BBC Local Radio and BBC Music commit to bringing coverage of 42 UK festivals to audiences this summer

BBC Local Radio in England, along with BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, and BBC Northern Ireland, is partnering with BBC Music to create a one stop shop for the festival experience this summer.

Kicking off in June and running until September, each station will champion one festival under the umbrella of BBC Music. Coverage will be collated into a digital collection on BBC Music alongside coverage of events such as the massively popular Glastonbury Festival, T in the Park, and Radio 1’s Big Weekend.

BBC Local Radio has a history of championing local events, celebrating great live music and, through BBC Introducing, kick-starting the careers of new acts such as Jake Bugg, Florence + the Machine and Jack Garrett. Since 2007, over 500,000 tracks have been uploaded to the website and 130,000 artists have registered. Over 500 acts have performed for BBC Introducing at major UK festivals over the past nine years.

Each year, the BBC broadcasts from many festivals and, last year, BBC Local Radio and the Nations collectively broadcast in some way from 120, but this year will be the first time the coverage will be curated in one place online for audiences to enjoy.

Each station will feature a highlights package from the festivals – including behind-the-scenes insights, interviews with acts and festival goers, and original stories - as well as social media content and a gallery of photos.

Now armchair festival goers will be able to dip into a diverse range of 42 festivals from across the UK, including Manchester’s celebration of indie music, Parklife; Frome Festival – a small community festival in Somerset town Frome; the largest free music event in the UK – Coventry’s Godiva Festival and Newcastle’s Mouth of the Tyne Festival; in Northern Ireland the Stendhal Festival in Limavady and Sunflowerfest in Hillsborough; in Scotland there’s the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival in Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire; and in Wales, Festival Number 6, demonstrating the BBC’s unique and unrivalled commitment to covering live music and smaller music festivals.

David Holdsworth, Controller of BBC English Regions, says: “Local Radio has a history of covering and championing local events that are important to communities across the country. Partnering with BBC Music on this project is incredibly exciting and means that audiences all over the country can enjoy the best bits of a diverse range of festivals that they would have been able to do before.”

Director of BBC Music, Bob Shennan, comments: “BBC Music is committed to supporting music at a grass roots level, with initiatives ranging from BBC Introducing to global stages such as our extensive coverage of Glastonbury. This summer, we will be bringing an eclectic selection of festivals straight to our audiences via BBC Local Radio. Listeners will be able to experience the diversity of the UK festival experience like never before, in this celebration of live music.”

BBC Music is a recent major commitment to music which includes a number of exciting programmes, initiatives and partnerships. Projects include the Bafta-nominated Adele At The BBC, the annual BBC Music Awards, BBC Music Day, and the Mercury Prize in association with BBC Music

BBC local radio has been connecting local communities for almost 50 years and reaches more than six million people each week (6.6 million). The 39 distinctive stations are found from the borders of Scotland to Land's End and the Channel Islands.

April 20, 2016 2:55pm ET by BBC Radio 1   Comments (0)

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