, Lovebox Weekender is the way forward. And it all starts on Saturday 19th July with day tickets priced at just £38.50.'

taken from http://www.lovebox.net - portraying the true festival atmosphere!"