Band Festivals - Stereoboard Look At Worldwide Festivals Curated By Some Of The Planet's Top Acts
Monday, 28 May 2012
Written by Heather McDaid
With festival season upon us, it signals one of the most anticipated parts of the year for many fans of music. While they can span the entire year, summer is rife with them and this year Metallica have added their own personal fest to the list. They’re not the first band to host their own festival and they most certainly won’t be the last.
One of the most well known festivals of this kind is Ozzfest, the brainchild of Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon. Having had its successes in various set-ups in the States, the UK and elsewhere, Ozzfest hosts a string of hard rock and metal acts – unsurprisingly, Ozzy himself is the festival’s most featured performer. Others who have played the festival more than most include Black Sabbath, Black Label Society, Slipknot, Rob Zombie and Disturbed. At the core, it celebrates metal. However, the most recent UK leg featured the likes of Steel Panther and Skindred, proving that the festival can diversify within its own musical constraints. On the occasions this festival arrives to UK shores, fans tend to flock from all corners of the country just to attend.
Metallica’s debut with Orion this summer will host a more mixed bag. With the likes of Avenged Sevenfold, Sepultura and The Black Dahlia Murder in its ranks, Orion will also feature letlive, The Gaslight Anthem and even indie rockers the Arctic Monkeys. As is custom with most festivals of this set up, Metallica will also be headlining. Not content with just music, the website indicates that there will be a Custom Car show, featuring a string of badass cars and motorbikes for attendees to ogle at. The more interestingly named Ktulu’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Emporium will also give fans the opportunity to stroll down Metallica’s memory lane, as well as having a lot of music-related goods for sale via various vendors. Orion Festival appears to be a must for all Metallica fans.
Political punk rockers Anti Flag debuted their musical project Antifest in the UK earlier this year, where the band not only took the headline slot but put on a brilliant line-up to perform before them. With the fantastic Bouncing Souls, acclaimed indie-punk wonders The Menzingers, The Skints and more at this festival, fans were able to delve into their love of punk and some more erratic alternatives before going crazy to Anti Flag’s unsurprisingly anarchic headline set.
Manchester Orchestra are yet another band who host their own festival, but double it for both bands they like and those signed to their own label: Favorite Gentlemen Records. 2011’s version of ‘The Stuffing’ included Cage The Elephant, Kevin Devine, O'Brother and while it not be the most high-profile of festivals, it still packs a punch in quality, especially for fans of the headliners. The latest version was the day before American Thanksgiving, a factoid on which vocalist Andy Hull noted that the band can be home for the holidays, which makes it a particularly fun little festival for them.
The Prodigy have taken to hosting under the lure of the ‘Warrior’s Dance Festival’. Its debut took place in Tokyo back in 2009, where the likes of Pendulum and Hadouken! stepped up. The following year, the one day dance festival took place at the Milton Keynes Bowl in the UK, featuring Chase and Status, Enter Shikari and even Gallows with Lethal Bizzle. While the festival took a year off, it was announced that it would be heading off to Serbia for the 2012 version, due to take place this September. This year will host the dubstep sensation Skrillex, Chase and Status will be doing a DJ set and the majority of the line-up is yet to be unveiled. Rumour seems to be that the band will be allowing a large number of Serbian artists to fill up the remainder of the bill when the festival hits their region.
Linkin Park have hosted their own touring festival since 2002, though it hasn’t run every single year since its inception. Originally starting with one stage, Projekt Revolution has gradually expanded to allow more acts to perform on the bill alongside the headliners. While their debut only featured three other bands alongside them, the last few years have hosted acts including My Chemical Romance, Mindless Self Indulgence, Placebo, Taking Back Sunday, N*E*R*D, Hawthorne Heights, Anberlin and many, many more. In its earlier years, Projekt Rev extensively toured across the United States, while more recent years have seen it tone down the schedule. 2011 hosted only four dates in Europe, while nothing is planned for 2012, presumably due to their imminent album release.
In 2011, Pearl Jam hosted their own two day festival to mark the landmark of their 20th anniversary. Not only giving stage space to smaller acts, the band were joined on the duo of days by Queens Of The Stone Age, The Strokes, Mudhoney, Joseph Arthur and more. The first night saw a lack of hits from the band, proving a rare opportunity to see lesser heard tracks somewhat lost in their back catalogue. The following night was more of a standard show, with the band performing the majority of the hits fans missed the previous evening. Basing this pending prediction on the success of the event, it’s likely this could be repeated for further landmarks in the band’s career.
British folk-rockers Mumford and Sons will also be hosting a couple of one day festivals imminently at which they are headlining. The two dates will be June 2nd in Huddersfield at then a week later on June 9th in Galway, Ireland. These will take place in the midst of their current touring and festival schedule, but their own personal fest will feature acts to perform including The Vaccines, Willy Mason and The Correspondents.
Festivals hosted and headlined by bands feel like ‘must attend’ occasions for fans of those in question because it offers the opportunity to indulge in their favourite bands more than usual. The likes of Metallica’s upcoming Orion Festival, as mentioned, will have a history of the band for fans to enjoy. Hosting their own events gives bands control to put on shows they feel are worthy to be attended, and even personalise the event more than they could a regular gig.
As established, these events have been running for years and the idea will likely continue for years. As long as there are fans of music, there will be an ample audience for self-hosted festivals.
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Linkin Park have hosted their own touring festival since 2002, though it hasn’t run every single year since its inception. Originally starting with one stage, Projekt Revolution has gradually expanded to allow more acts to perform on the bill alongside the headliners. While their debut only featured three other bands alongside them, the last few years have hosted acts including My Chemical Romance, Mindless Self Indulgence, Placebo, Taking Back Sunday, N*E*R*D, Hawthorne Heights, Anberlin and many, many more. In its earlier years, Projekt Rev extensively toured across the United States, while more recent years have seen it tone down the schedule. 2011 hosted only four dates in Europe, while nothing is planned for 2012, presumably due to their imminent album release. 
