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Coachella Festival To Expand To Two Weekends In 2012

Christian Allaire — Tue, 31 May 2011 20:25:35 +0000

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Coachella, one of the most popular music festivals of the year, will be expanded over two weekends in 2012, reports Billboard.

The newly-expanded festival will be held over two consecutive weekends at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. The festival will apparently “attempt to produce two identical weekends” with the same lineup and locations.

On Coachella’s website, organizers say high demand and the rise of counterfeit tickets are the reason behind the expansion.

“We know many of you were unable to attend this year’s festival because passes sold out much sooner than anticipated. We were truly surprised by the overwhelming response and remain honored by your passion and enthusiasm. We also know some of you purchased through non-legitimate sources and were inconvenienced, gouged or totally scammed. We hope that these changes will give everyone the opportunity to purchase directly from Coachella.com.”

Rightfully so. This year’s festival, which ran from April 15 to 17, sold out in a week, leaving many fans avidly pissed. Performers included the Strokes, Robyn and Kanye West, among others.

The price for a three-day pass to the 2012 festival will be $269 plus fees. Weekend passes go on sale beginning this Friday, June 3, at 10 a.m. PT. You won’t want to miss it!

Kristen Cavallari from ‘The Hills’ – Cocaine Addict?

andPOP Staff — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:41:30 +0000

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This is a scenario where a classic PerezHilton cocaine picture would apply. Kristen Cavallari dismissed rumors that she used cocaine at this year’s Coachella Music Festival during an interview on a L.A. based radio show.

“Don’t you think it’s funny that Coachella was – what three weeks ago? – and it’s just now coming out when [‘The Hills’] is premiering?” she said on the radio show.

When the radio host asked Cavallari if she ever used cocaine, the reality star said, “Yeah I have. I tried it in high school. I admitted it! I don’t like being around it. I think it’s kind of a shady disgusting drug.”

She further explained, “I’m the first to admit that I like to go out and have a good time. It’s no shock that I drink. I’m not doing anything that I shouldn’t be doing. Drugs scare me…I’m off of all drugs. I’m fine, I’m really healthy and take care of myself.”

Huge Climate Change Music Fest Coming to T.O

Sara Harowitz — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:22:14 +0000

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Even though Woodstock’s 40th anniversary concert never got off the ground last year, one of its creators is back with a big green bang.

The Imagine Music & Arts Festival, inspired by John Lennon’s song of the same name and his famous message of peace and love alongside 1969′s original Woodstock Festival, will be held at Toronto’s Downsview Park for three days this summer, reports CHARTattack.com.

The festival’s website describes the three-day celebration as “Woodstock for the Green Generation.” It is set to coincide with the Earthship Summit, an environmental meeting that plans on challenging the G8 summit this June and argue that world leaders are not doing enough to fix climate change and promote environmentally-friendly initiatives.

Torontoist reports that the Imagine festival organizers hope to get up to 350,000 people each day to the event, which their website states will be broadcast to 300 million people across 200 theatres in North America.

Half of the profits will go to Red Cross, Amnesty International and Save The Children, according to Torontoist. Organizers are reportedly also hoping to get big-name guest speakers like U2′s Bono.

The Imagine Music & Arts Festival is organized by Artie Kornfield, who was one of the big dreaming people behind the original Woodstock, and artist David Kam. The event is set to divide its programming into themes on peace, poverty and the planet. The first day will honour John Lennon, the second will spotlight Jimi Hendrix, and the third will tribute The Beatles.

No musical acts have been announced for the festival yet, but organizers reportedly want all performers to “reflect the spirit of the Earthship Summit.”

CHARTattack.com guesses that artists like U2, Radiohead, K-OS, Billy Talent, the Barenaked Ladies, Broken Social Scene, Three Days Grace, Keane, Kaiser Chiefs, Jack Johnson, and The Killers could be involved because of their past green efforts.

More information on the festival should be announced soon.

Movie Review: Taking Woodstock

Ilan Mester — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:27:37 +0000

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Ang Lee literally makes Woodstock the backdrop to his latest film. The famous music festival is both seen from a distance and heard from a distance. If you go into “Taking Woodstock” knowing that, you won’t be disappointed (ie. you won’t expect to hear crazy Jimi Hendrix drum solos or Janis Joplin’s electrifying voice).

It’s clear that Lee and his longtime collaborator, screenwriter James Schamus, were less interested in showcasing the ‘60s festival itself and more interested in exposing the impact that Woodstock had and the impression it left on the era. The main problem is “Taking Woodstock” uses stereotypical characters to explain the impact of a larger-than-life event.

Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, this comedy (which has its fair doses of drama) tells the story of Elliot Teichberg (played by Demetri Martin) and his family of struggling Jewish immigrants living in White Lake, NY. In 1969, Elliot stumbled across Woodstock and found a home for the festival without a home.

Elliot, who felt empowered by the gay rights movement, was originally working as an interior designer in Greenwich Village. However, he also felt he needed to lend a helping hand to his overbearing parents and their rundown motel in White Lake called El Monaco. Conveniently enough, Elliot was also the head of the local chamber of commerce, which allowed him to approve a permit for the three day “peace & music” festival.

However, it’s ultimately a shame that most of these characters are presented as mere stereotypes (especially Emile Hirsch’s shell shocked Vietnam vet), because there’s some incredible talent featured in this film. Its cast includes Oscar nominated British actress Imelda Staunton, Eugene Levy (who seems to have taken a break from those “American Pie” sequels) and Liev Schreiber.

Speaking of Schreiber, he could not have picked a more unique role to follow up his superhero performance in “X Men Origins: Wolverine.” The “Defiance” actor plays the security officer (who happens to be a transvestite) that befriends Eliot — who by the way, is brilliantly played by Martin.

The guy deserves major props for pulling off a complex character but most importantly, for taking on a protagonist in one of his first feature films. Martin is known as the comedian who hosts the Comedy Central show, “Important Things with Demetri Martin” and after this movie, he’s bound to be featured in more films.

“Taking Woodstock” is 10 minutes short from being a two hour film, but it feels like it’s well over two hours, partly because of the screenplay. There are some hilarious lines in this film, but it really doesn’t do justice to Martin’s Elliot and the amazing event he was a part of.

Also, you shouldn’t think much of the film’s rating. The main reason it’s not a PG film is due to full frontal nudity. See, some of the characters decide to randomly rip off their clothes at various points (including Emile Hirsch’s character for anyone who’s a fan of his).

At the end of the day, “Taking Woodstock” is still a worthwhile film. This is definitely not one of Lee’s worst films, but it’s also not one of his best. The Academy Award winner has previously set some pretty high standards for himself (and some relatively low ones as well), but rest assured “Taking Woodstock” is far from the flop that was “Hulk”.

Flo Rida, Oasis To Play iTunes Live Festival

Eva Lam — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:45:58 +0000

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The initial wave of performers has been announced for the third annual iTunes Live: London Festival, which will run throughout July at the Roundhouse in north London.

Flo Rida, Oasis, Kasabian, Snow Patrol, Paolo Nutini and the Saturdays are among the confirmed acts, with more artists expected to be announced shortly.

In total, 62 bands will play over 32 consecutive nights starting July 1.

The event is free to attend, with tickets being given away to contest winners via www.ituneslive.co.uk and the iTunes Live profile page on Facebook. Becoming a fan of the Facebook profile will also give you access to video highlights, live audio broadcasts and the latest lineup announcements.

As with past iTunes Live events, each performance will be recorded and available to download via iTunes stores worldwide.

Lilith Fair To Be Revived?

Eva Lam — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:16:53 +0000

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Girl Power could be back in a big way in 2010.

It seems that Lilith Fair, the all-female travelling music festival that ran from 1997 to 1999, is set to return next year. In a short Twitter post on Friday, Nettwerk CEO and founder Terry McBride wrote: “Lilith Fair 2010 here we come!!”

No other information has been released, but stay tuned to andPOP for updates on this story.

Founded by McBride, fellow Nettwerk co-founder Dan Fraser and singer Sarah McLachlan, Lilith Fair raised nearly $10 million for women’s charities across North America in its three-year run.

Performers included McLachlan, Erykah Badu, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Chantal Kreviazuk, Fiona Apple, Liz Phair, The Cardigans, Indigo Girls and Holly McNarland.

Jane’s Addiction Beastie Boys Among Lollapalooza 2009 Headliners

Eva Lam — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:56:58 +0000

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Lollapalooza is coming full-circle this year.

The recently reunited Jane’s Addiction, fronted by festival founder Perry Farrell, will headline this year’s edition for the first time since the event debuted in 1991. The other headliners announced by promoters Tuesday are Depeche Mode, Tool, the Killers, Beastie Boys, and Kings of Leon.

They join more than 100 performers confirmed for the festival, which will take place at Chicago’s Grant Park from Aug. 7 to 9.

According to Billboard, Lollapalooza 2009 will give dance and electronic music fans more bang for their buck by offering a nightclub-style stage called “Perry’s.” A bevy of DJs are slated to make appearances, including Bassnectar, MSTRKRFT, Simian Mobile Disco, KiD CuDi and A-Trak.

For ticket information and a full lineup of confirmed performers, check out the festival website here.

Jane’s Addiction did play Lollapalooza a second time, but without bassist Eric Avery, when the annual travelling show was revived in 2003 following a six-year hiatus. Poor tickets sales forced the event to be cancelled in 2004, but it was brought back the next year in its current format as a weekend-long festival in Chicago.

Pitchfork Music Festival Lineup Grows

Eva Lam — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:40:12 +0000

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Lineup additions to this summer’s Pitchfork Music Festival means that the Canadian contingent will now include Montreal’s Plants and Animal, Vancouver’s Japandroids and Calgary’s Women.

They join such previously announced performers as Flaming Lips, the National, Grizzly Bear, the Walkmen and Fucked Up for the event, which will take place at Chicago’s Union Park from July 17 to 19. The festival is now in its fourth year and will showcase a range of international acts on three stages.

Organizers have also introduced a new feature this year, dubbed the “Write the Night: Set Lists By Requests” series, in which fans will get to choose the set lists for all four of Friday’s performers.

Those who buy tickets from Ticket Web will receive a confirmation email, which includes a link to a web page where they can vote for the songs they would like to hear from Built to Spill, the Jesus Lizard, Yo La Tengo and Tortoise. Voting ends June 12.

For a full list of acts confirmed for the festival thus far, check out the Pitchfork Music Festival website here.

Coldplay Kanye West Among Headliners For Danish Festival

Eva Lam — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:00:37 +0000

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The 2009 Roskilde Festival has lined up a diverse roster of performers, including Coldplay, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, Oasis and Lil Wayne.

Now in its 39th year, the event is the world’s longest-running outdoor music festival and will take place outside of Copenhagen, Denmark from July 2 to 5.

Other scheduled performers include Lily Allen, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Pet Shop Boys, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Slipknot, Fleet Foxes and the Mars Volta.

More than 75,000 festival-goers are expected to attend the seven-stage event.

According to Billboard, organizers are giving the event an environmentally-conscious touch with an initiative called “Green Footsteps.” Not only will the festival’s Odeon and Sustainable stages host CO2-friendly shows, donations will benefit environmental projects in India and Bangladesh.

For more details, check out the official Roskilde website here.

Canadian Rockers To Put On Show For Military

Eva Lam — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:00:35 +0000

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Our Lady Peace, Finger 11, Sloan and supergroup Chickenfoot are part of the lineup for this summer’s inaugural Canadian Forces Halifax Rock Fest.

The day-long event, which is scheduled to take place on Citadel Hill on Aug. 2, will be broadcast to Canadian troops around the world through Canadian Forces Television.

“This concert is about connecting people,” Frank Cleysen, Canadian Forces Halifax personnel support programs manager and general manager for the event, said in a statement.

“We’re connecting family, friends, neighbours and musicians in an evening of unbelievable entertainment. By including the deployed troops in this community celebration through the Canadian Forces Television we hope to send a clear message of support to our servicemen and women while they are away from home.”

Early bird tickets are on sale now for $65 at all Ticket Pro locations. After May 31, tickets will go up to $75. Check out the festival’s website here for more details.

Chickenfoot’s appearance at the event marks one of the few outdoor dates on the band’s first Canadian tour. The group features Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, guitarist Joe Satriani, and ex-Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony.

Tool, The Fray To Play Colorado Music Festival

Eva Lam — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:16:03 +0000

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The second annual Mile High Music Festival will return to Colorado this summer with headliners Tool, the Fray and Widespread Panic.

The event, slated to take place July 18 and 19 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Denver, will feature dozens of acts spread out over two stages.

Tool will play on Saturday and the Fray will play on Sunday, while Widespread Panic are scheduled to perform on both days.

Other confirmed performers include Ben Harper, Gogol Bordello, Paolo Nutini, Incubus, India Arie, Gomez and Matisyahu, with additional artists to be announced in the coming months. Check out the lineup so far at the festival website here.

Mile High made its debut as Colorado’s largest music and arts festival last year. The inaugural event attracted more than 90,000 attendees over two days with a star-studded lineup that included the Dave Matthews Band, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, John Mayer, the Black Crowes and Spoon.