New Reading festival to launch

A new festival, Heavenly Planet, is set to launch in Reading next July, with The Wonder Stuff, Fence Collective and The Bays among the acts confirmed to appear at the inaugural bash.

The event will take place on July 10-12 in fully-covered arenas beside the river Thames in the city, with a capacity of 10,000. Camping space will be available.

Facilities on site will include a swimming pool and a covered food court.

Festival chief Melvyn Benn of Festival Republic told NME.COM the Heavenly Planet would have a "world music-ish" vibe.

He added, "It'll be chilled out – we're trying to create a festival of optimism and unity. Now that's needed more than ever with the gloomy news with the recession and what's going on in the world. We need to remind ourselves that the world's a great place!"

The line-up of the Heavenly Planet festival 2009 so far is:

Drummers of Burundi
Sharon Shannon Big Band
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
The Wonder Stuff
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
The Oysterband – Ceilidh Set
Toto la Momposina & Colores de Colombia
Boban And Marko Markovic Gypsy Orchestra
with special guests Frank London & Roy Paci
Eliza Carthy
Chase And Status MC Fuse Takura & Plan B
The Bays
Bloco Electro
Bill Cobham in The Big Bang
The Fence Collective featuring The Three Craws – King Creosote, James Yorkston, The Pictish Trail
Ku-Da-Mix Orchestra
Glass Half Full
9Bach
Patrick Duff
Sleeps In Oysters
Spiro
TC And Jakes

Tickets are on sale now.


Original article here