There's a new kid on the block at Nottingham's Splendour Festival. On the Hill is a brand new stage, located in in front of the Elizabethan mansion in Wollaton Park.
It will add to the main stage, Confetti, courtyard and comedy stages at the music weekender, on July 22 and 23. The announcement comes as 20 more acts join the bill for Splendour's 15th birthday banger.
The new stage will feature DJs and much more for the annual summer festival that's now less than a month away. The new additions take the bill to more than 100 acts across the two days.
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There’s everything from comedy, salsa dancing, beatboxing, acapella singing, DJ mashups, lip sync battles and even a musical cult collective among the new additions joining the festival line up headlined by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Madness.
The DJ line up features the inimitable Mr Scruff, a festival veteran and cross-genre selector whose DJ sets can range from deep soul, funk and hip-hop to harder edged electro, house and techno, often all in the same night.
‘King of the Mash-ups’ Jaguar Skills has been responsible for some of the most exciting musical projects of the past few years. His weekly 10 Minute Mash Up Mix for the Trevor Nelson Show on BBC Radio 1 led to his now legendary mixtape ' 1979-2006: A Hip-Hop Odyssey - 800 Tracks In 45 Minutes'. Expect to hear an impending aural assault of every tempo; from house to drum n bass, and everything in-between.
The Beatles Dub Club will showcase the Fab Four as never heard before with covers, remixes, and samples of arguably the greatest band that ever existed. Expect to hear plenty of reggae, ska, latin, hip hop, dub, funk, house, and even drum and bass takes. The Beatles Dub Club drew in huge crowds during the 2022 festival season, with thousands of punters showing up to watch the show at Glastonbury, Shambala, Green Man, and Bluedot amongst others.
Travelling musical cult collective House of Life hosted by the RaveRend has one mission: to get you happy, at any cost. This will be the chance to achieve absolute euphoric togetherness through the relentless powers of music and vibes. Made up of alumni of the BAFTA-winning Television Workshop, Sheep Soup is back with this new incarnation following many years of performing as Mrs Green and The Rizzlas.
Britpop Vs Madchester will feature DJs from Nottingham’s longest running indie nights playing their favourite indie singalong anthems. The DJ line up is completed with Wow That’s What I Call the 80s featuring singalongs, karaoke, dance offs, and lip sync battles.
Two of the UK's top 10 collegiate A Cappella groups have combined to form Double Treble. The University of Nottingham groups are known for their highly infectious energetic performances, with a repertoire full of intricate harmonies, crunchy chords, and a range of artists from Adele to McFly and Amber Run. Radio Octave will also be performing their own solo acapella.
Alexander 'Motormouf' Young is a beatboxer, rapper/MC, poet, and producer from Nottingham. He was a semi-finalist in the UK Beatbox championships Loop Station battles and is known for his quick fire lyrics, witty delivery, and cosmic beats mixing styles of old school hip-hop with a splash of psychedelia.
Salsa Bae are two Northern women who love dancing, empowering others, and making people laugh and smile through the delightful medium of Latin dancing. They got the crowd up and dancing last year, and it will probably be futile to resist those Latin beats this time round too.
Over on the comedy stage, expect some of the country’s fastest rising stars who have numerous TV appearances between them on shows including Live at the Apollo, Britain’s Got Talent and The Russell Howard Hour. Las Vegas residencies, a 2022 BBC New Comedy Award winner and support slots for Michael McIntyre and Rob Brydon mark out this high calibre comedy offer.
If all this fun is working up a thirst, the ale tent has curated a wonderful selection of beers from some of the favourite local breweries Castle Rock, Hollow Stone, Navigation, Bang The Elephant and Black Iris, and of course, Splendour ale is back. Look out for it on tap in venues around town for a cheeky preview.
In the main arena, Big Drop Brewing Co. will be offering award-winning alcohol-free craft beers. Known for having bolder, hoppier flavours, the brewery uses barley, rye, wheat, and oats to give great flavour and aroma to its wide-range of beers. Intune CBD are all-natural, vegan, sparkling fruit and botanical soft drinks, infused with cannabidiol - a superhero of the plant world and reported to help with balance and focus. They can be enjoyed straight up as a healthy alternative to alcohol or used as a mixer with spirits and cocktails.
Taking the festival world by storm since launching in 2021, Poppy’s Pineapples will be serving up delicious pina coladas fresh from the pineapple. Completing the main arena is the Brooklyn Brewery bar serving up Defender IPA, the heroically hopped golden IPA featuring strong notes of tropical fruit, keen hop bitterness and an incredibly dry finish.
All the festival food favourites are back from wood-fired pizzas, BBQ smoked meats, gourmet burgers, jerk chicken, hog roast, Chinese noodles and fish and chips to Nottingham’s award-winning MemSaab signature wraps, and Leicester’s Mirch Masala Indian street food, both offering vegetarian options. A vegan stall offering vegan burgers, wraps and healthy salad boxes. Coffee, doughnuts, ice cream, candy floss, fudge and more will keep everyone sweet.
Around the festival, the market stalls will have all the essential festival clobber from sustainable fashion and retro T-shirts to festival glitter, handmade flower crowns and festival garlands, festival jewellery and airbrushed temporary tattoos. A photobooth is nearby for those wanting to capture their festival looks.
For ticket prices go to splendourfestival.com.
