A new three-day music festival is set to launch for the first time ever at Ewood Park, the home of Blackburn Rovers F.C.
The stadium will welcome up to 30,000 music fans per day, across the last weekend in May.
The inaugural Summer Fest is set take place from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th May 2022, hosting some of UK’s most iconic and legendary musicians across 3 stages.
Summer Fest is the first live music event to take place at the stadium since 15,000 spectators enjoyed an evening of live music with Sir Elton John at Ewood Park in June 2017.
Continuing on the theme of legendary British musicians at Ewood Park, Summer Fest sees British new wave pioneers, The Human League, become the first main stage headliner on Friday 27th May.
While Saturday 28th May sees international pop superstar Boy George, grace Ewood Park with his band Culture Club. Flying in direct from L.A, the iconic frontman will return to home soil for an unforgettable headline performance.
Closing the festival on Sunday 29th May is none other than British Reggae royalty UB40, featuring Ali Campbell.
Also set to perform over the weekend are renowned artists including Tony Hadley, Soul II Soul, Midge Ure, Heather Small, Kim Wilde and more. They will be joined by a bill of upcoming artists and DJs including Lottery Winners, Garden Party, Rivver and more. The weekend will be hosted by Top of the Pops presenter and radio DJ Mike Read.
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council is helping to support the event, which is anticipated to bring in excess of £5m for the local economy in terms of hospitality, leisure and nightlife.
Organisers have consulted with local residents about the plans, carrying out a leaflet drop in the area and are planning further communications to keep local residents updated on the plans.
There will also be a crew of staff on hand for nearby residents to contact if there are any issues or litter problems.
A clean-up operation will take place following each day.
Cllr Phil Riley said:
“It’s vital for the town and surrounding areas to support aspiring music events like, bringing to Blackburn internationally renowned acts”.
“A festival of this calibre will no doubt bring people to Blackburn from all over the country and beyond.”
“We always give first thought to our local residents and are working with the organisers to ensure any impact on them is limited and mitigated with various initiatives including residents having a direct contact number for staff over the weekend.”
“The organisers are very experienced in event management and have arranged for a number of park and ride schemes for anyone coming from outside the area. We are told that hotels in the area are also booking up fast for this weekend which of course is good news for our local hoteliers, restaurants and bar.”
“The Council are looking at every aspect and working with the organisers and Blackburn Rovers to help to ensure the event runs smoothly – we hope it will be a huge success and become an annual event.”
There will be a selection of tasty and tempting foods available at a range of stalls on site. Alongside fully stocked (and plastic free!) bars, from our Carbon-negative partners Brewdog.
Co-founder of the Summer Fest, Tony Baldwin explains how he partnered with Andy Gregory, former Wigan and Great Britain Rugby League star, some years ago and started putting on events, which has led to organising Summer Fest.
He comments:
“We have been doing events for a while and noticed than some festival line ups only had headliners and a support, so we wanted to give music lovers a full day show.”
“We also intend to showcase lots of grass root artists and young DJs in the Ibiza tent along with some massive names.”
“A partnership with Blackburn Rovers is going to be fantastic for us all and we can hopefully make it an annual event.”
Day tickets for Summer Fest are now available from £60+ booking fee, with weekend tickets at £165+ booking fee. VIP tickets are also available.
All tickets are available at: http://www.summer-fest.co.uk and via Ticketmaster. There is no camping available at this festival.
For festival news and updates visit summer-fest.co.uk or follow @uksummerfest on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
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