LONDON: Wednesday 2nd March 2011: Lovebox, London’s most intriguing and authentic music festival, will once again be returning to the Victoria Park with an inspired and, as ever, eclectic choice of artists for the 2011 offering taking place in July.
Snoop Dogg, Scissor Sisters, 2 Many DJs, The Wombats, Blondie, Robyn and The Drums and many more will be playing across the three days in the capital’s most creative and socially dynamic quarters. With tickets available from £28.50 a day, Lovebox also represents the best value Festival anywhere in the UK.
Snoop Dogg & Tha Pound will play Lovebox – featuring Warren G, Kurupt and Daz Dillinger and banging out hit after hit from the legendary Doggystyle album, this will be a festival appearance not to be missed. The Doggystyle album has hit quadruple platinum selling status and spawned several hit singles including ‘What’s My Name’ and ‘Gin & Juice’, featuring many guests from the Death Row Label. Lovebox will be reuniting the Death Row heavy weights on stage for what is set to be the festival collaboration of the entire 2011 season. The Dogg will be performing his critically acclaimed album once again with his cousins for the first time in years where Lovebox fans will be privy to the lazy drawl and rhythmically complex-lyric delivery which the seminal album is renowned for.
In addition to Snoop’s musical feast, Loveboxers can expect to see groundbreaking singer songwriter Katy B, fresh off the back of her tour with dubstep pioneers Chase & Status, Swedish dance sensation, Robyn, the wildly flamboyant Scissor Sisters, New York based indie four piece The Drums, mixing maestros 2 Many DJs, music and style icons Blondie, scouse rockers The Wombats, Sweden’s “Queen of Chic” Lykke Li, London rapper Example, electronic pop band Metronomy, young brits Fenech-Soler, ex Soft Cell front man Marc Almond, R&B star Kelis, and UK Beatbox Champion Beardyman.
Taking place on the intersection of London’s most fashionable boroughs, fans can expect to see the likes of Vogue, Grazia and Dazed trend spotting, with the city’s summer fashionistas bringing a touch of glamour to London’s hippest summer hangout. Taking place over three days each day will have a distinct musical identity.
Kicking off the weekend’s music programme and getting the party started will be Lovebox’s boisterous younger sibling, Bang The Box. Bang The Box will be showcasing a speaker-melting hybrid of cutting edge sounds, with a heavyduty underground feel. Featuring the first London Festival appearances from local hero’s Rinse FM who will be hosting an Arena showcasing the very best from the dubstep/grime scene over which they reign, and from France, those coolest of cool Parisian cats, Ed BANGER Records, will both be ensuring the party is fully in swing as Friday night gets off to a flyer…
Saturday will be a Music Safari encompassing an eclectic line-up, a strong party vibe and of course international mega stars, hipper than thou rockers and underground club collectives.
Closing the weekend with decadence and style, Sunday’s Out and Out Fierce programme will be a collection of the weird, wonderful, and fantastically fabulous; showing diversity, and being a true reflection of our wild, polychromatic, polysexual capital. A welcome return to the Pink summer diary, for the pioneering mirror ball massive, Hoxton fashion acuteness, ringleaders of queer culture, and in addition to the main stage heavy weights, Lovebox fans can once again expect to see a mixture of the fiercest all night parties, ballrooms, gay discos, cabarets, and bingo halls galore, mixing it with recycled couture. Showing the festival how it’s done will include drag queen du jour Jodie Harsh, the Queen of London’s drag scene, bringing her infamous Circus parties out of the warehouses and into the park, Jonny Woo, and dedicated to the industry of human happiness and one popular mixture of disco and drag; DJ collective Horse Meat Disco. Subversive artist/designer/stylist and Vogue favourite Dr Noki will bring a convincing level of fashion credibility to an eclectic array of entertainment.
In addition to this musical feast and the real beauty of Lovebox, is that you can quite easily escape from the main stage and still have an unforgettable, deafening, furtive and special experience. With hidden soundsystems, secret corners within the trees, random acts of weirdness, a Farmer’s Market to feed even the capital foodies wildest expectations, street artists, fringe cabaret, cirque, comedy, roaming performance, there will be surprises at every turn defining Lovebox as a true festival experience in the heart of London.
Elsewhere in the park, Gaymers Cider will return for their fourth year, hosting the Second Stage featuring a series of bands on an original stage setting like no other. In a UK festival exclusive, The Drums will perform on the Gaymers Stage, alongside Robyn, Kelis, The Wombats, Example, Metronomy, Beardyman, Lykke Li and Dry The River.
The Relentless Energy Drink Stage also makes a welcome return to Lovebox, with high energy acts playing epic sets throughout the festival, brought to you by Ed BANGER and Hospitality. Ed Banger head honcho Busy P will be teaming up with graphic designer and illustrator, So Me to form Busy Pictionary. So Me will be creating live artwork on stage whilst Busy P spins the decks. Electro artist SebastiAn, French house music duo Cassius, DJ superteam Carte Blanche and underground electronic artist, Uffie are also confirmed to perform. This is set to be a monumental first ever festival appearance for Ed Banger.
Fresh from sell out shows all over the UK, Independent Drum & Bass label Hospital Records will be bringing Hospitality to the proceedings for their first ever London festival appearance, including DJ and producer, High Contrast, influential reggae DJ David Rodigan, live collaborative act London Elektricty (featuring Elsa Esmerelda), DJ, producer and musician Danny Byrd, new wave Drum & Bass producer Netsky, pioneers of jungle Drum & Bass Shy FX, Austrian Drum & Bass duo Camo + Krooked, hard-edged grunk composer Starkey, prolific Drum & Bass producer Logistics, highly respected producers, Nu:tone (featuring Natalie Williams), Drum & Bass DJs and producers Sigma and definitive label Wah Wah 45’s Soundsystem. Hosts include drum & bass, dubstep and hip hop MC‘s Wrec, Dynamite, Stamina, A.D. and SP:MC.
East London radio station Rinse FM’s dubstep/grime night, FWD Rinse, will be also be making their debut at LOVEBOX 2011 as arena hosts, returning to their home turf of Hackney and Tower Hamlets, where their widely acclaimed station first came to prominence. Artists confirmed for the FWD Rinse stage include dubstep producer and member of dubstep supergroup Magnetic Man, Skream, grime and dubstep producer Plastician, award-winning UK garage star Ms Dynamite, London-based grime music collective, Roll Deep, dupstep DJ Zinc and MC Tippa, electronic music artist, DJ, and owner of the Hyperdub record label, Kode9, garage DJ Roska with rising star of the UK garage scene Jamie George and emerging grime MC P Money.
Tom Findlay, Lovebox founder and one half of Groove Armada “Last year’s three day Lovebox was so damn good people said we couldn’t top it, but with this line up we will! Friday’s Bang the Box delivers bang for your buck – Ed Banger, Skream and The Wombats on a Friday night for only £28. Saturday, Snoop Dogg will turn Victoria Park into an East London block party playing seminal debut album Doggystyle on a UK exclusive, gin and juice available at the bar. I’ll be there as well with the launch of new GA project ‘Red Light’. Sunday is ‘Out and Out Fierce’ and if you were there last year you’ll know that’s no exaggeration. A full throttle dance off between 2 Many DJs, Scissor Sisters, Blondie, Robyn, and Kelis. Bring your party poppers. Lovebox is London’s only authentic festival. 15-17th July, 3 whole days of summer loving…in Hackney.”
The shaded bass-fest under the trees and the thumping euphoric enclosure from the larger festival is altogether the perfect atmosphere for a soundtrack ranging from carnival to old school. 65,000 beautiful people en-masse will be paying pilgrimage for what is ultimately an adult playground that brings out the inner child in everyone for three days a year. Rock n Roll Chaos, unifying themes, a hedonistic wonderland, and genuinely innovative spirit, Lovebox has something for everyone and is one of summer’s truly essential shindigs.
Tickets are available from www.lovebox.net as well as from Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.co.uk) or by calling 08448472436.
LOVEBOX POP UP @ VILLAGE UNDERGROUND
Across the 21st, 22nd and 23rd April, Lovebox will stage a three day takeover of the East End’s hottest creative space, Village Underground, incorporating live music, club events, film, fashion and art. Saturday’s event, Out & Out Fierce, features a lineup of DJs from Andy Butler’s Mr. INTL label including Hercules and Love Affair diva Kim Ann Foxman, plus DJ and club promoter JIM STANTON & disco house DJ SEVERINO, Dan Beaumont, founding member of the Disco Bloodbath collective and owener of East London’s much feted Dalston Superstore and Dave Kendrick, part of Shoreditch’s Macho City and stalwart of the Manchester dance music scene.
BANG THE BOX
On Saturday 5th March, Lovebox’s occasional heavy-duty party, Bang the Box will hold their infamous underground dance party at XOYO, Shoreditch, continuing their collaboration of friends and partners from around the globe, to deliver an uncompromising zest for breaking new acts alongside innovative local crews. Leading the charge are Night Slugs, one of 2010′s most celebrated labels. After riding high in FACT’s ‘Best Record Labels of 2010’ end of year chart, they’ve previously released dance floor gems by Greena, Jam City and Girl Unit. With an on-the-pulse taste in grass-roots talent, which they regularly share on their Rinse FM show, Night Slugs will be joining Bang the Box to showcase London’s unique sound system heritage with a back to back DJ set from Bok Bok and L-Vis alongside Egyptrixx (Live). LOVEBOX residents Hot Blood and FACT DJs will provide the sounds in room 2. Adv Tix £10.00
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Notes to Editors
Lovebox 2011 will be the ninth annual Lovebox festival following its conception in 2003. In 2010 the sell-out festival was attended by 65,000 people watching numerous acts on eight stages across three days.
At the turn of the new millennium, Tom and Andy aka dance gurus Groove Armada decided that they wanted to develop a winning formula for great parties with that extra special something. Out of their love for the many different types of music that feed in to dance culture LOVEBOX was created with the intent of bringing fresh exciting sounds along with genius classic artists to people’s ears and feet. To this day, LOVEBOX has grown from this humble concept into the capitals most innovative and exciting music festival.
LOVEBOX continues to be lovingly put together by a growing team of enthusiasts who live and breathe the music scene in its many variations. The result is an annual event that stays true to the origins of fantastic music festivals the world over.