The BBC are planning to launch a music festival that will rival with the legendary festival Glastonbury. Although it is in its early stages of development the BBC festival has already signed up numerous acts as it hopes to offer something different to music fans. The festival will be launched to coincide with the 2012 Olympics that will appear in the UK. As planning is still in its early stages it is not totally clear how the festival will be structured and whether it will play an integrated part of the Olympic coverage.
Despite this, two big name acts have recently been announced in order to give the festival popularity a boost. These acts that have been announced by the BBC are Leona Lewis and Plan B.
The festival that will be funded by BBC Radio 1 will be known as the Hackney Weekend 2012 and is expected to offer a similar billing to the Radio 1 Big Weekend. The Hackney Weekend 2012 is anticipated to feature around 80 international artists, bands and DJs.
As this is a BBC festival and therefore ultimately funded using license payers money, the festival will be free. The concert will be held at the capitals Hackney Marshes and will be on the 23rd and 24th June 2012. This is the same weekend that Glastonbury will occur in 2012.
The music festival will form part of the London 2012 Festival that starts on June 21st, this has been created in order to celebrate the Olympics. The festival will include productions from all over the world, all that have been especially created to celebrate the London Olympics 2012.
Leona Lewis has stated that being part of this festival is something that is incredibly important to her. She hopes to rally her fans together to celebrate this fantastic occasion.
Plan B, the recent Novello Award winner, has also stated that he is hoping this will be a fantastic festival that will rival some of the big summer festivals that many fans pay expensive tickets for.
How tickets will be allocated is yet to be announced, although it is expected to take a similar process to the BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend.