Feature article: the Glastonbudget Festival
Information from Artsin about the Glastonbudget Festival.
To see the main, official web site click on the logo above.
The page for 2008 | The page for 2009 | Information and auditions page | Home page for this feature.
This weekend (28th - 30th May) the 2010 Glastonbudget Festival took place at Turnpost Farm, Back Lane, Wymeswold, Loughborough LE12 6ST.
Auditions for 2011
Bands wishing to play at the 2011 festival will have to audition at the Sunday evening gigs held at the Shed. This applies to original bands, solo artists and tribute acts and all other kinds of acts wishing to play at next years festival.
To request a date for an audition phone Will on 07971 428 613.
See below for more details.
Glastonbudget organisers are looking for the very best, most original, talented, and mind-blowingly enthusiastic acts and bands, to make an impression on GB11 that fans will never forget. So if you're a:
-Acoustic Artist
-Classical Ensemble
-Cover Band
-Tribute Band
-New Act
Simply register with the website here or log in then click on the bands link, and add your act to the band directory.
The official Glastonbudget web site
Glastonbudget is a festival that takes place in Wymeswold, near Loughborough, each year, over the May bank Holiday weekend. It is the biggest live music event in Leicestershire and Europe's largest Tributes festival.
The festival is run by an independent group of people. Arts in Leicestershire works with them to publicise the event and to help bands to get an opportunity to play there.
The Glastonbudget web site
Bands that play (mainly) their own original music are referred to as "New Acts". Even if they have going for years, this term distinguishes them from covers bands and tribute acts.
See below for our tips on how to get your band to play at Glastonbudget.
How to get your band to play at the Festival in 2011 (see above for 2010).
Glastobudget organisers told us: "As many of you may have noticed, we've improved the way in which bands can get to play Glastonbudget. Now all bands, whether New Acts, Tribute, Acoustic Acts, Cover Bands or even Classical Ensembles can add themselves to our Band Directory.
Bands listed can be voted upon by you, the general public as well as being noticed by the Glastonbudget team. All a band / act has to do is be registered / logged-on to the website"
Step 1: Go to the Glastonbudget website and Create a New Account
Step 2. When you have created an account, log in and go to this page:
Create Act
Step 3. Once you have registered your band and created a profile for it, use your account to request an audition. You do this online by clicking the appropriate box on your registration admin page. Get a date to play one of the auditions at The Shed, these are held on Sunday evenings and will be running right through to next march.
Step 4. Once you have registered your band and requested an audition, you will be sent an email telling you what to do next and which audition shows are available.
Step 5. Once you get an audition date, tell us about it, so we can publicise it for you. Send us the details and we will add the date to our gigs list.
Step 6. Once you have played the audition show, wait for the festival organisers to notify you of the outcome. They can do this only if your band has registered.
Find out which bands have already been confirmed to play at Glastonbudget in 2010
Artsin's tips on how to get to perform at Glastonbudget.
If your band writes its own music you will be auditioned as a "new act" for the new acts stages at the festival. Even if you have been playing for 50 years you will still be classed as a new act. If you get a date to play one of the audition shows at the Shed, your set should consist of your own original songs and should not include any covers.
Bands normally play a 30 minute set. You should make sure that you bring with you all the equipment that you will need to play. The Shed has a built-in sound system and supplies mics and mic stands and sometimes can provide a core drum kit. The Shed does not provide amps and cymbal stands.
Judges from the festival decide which acts they wish to invite to perform at the festival and the judges attend all of the auditions. It is the festival judges who decide which acts will be invited to play at the festival, neither The Shed, nor the promoter who runs the auditions can make this decision.
Plan your audition well in advance. You will need to demonstrate your band's musical ability to the judges as well as its popularity. To show the judges that yours is a popular band, you should be able to bring at least 10 fans to your audition.
Some of the Sunday shows at the Shed also provide opportunities for covers bands and tribute bands to audition for the festival.
What ever type of music your band plays, it is still encessary to register and to follow the steps above.
There are also opportunities for solo artists and Acoustic acts to perform at the festival. Same procedure applies: register and request an audition.
News from Glastonbudget
When you buy a ticket for the festival, select the band you want to support
If you are attending the Festival to see a particular band, order your tickets from this page and select which band you want to support from the drop down list. The number of times a particular band is selected will count towards which stage they are rostered to play on.
New Charity for GB10: LOROS
Glastonbudget is proud to announce that this year we will supporting Leicestershire-based charity LOROS. LOROS (the Leicestershire and Rutland Organisation for the Relief of Suffering) is a local charity providing care and support within Leicestershire and Rutland.
The Leicestershire and Rutland Hospice is a specialist centre providing skilled nursing and medical care, supported by physiotherapists, occupational therapists and social workers, in an environment that recognises the particular needs of patients and their families. It provides expertise in controlling pain and other distressing symptoms as well as offering emotional, spiritual and social care, which allows patients to live as normal a life as possible. Working with the whole family enables both the patient and the family to cope with the changing situation so that they are able to make best use of the limited time together available to them. More information about this great charity is available at their website: http://www.loros.com
The Glastonbudget Festival took place near Wymeswold in May 2009
The 2009 Glastonbudget Festival took place over the May Bank Holiday. Three days of dry, warm and sunny weather made it the best event yet, with five stages playing a wide variety of new, tribute and covers bands and artists. The biggest live music event in Leicestershire and one of the largest tribute acts in Europe.
Our photo shows the Guthlaxton Soul Band playing in the Oxjam Marquee; the nine piece band put on a superb performance of well known covers to a large and enthusiastic audience.
New bands (playing original music) played in the big top marquee (the new acts main stage), the Oxjam tent, the Chary Arny tent, the Campsite Marquee, and at a number of other locations.
Apart from bands, the festival also saw several of Leicester's top solo singers performing, as for example, Steve Faulkner who entertained a crowd of nearly 1,000 after the main stages had closed for Saturday night (a large proportion of whom sang along to his set of modern indie and rock classics) . Steve also played on the main stage in the New Acts Marquee.
The festival's tribute stage featured a rich lineup of bands and an appearance by 80s star Chesney Hawkes. Sweltering in 22 degrees of sunshine, the fancy-dressing festival goers indulged themselves in a feast of rock classics, from the look-alike tributes through to first class covers band. Led Zeppelin band The Rubber Plants drew a huge ovation from the large crowd in the Oxjam tent after their hour-long celebration of songs from the 'Zeps.
Over 6,000 people went through the turnstiles, a smaller turnout than the organisers had predicted, but still a good sized crowd to fill the Wymeswold site.
This page is NOT the Glastonbudget web site; Arts in Leicestershire does not run Glastonbudget
You can contact the Glastonbudget organisers via their web site Glastonbudget web site
Coverage of Glastonbudget 2009
Reviews
Review of the festival on the Rock Industry web site
More Glastonbudget moshpit footage
Jilted generation tribute to the prodigy
The Killers set
Anastasia set
Riders set
Sky News coverage of the festival
Glaston on BBC2
Aikon's closing headline slot
Bands that played in the 2008 "New Acts" stages included:
20 Below Zero
207 Miles
Aikon
All Systems Fail
Dead Slow
Deride
Dirty Laws
The Eaves
Egeszegedre
Exit 21
Family Machine
Forty More Autumns
Gambos
Gluttons
Haich
The Iconics
Idle Hollow
Idle Silver
James Warner Prophesies
Just For You
Kid Vicious
The Librarians
Local Heros
Lux Mundi
M48
Maffa Kings
Mannix
Mars Bonfire
Midbeats
Nate Pilgrim
Nemisto
Neon Sarcastic
NG26
Nate Pilgrim and the Magnificats
No Cassandra
Ockhams Razor
Patchwork Grace
Pink Strip
The Procession
Proud to Have Met You
Purple and the Rains
Rassadooks
Razmataz
Rider
Shortwave Fade
Team 12am
The Sixth Circle
Skam#
Skankadelia
Smokin The Profit
Smoking Kills
Starko
Stiff Nakid Fools
Stonedogs
Stonevibe
The Strands
Strange Gods
Subdude
Sworn Amongst
Themselves
Toxic Federation
Voodoo Vegas
With a Story
www Generation
Hope that's all the bands that played (not including those that played the Tribute stage). Let us know if we missed a band.
Stories from Glastonbudget 2008
Our own very personal anecdotes from this years festival
The day the stage blew down
Pretty much the same kind of stage this year as last year. A stage about five feet high, overlooking a large field. In the middle of the field, a sound control box, pretty much centre-stage. Last year, the rain was blowing on to the stage so heavily that it had to be swept off evening during the sets. This year the main problem was strong wind.
Saturday morning. A force 8 gale is blowing. 8 stewards gather in the field to erect the sound control gazebo. Its a large metal frame structure to which the roof and sides are fixed. The stewards manage to get the metal structure up, anchor it to the ground with 18 inch metal stakes and then try to get the sides on. The roof canvass is already in place and tied on to the framework. They get the sides attached and then put on the back - it acts like a set of sails. The whole structure is blown forward by the force of the wind. The four telescopic side legs buckle - which means that it is impossible to raise the roof high enough or indeed to lower it.
After a heroic struggle the stewards realise that it is impossible to get the gazebo erected - and even if it was, it would soon be blown away by the massive gusts of wind. Festival managers decide to abandon the new acts main stage and transfer all the acts booked for it into the New Acts Marquee.
This is a strong metal framed tent with a low stage at one end and a bar at the other. Most bands agreed that they were more likely to get an audience in there - out of the wind and rain - than they were in the middle of a totally exposed windswept field.
The lineup rolls on with some sets achieving audiences of up to 700 people - vastly more than gathered in the field during the previous two festivals.
A further advantage of a marquee is that it can be lit after sun down. Aikon's massive closing party set worked inside the marquee in a way that it might not have done in the middle of a darkened field.
Another thing we noticed in the marquee this year was that it was easier to hear the bands; last year the two main stages competed with each other. if a particularly loud band took to the tribute stage it could easily drown out a quiet song by a band on the new acts stage. This seemed not to happen in the marquee - there was little or not cross-over sound, or it was much less noticeable.
Information
The page for 2008 | The page for 2009 | Information and auditions page | Home page for this feature.
The Glastonbudget Festival web site
The Glastonbudget Music Festival is in no way connected with the Glastonbury Festival or Glastonbury Festivals Limited.
