Splendour In The Grass - The Announcements
Author: Rachel Davison
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
There's been a Splendour in the Grass frenzy in the past few weeks, as tickets for the two-day festival in Belongil Fields sold out in just five hours and all hell broke loose when people buying tickets online were dropped out of the queue due to technical difficulties with the anti-scalping ticketing system.
But that's old news - on the upside, there are 20,000 ecstatic first-timers and seasoned 'Splendourites' across the country that'll soon be embarking on a pilgrimage to Byron Bay to witness a stellar line-up that so far includes Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Powderfinger, Kaiser Chiefs, Lily Allen, Sarah Blasko, Tilly & The Wall, Grinspoon, Hot Chip, Cat Empire, Blue King Brown, Sara Tindley, Hoodoo Gurus, Hilltop Hoods, Klaxons, The Shins, The Dirty Three, Expatriate, Josh Pyke, Airbourne and The Ride.
So it now begs the question: who'll be added to the line-up in the second round announcement-
Let's speculate.
With the unfortunate withdrawal of The Hold Steady who are playing at Lollapalooza, Chicago that very same weekend, you wouldn't be a genius if you'd figured out that this automatically rules out a billion other bands like Daft Punk, Ben Harper, Patti Smith, Kings of Leon, Amy Winehouse, LCD Soundsystem, Pearl Jam, Silverchair, Blonde Redhead, !!! and M.I.A plus loads of others.
High on the rumour list are some of the bands playing at the Fuji Festival in Japan, which is on the weekend prior to Splendour. Wouldn't some of them (the one's not heading to Chicago) be making their way down under- It's highly plausible.
Of course there's The Cure, the hot rumour for the second big announcement, and who have already announced an unconfirmed Australian tour for August.
Then there's the likes of Damien Rice who on his last visit to Australia talked about coming back later in the year with his drummer. Other possibilities are The Bird and the Bee, Ratatat, Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, Kula Shaker and the John Butler Trio - all likely contenders for a Splendour billing.
Fuji Festival aside, you'd have to place bets on Gotye on the backend of his Australian tour and because he's playing in Brisbane the night before. While Arcade Fire would be a godsend, I think we might be dreaming given they'll be in France at that time - but who knows - there appears to be a three-week gap in their tour schedule.
Whatever the outcome, the organisers assure us that the 2007 festival is going to be a cracker.
Stay tuned folks. All will be revealed in June.
In the meantime, keep checking the Splendour website for updates. Tags