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This is your first port of call to get our unique slant on all the major festival news. Find out when things happen, why they happen (or don't happen), who is playing, how much it costs, where the hell it is for those without sat nav, things to look out for, what to bring and not to bring, and so on. So many questions are asked about festivals, we do this news thing so you don't have to ask 'em. Its updated regularly by a dedicated editorial staff working for nothing, so make them feel worthy and keep calling back.

Please check out the forums for news items posted by others or to post news yourself.

Action Aid are a charity who appeal to us. The aim of the charity is to eradicate poverty and suffering in its various forms around the world. As they quote, their strategy "Tackles head on the unacceptable truth that poverty and injustice remain deeply entrenched in many parts of the globe". You can see examples of their campaigning and work at Their Website So how can we help? Well you can donate, to do this please do so as an individual and follow the instructions on their website. Better still Peace and Love has thrown its weight behind their 'Bollocks to Poverty' initiative. To find out more, its over to Actionaid.

Bollocks to Poverty sums up our frustration with a world where one in six of us goes hungry every day. We're keeping the pressure up by encouraging people to take action to end the scandal of global poverty by joining the tour. The more people get involved the louder our voice. Simply put on your own event and add it to the tour. You will be joining a line-up of summer festivals, club-nights and big name gigs. Your event can be anything you want - a live music event, an art exhibition, a fashion show ... you name it and you can add it! Campaign, raise awareness or raise money... it's really up to you. The main thing is to spread the word and get involved. Oh yeah, don't forget to have some fun at the same time. Putting on your own BTP On Tour event is easy. We will help by providing posters, stickers, flyer templates, visuals, advice and things for you to do. We've tried to make this as easy as possible so there's no excuse! We've also got top tips from bands, DJs and promoters to help you. To get started, you can request an Info Pack here which contains all the information you need to put on your Bollocks to Poverty tour event.

Bollocks to Poverty T-shirts. If you want to show your support for Bollocks to Poverty, why not buy a t-shirt to wear with pride? They are certified Fairtrade and organic, available in black or white. And only £12, all of which goes straight to ActionAid! Click here to get yours now. For more information visit Actionaid ActionAid will be visiting some of the top UK festivals throughout the summer. More details when we have them.

Q Magazine is carrying an advert for the line up for the three main stages at this year's Glastonbury Festival. In addition to the previously announced acts, the likes of James Blunt, Leonard Cohen, The Fratellis, Editors, Elbow, The Enemy, Goldfrapp, The Raconteurs, KT Tunstall, Crowded House, Groove Armada, Panic at the Disco and The Feeling will be entertaining the masses. More unusual acts come in the shape of Shakin' Stevens and Gilbert O Sullivan. The full details can be found via E Festivals News The best Peace and Love can say about this year's line up is that it is a bold one. Of course there are lots more acts still to be announced over several more stages and we will bring those to you when they take shape.

Gaps are rapidly being filled on all stages for the Reading and Leeds festivals this year. On the Main stages British Sea Power and The Automatic. Over in the main indoor arena,the Radio One/NME Stage, The Ting Tings, Mystery Jets, Be your own Pet, Adam Green, The Music, The Metros, Seasick Steve and The Duke Spirit plus loads of others . The line up has also been announced for the ever popular Lock Up stage which takes place on Friday and Saturday in Reading and Saturday and Sunday in Leeds. Highlights are Less than Jake, festival faves Thrice, Frank Turner, Gallows and Flogging Molly. With the smaller (formerly) Carling stage still to be announced it looks like being the strongest line up ever. The event is sold out but keep an eye on ticket websites as there are often resales

Hyde Park is again playing host to this year's Wireless Festival. Spread over four days from 3rd to 6th July a vast array of bands will play across 3 or 4 stages each day. Some acts are still to be announced but so far we have the follwing. Headliners are, in date order, Jaz Z, Morrissey, Fatboy Slim and the Counting Crows. Other acts making an appearance include Beck, Siouxsie Sioux, Get cape wear cape Fly, Guillemots, Hot Chip, Mark Ronson, Underworld, Robyn, Ben Harper, Powderfinger, Dirty Pretty Things, New York Dolls, Lightspeed Champion, Cornershop and Audio Bullys. Such a varied line up means day tickets are generally the order of the day and these cost £40 - reasonable value for a London gig. For exact details as to who is appearing on what day refer to the Official Site and you can get all the general festival details and travel information from here too.

Tickets for this year's Glastonbury Festival go on sale at 9am on Sunday 6th April. In order to enter the scrum for tickets you must have registered and have a reference number. If you don't, well get planning for 2009 because you won't get one this year. (Watch out for our guide on how to get in without a ticket though). For the registered you will need to know the following. Tickets are sold through the internet and over the phone. Web wise, they are only available from See Tickets site, we will try to get the link you need up on the forum as early as possible on Sunday morning. For the phones, the number you require is 0800 079 2008 though you could always try a more direct number like 0115 912 9000 but this is a bit of an outside gamble. To buy tickets you will need names and reference numbers of the people you wish to buy tickets for (Up to four). You also need debit card details and the payment will be taken for all people off one card so ensure funds are in place beforehand. Please note the tickets will be sent to the first named person, and credit cards will not be accepted. Of course you also need £155 for each ticket and £9 in fat cat charges per person. You can also pay with cheque or postal order but the payment must be sent within 5 working days. Finally don't panic if you are successful and the confirmation email is a bit late in arriving, it can take up to 24 hours - enquire only after this period has elapsed. Good luck to everyone in their quests.

Rumours on this news page below have proved somewhat accurat regarding this year's Reading and Leeds Festivals. Headlining the events are Rage against the Machine, Metallica and the Killers, who all make their only English festival appearances of 2008. On the undercard we have the Manic Street Preachers, Editors, The Cribs, Biffy Clyro, The Enemy, Slipknot, Dizzee Rascal, Bloc Party, Queens of the Stone Age and Babyshambles giving the festival arguably its strongest line up ever. As always there are loads of up and coming acts to be announced over the next few weeks, as well as some more established names to fill up the other stages. Watch this page for the latest news. If this tempts you into going then sorry, its a total sell out.

Radiohead may not be playing any festivals in the UK but they are signed up to perform at Denmark's major outdoor bash taking place over the weekend of 3rd to 6th July. Also on the bill are Neil Young, Judas Priest, Slayer, Enter Shakari, Nick Cave's band Grinderman, The Streets, My Bloody Valentine and Kings of Leon. Bands are announced on a week by week basis but very soon a whole host of acts will be added as the build up to the festival gathers pace. More news on this when it reaches us. Tickets are still available and for those who are going, one piece of advice it to book flights early. An even better and obvious tip is not to use Terminal 5 at Heathrow.

Canada's leading singer songwriter is heading to the Garden of England to play his own outdoor show this summer. Neil Young will play the Hop Farm Country Park on 6th July. Special guests so far have been announced as Supergrass and Primal Scream. Tickets cost a very reasonable £49.50 and are available from the usual outlets. In all, eight acts will be on the bill.

Peace and Love is going to do its bit for charity this summer. By purchasing a rather nifty Peace and Love wristband you will be contributing to a very worthy charity of our choice. More details on this will emerge soon. Like the site the bands are detailed in red and white with the web site address printed on, and retail at a highly reasonable £2. Numerous bands have already been sold at some of the events of early 2008, so if you want to mark your appearance at a festival this summer, what better momento could you wish for. (apart from the bass player from the Subways). There are a limited amount of these on offer so if you are interested please Contact us. We hope to shortly set up an online facility to sell these along with one or two more interesting items. Watch this space. Also keep tuned for some more interesting news on the charity front to come soon.

Scotland's biggest and best music festival has announced a strong line up for this year. Headlining the three days of tartan based mayhem will be The Verve, Rage against the Machine and REM. Good eh? Well look at who else is playing too, Kings of Leon, The Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Kaiser Chiefs and The Fratellis, Stereophonics, Kooks, Ian Brown, Primal Scream and Interpol. Theres loads of other quality acts too and it is such a good line up that I thought it was a joke at first. Save some bands for the other festivals guys. Anyway for the lucky few, tickets go on sale Saturday 16th February at 9am, and cost £160, though Saturday and Sunday combined tickets, and day tickets are also available.

Unusually for the Glastonbury Festival, organiser Michael Eavis has decided to announce the main acts appearing before the tickets go on sale. A big thing has been made of the desire to get more young people attending this year, though it is the view of this website that Glasto should really be for the more mature festival goer, and events like T in the Park and V Festival are more suitable for the younger element to cut their teeth. Anyway putting this aside, the only act breaking with tradition so far is New York's foremost rap artist Jay Z. He will headline the Pyramid Stage on the Saturday and is joined by fellow headliners Kings of Leon and The Verve. Also officially confirmed are Neil Diamond, Massive Attack, British Sea Power, a rare appearance form Leonard Cohen, Fatboy Slim and Elbow. More news as the Line up unfolds but expect the Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards to be waking you up on Sunday Morning. Never saw that one coming in the rumour section.

Dance music is getting some big events together at last following the demise a few years ago of Homelands. Potentially the biggest of the lot, even bigger than Creamfields, is the Gatecrasher. This bash takes place well out of the way of the general public at Turweston Aerodrome near Northampton. Its a pretty early one this, taking place over the weekend of the second May Bank Holiday. Tickets will cost £105 for two days of music plus camping. The line up is very good and includes headliners the Chemical Brothers and Prodigy, plus Armand Van Helden, Does it offend you yeah?, Annie Mac, Audiobullys, Pendulum, Pete Tong, Paul Oakenfield, Bloc Party (DJ set) and Roni Size, among loads of others. The event will go on long into the night so get stocked up on glowsticks and give it a twirl.

Last year's biblical floods have left a mark on quite a few events this year. Unstable ground conditions have led to the Rock and Blues Custom Show moving away from its Pentrich site on health and safety grounds. That's what they are telling us anyway. The good news is that the festival is not moving too far away. The new venue is Catton Hall near Walton on Trent, just off the A.38 south of Burton on Trent, Map here. The event takes place from Thursday 24th to Sunday 27th July. The acts have already been announced and as it is the events 25th anniversary, they have invited the best of previous festivals back for this year. This includes Magnum, Glenn Hughes, Fastway and Molly Hatchet. For the full line up see their revamped Website. Also featuring of course are the legendary Mr Beer Belly and wet tee shirt contests, along with a fair and a host of tribute bands playing on the second stage in the Cross Pistol Saloon. Tickets are now on sale for the very reasonable price of £35 and can be obtained (unlike previous years) online. So if bikes, birds, booze, and bands are your thing, get on down there.

Changing musical styles quite violently, The Levellers, currently celebrating their 20th year together, have been confirmed as headliners at the Fairport Convention, erm, convention which takes place as always at Cropredy, just north of Banbury, Oxford over the weekend 7th to 9th August. Other acts announced are Julie Fowlis and duo John Tams and Barry Coope. Joanna Leslie and Siobhan Miller will play on the Friday. Closing the show will be the Fairports themselves, in their 40th year, no doubt with a plethora of special guests. Ticket details for this year have not been made available yet but we will bring you all the information when it is released. The festival is very friendly with great ales, and you can park next to your tent. Last year it sold out, so the advice is if you wanna go, get them tickets early doors.

Rumours from Peace and Love proved quite good for this festival then, as Kiss, The Offspring and Lost Prophets have been confirmed as headliners, though the exact days they will top the bill hasn't been made public yet. Also on the bill are metal legends Motorhead and Judas Priest, along with Finnish goth rockers HIM and Chicago punks Rise Against. Has to be said it all looks a bit lightweight so far and it will need one or two top acts on the undercard to bring in the kids. Bullet for my Valentine and Trivium continue to be linked. Tickets are £150 for the weekend with camping and go on sale February 8th at 9am from the usual websites. No news as yet on day tickets but we are fairly sure there will be some available nearer the date.

Michael Eavis has this year declared early his intentions to bring artists to Glastonbury who differ from what he calls the 'White Anglo Saxon rock band norm'. So instead of choosing Radiohead or Coldplay he has gone for New York's premier black artist, Jay Z. The rumour mill is now in overdrive as to who he will be bringing with him ranging right across the spectrum from Beyonce to Chris Martin. Oh well, perhaps not moving too far from the norm then. Also confirmed is the Sunday afternoon slot for Neil Diamond. Crowd surfing will be at a premium for this one then.

Hardy Peace and Love people like to start the festival year with a camping trip over the Easter period. This year should be interesting, given the early arrival of the choccy eggs, Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd. The venue has yet to be decided but it looks likely it will be in Wales, possibly Snowdonia. The weekend is relaxed - away from the usual mayhem the general public cause at Easter, and can involve a nice hike in the country, drinking, fire staring, the playing of acoustic instruments and a visit to a country hostelry or two, plus games at the campsite. Families are most welcome, and we will advise on dogs when we know the chosen venue. All of this is of course weather dependent, though we will only call off if things are looking truly dire. Please check back for information on the venue when we have it, or look at the Forum

At this point in time the O2 Wireless Festival is being advertised for Hyde Park, London only. So it looks like there will be no Leeds leg of the festival this year. The London bash is again a four day affair running from June 13th to 16th. Costs range from £40 for a day through to £135 for a four day pass. There are no acts confirmed or even rumoured yet. More information when we have it. In the meantime keep checking Their Website

Sponsors of the Leeds and Reading Festivals for the last few years Carling have ceased to be associated with the festivals and promoters Mean Fiddler. As well as the possibility of actually having some decent beer at the festival this year, there is the prospect of a new sponsor. O2 are rumoured to be interested, as well as Apple, but let's just hope the festival does not get the commercial polishings of V. Organiser Melvin Benn has stated his intentions not to have a sponsor, as he thinks festivals are getting too commercial. Let's hope he goes down this line.

Radiohead are the first confirmed headliners for this year's Roskilde Festival which takes place from 3rd to 6th July. Organisers are predicting a quicker than usual sell out as rumours of a fantastic line up abound. See the rumours headline to confirm this. So the message to anyone wanting a Danish adventure this year is, don't leave it till the last minute. Tickets cost £167.50 (£20 increase from last year. Phew!) and are available from See Tickets website.

Let us start with the big one then. This year's Glastonbury festival takes place from Weds 25th to Monday 30 June. Capacity has been kept to the same size as last year, about 170,000 plus Kate Moss' entourage. This means demand for tickets will again be ridiculous. In order to suffer the misery of a Sunday morning by the computer and phone in early April please read on. Anti tout measures which were successfully introduced last year will again be in force for 2008. So in order to attend this year you must first register by getting a form from a branch of Millets, or the Official Site. You also need a passport style photo. Registration will take place during the month of February. This will get you a registration number which you will need to enter should you be so lucky as to get through to actually buy a ticket on Sunday April 6th from 9am (to about 9.02 am). The ticket will then be sent to you complete with your photo on it. You can buy one additional ticket for a friend, but they must also have a reg number. So at this stage of the year the important thing to remember is no registration = no ticket.

One of the best things about this time of year is all the gossip and hearsay concerning the possible lineups for the major festivals. This site is no exception to this and indeed positively encourages such behaviour. We troll around the forums of other festival sites, but also look at band's announced tours for gaps in the gigs around festival time, who has an album out to plug, and also look at websites of likely bands for more clues. Finally we log into sites on the other side of the pond for additional info. This gives us fair idea of what is going to happen. Finally if all else fails, we guess! We did pretty well last year too. We predicted all 3 headliners for Download, two out of three for Glastonbury and got our Muse and Smashing Pumpkins stuff spot on to boot. Shame about the Genesis rumour though. Have a wee look at our forum for the latest developments as the year progresses, but in the meantime here are some we reckon will happen.

Download has some retro acts lined up including Judas Priest, Kiss, and possibly Van Halen. Rage against the Machine will be touring Europe around this time and are booked in at Rock AM Ring the week before. Look out for Lost Prophets, Slipknot and the reformed Sex Pistols too, and possibly the Black Crowes. Glastonbury is looking just a tad lightweight so far with Kayne West and Kylie among the candidates. Radiohead and Springstein have both left the Saturday free in their European Tour itineries. Hmm. Also being linked are the Cure, Portishead, Kate Nash, Lenny Kravitz, the Verve, Nick Cave, Jesus and Mary Chain and REM. Over in Europe, Roskilde, Werchter and Rock AM Ring festivals are already filling some slots, with Rage against the Machine and Radiohead figuring so far. Expect the likes of Metallica, Slipknot, Kiss, Chemical Brothers and even Smashing Pumpkins sign up. The midsummer action at Oxegene and T in the Park could see Coldplay and Green Day feature. Expect 3 big American headliners at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in the shape of Rage against the Machine, possibly Metallica, or even Green Day. Also in the running are Kasabian, Weezer, and the Lemonheads, plus The Charlatans, We are Scientists, the Kooks and The Ravonettes, plus whoever breaks big in indie this year. Finally for now V is lining up Oasis and a reformed Blur, or possibly not. More likely are Elbow, Lenny Kravitz, Moby, Franz Ferdinand, and Coldplay. More rumours to follow in early February along with confirmations when we get 'em.

12th - 16th March SXSW, Austin, Texas, USA
21st - 23rd March Easter Camping, venue TBA
18th - 19th April Camden Crawl, London
25th - 27th April Cochella, California, USA
23rd - 25th May Glastonbudget, Leicestershire
3rd - 6th June Wireless Festival, Hyde Park, London
13th - 15th June Download Festival, Donington Racetrack, Leicestershire
13th - 15th June Isle of Wight Festival
27th - 29th June Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, Somerset
3rd - 6th July Werchter Festival, Belgium
3rd - 6th July Roskilde Festival, Denmark
11th - 13th July Oxegen Festival, Punchestown Racecourse, Ireland
11th - 13th July T in the Park, Kinross Scotland
17th - 20th July Benisassim, Valencia, Spain
31st July - 1st August Cambridge Folk Festival
16th - 17th August V Festival, Weston Park Staffs, Hylands Park Essex
22nd - 24th August Carling Weekend, Reading Berkshire, Leeds Yorkshire
12th - 14th September Late season camping, venue TBA

Best wishes for a prosperous year from all at Peace and Love. Lets make it a great festival year. Stay with us for news on the 2008 festival scene, major festival dates for the year ahead as well as the best rumours regarding the line ups. Coming soon on the site we have the new top ten section, the 2007 festival awards and a bit later in the year we hope to launch a festival archive section. So if you have any old photos, memories or stories from the likes of Monsters of Rock, Reading Rocks, Phoenix Festival or Cropredy, please get in Contact and share with us your past.

Last night rioting has repeatedly marred some UK festivals in recent years, most notably the Carling Weekend events at Reading and Leeds. Now there is a new movement designed to raise awareness that this sort of activity is not fun for most people and should be stopped. Already several major UK music sites have supported it including the NME and BBC Music, and now PeaceandLove is adding its weight to the campaign. Visit Lovenotriots and support them. Badges and teeshirts are for sale too.