News

Yes, get ready to embark on almost a month’s worth of top quality festival entertainment with trans ‘08. From July 14 through to August 10, Belfast’s Waterfront Hall will be the centre of the trans universe, a place where innovation in music, the arts and media is celebrated. When details of ‘Belfast’s most affordable summer festival’ were announced last week it was clear that this year could be trans best yet. A legion of top-end acts including Los Campesinos!, Lisa Hannigan, DJ Food, London Elekricity, One Man Star Wars, Bonde Do Role, Damo Dempsey and Andy Weatherall are all lined up to perform.

Now in its 3rd year, the festival will welcome back old favourites including Lap off, Money Back Guarantee and the Urban Market, whilst adding new events such as Indie Takeaway, Rockband: Virtual Battle of the Bands, Speaker’s Corner and Live at the Dome.

It all kicks off in fine style with Los Campesinos! headlining the opening Bastille Day shindig. Homegrown heroes Kowalski, Two Door Cinema Club and Cat Malojian round out the day’s indisputably quality quartet.

Northern Irish musical talent is the focus of ‘ATL Presents’ with Derry’s all conquering Fighting With Wire joined by Skruff and General Fiasco. Elsewhere Two Step offers up Push Borders, AJ Suzuki and Heliopause whilst NIMIC gives us indie aristocracy Panama Kings and midnight troubadour Robyn G. Shiels.

The album that brought grunge to the masses, Nevermind, is given the Oh Yeah makeover treatment with a number of local artists each interpreting a track from the seminal record for ‘Oh Yeah Nevermind’.

In addition to its abundant audio/visual acts, trans ‘08 will also offer a number of free lunchtime and evening seminars, with workshops and master classes covering areas such as social economy, podcasting, journalism and the future of the music industry.

All told trans ‘08 sounds pretty special.

Check out details on all these events and the full line-up at the trans ‘08 website.

Posted on: June 17, 2008