Decadance presents the Christmas party mini Festival at Crasken Eco Farm, Helston Cornwall Saturday 17th December.

The event promises to be the only Xmas bash in the South West with a true festival vibe! Set in the beautiful setting of Crasken Farm, the festive-themed party offers live music, the region’s finest DJs plus a few surprises in 2 Indoor rooms with a fully licensed bar.

Offering something for everyone, there will be live performances from Blue Horyzon and Petite Debauche, as well as the recently performed on MTV rap duo Hedluv and Passman. The impressive line-up of DJs is just as diverse, from the classic party anthems of Digitall DJ and Nigel Pengelly, to the mashup madness of Cakeboy, ska-infused breakbeat of Aceeater , the Hip-Hop Collective, Dub Step Cornwall and the deep, dark Drum & Bass from 2Dark2Cornish.

Party-goers can chill out around the fire pit in the fabulous farmyard setting, be entertained by the circus acts and hang out at the café which provides great coffee through the night. Throw in festive lighting, décor and a great atmosphere, and this is sure to be a Christmas Party to remember.

For full line up, directions and more, visit the “Decadance AtCrasken” facebook page.

Decadance Christmas Party is at Crasken Farm in Helston on Saturday 17th December.
Doors open at 9pm, with music and DJs until 4am.
Tickets, priced £10 adv or £15 on the door (NUS £8 / £12) are available from:
Fallen Angel in Helston 01326 572589 and other outlets listed on the facebook page.

Find out more on the facebook event page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/213281882081890/

To be in with the chance of winning a pair of VIP tickets, just fill in the competition form below, remembering to put Decadance in the subject line.

…guess Glastonbury Festival won’t be needing any litter pickers this year then?!

Acts include 17-year-old songstress Alice Jemima, live dance act Dub Mafia, trip-hop group The Suit Corps, the indie infused Pandas and People, new wavers Black Hats, lo-fi lovers Secret Rivals and many more. Each act will have their set recorded and broadcasted by their local BBC station. The Independent will also be distributing an album of tracks by each artist for free once all the festivities have taken place. Other acts taking to the stage at this year’s Wychwood festival are headliners The Charlatans, The Waterboys and Ian Anderson. Folk quintet My First Tooth will be playing the main stage, along with Parisian based group Sarah Savoy & the Francadians. Sleeping with the Fishes will be returning to Wychwood for a second year on Sunday, whilst Will Kevans will be living up to his critical acclaim.

For more information, the full BBC Introducing line-up and tickets visit www.wychwoodfestival.com

Your name relates to seabirds but you come from Birmingham…how did that come about?
We needed a name and I like birds.

You announced details of the new album, Walk The River, on Twitter…how important do you think Twitter and Facebook are for musicians nowadays?
I think they can be a really useful way of communicating to people. But it’s like all elements of the internet. The way things can be global in an instant is beautiful in its simplicity, but the flipside is that people come to expect more and more on an instant level. I think the internet has probably shortened people’s attention spans an awful lot. And if you have a constant presence online you lose a lot of mystique, too. So my relationship with things like Twitter is mixed, I like using it now and then but I’m very conscious of needing to maintain a distance from it too.

The new album has been getting plenty of positive press – where and when did you record it? And did you expect such a good response?
We recorded for the first few weeks in a beautiful studio in Wales, in the middle of a forest, surrounded by mountains. It was really really inspiring. And then we did the rest on a boring industrial estate, but the atmosphere of the Welsh sessions permeated the whole thing. When it comes to response, I try not to think about it too much. And I’m more bothered about what “ordinary” people think rather than critics anyway, as I think the nature of music journalism is that there has to be a context in which your work is placed, and that’s not really the truest way to listen to music. I think it’s unavoidable – it’s not really the fault of music critics, press would be very boring if everything was just reported with no opinion. But I do feel that the majority of reviews (though not all), whether glowing or dismissive, come to things from the same sort of angle as you would an essay at school, and really music and all the art forms need to be digested in a much more subconscious way. But we’ve had some really lovely comments on the album from people at gigs, and people seem to be singing along to the new songs already, so that’s been great.

We heard that tickets to a couple of your recent gigs sold out within minutes, how important is playing live to you?
Really vital, it’s how we get our music across to people a lot of the time. Often people will see us live and that’ll be what leads them to our records. And the energy of a live gig is a really magical thing when it’s right. We’ve been lucky in all the shows for this album so far, the audiences have been exceptionally attentive and encouraging to us, and that just helps you give loads back.

We interviewed electro DJ Paul Van Dyk last year and he said that your solo song Faster Than The Setting Sun was the best record of the past decade, what songs do you reckon could clinch that title?
Did he say that?! I don’t quite know what to say to that! I think you have to take any accolades like that with a pinch of salt. But one song that I heard a year or so ago and instantly went into one of my favourite songs of all time was “Dinah & The Beautiful Blue” by Thomas Feiner. It’s ghosty beautiful.

We you on your solo tour, how does it feel to be back with your band and how does life on the road compare when you’re flying solo to when you’re with your band? And what else have the rest of the band been up to?
In a lot of ways it’s all the same to me, it’s all music. But obviously it’s lovely hanging around with the band, and the chemistry between us when we play is something I’ll probably never have in quite the same way with other people. It’s been great though, yeah. But we didn’t stop playing for more than a few months anyway. By April 2009 we were writing together again every week. My record was largely done in 5 days, and we always planned to have a few months off after our second album. But we just wanted a long time to hide away and play and write without rushing our first few ideas onto a record.

You’re playing Dot to Dot festival this month – have you been to Dot to Dot before? If so tell us about that. If not, what do you think about city festivals?
I haven’t, no. But it should be fun. City festivals can be a bit hectic but that’s part of the fun. Dot to Dot seems like a great event and definitely one of the ones we are most excited about playing.

On the subject of festivals – have you got any others lined up this Summer?
Yeah, various bits and pieces. We’re doing one called Wilderness which should be fun, with bands like Mercury Rev.

We always get quite excited about the Eden Sessions, you played there a few years back, was that the most unusual place you’ve played? And what did you think of it?
It was certainly an amazing place to play. I think when it comes to outdoor gigs though, Somerset House in London was the best one for us.

What does the future hold for Guillemots?
Lots of love, I hope. And a lot of excitement. We feel so renewed and energised creatively at the moment, this album just feels like the start for us. We’re already making plans to get in a studio again and put down some more ideas. It feels good.

Guillemots join the likes of Hurts, The Naked and Famous, And You Will Know Us By Trail Of Dead, The Joy Formidable, We Are Scientists, Ben Howard and Ed Sheeran at Dot to Dot, Bristol, from 1pm until 4am on Saturday May 28. Wristbands, which get you entry into all the Dot to Dot venues, cost £30+bf More info HERE.

The confirmed acts so far for 2011 are Primal Scream and The Horrors (June 23), Pendulum and special guests to be announced (June 25), The Flaming Lips, The Go! Team and OK Go (June 30), Fleet Foxes, Villagers and The Bees (July 1) and Brandon Flowers and Mystery Jets (July 12). Eden also hosted Live8 Africa Calling in 2005 which saw the Cornish project join the likes of London, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo and Johannesburg in one of the biggest global music events ever. Live8 aimed to make poverty history and an estimated 3 billion people watched the shows.

The Eden Sessions kicked off in 2002 when Jarvis Cocker’s Pulp became the first band to grace the Eden stage. Since then PJ Harvey, Supergrass, Keane, Editors, Muse, Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Hot Chip, The Verve, Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, Paul Weller, Florence and the Machine, Jack Johnson, Mumford & Sons and many more have played at Eden. Oasis played one of their final gigs at the project in 2009, both Doves and Badly Drawn Boy have played twice and Primal Scream will be returning for their second headline turn this summer. Highlights over the years include Ricky Wilson of Kaiser Chiefs jumping into the crowd in the middle of a number, Noel Gallagher’s stab at a Cornish accent and Rufus Wainwright’s encore while dressed in drag.

John Empson, Eden’s Director of Music, said: “The beauty of the Eden Sessions is that they inspire the unexpected. We celebrate diversity in culture and over the last ten years are proud to have delivered some landmark moments from Jarvis Cocker encoring Common People in front of the Biomes, Jack White’s improvised guitar solos, Amy Winehouse’s prickly performance, Polly Harvey’s majesty and Muse and Oasis squeezing stadium sets into the clay pit. We’ve had early support shows by the likes of Florence and the Machine, Mumford & Sons, Editors and Elbow. We’ve had legends – Weller, Brian Wilson and Jack Johnson all commanding inspired performances in the best and most unique venue in the UK. There will be some magic moments on the way in 2011 – Pendulum warming up for their Beyonce support at Glastonbury, the Flaming Lips zorb and confetti party, Screamadelica Live!, Fleet Foxes’s sun-drenched harmonies and Killers frontman Brandon Flowers’s UK exclusive headline show. Here’s to the next ten years Eden!”

This year, the Sessions will be more like one-day festivals than ever before. Starting from midday on each date, Eden’s stages will play host to some of the best up-and-coming acts around, as well as poetry, story-telling and debates. The daytime programme will be split between the Stage Right Stage, situated next to the main arena, and the Biotik stage, which is in the Mediterranean Biome. Biotik is the result of a long-term collaboration between the Eden Project and Cape Farewell, a creative project that brings artists, scientists and communicators together to engage people in the subject of climate change.

There are still tickets left for this year’s Eden Sessions, all priced at £37.50 plus booking fee. To book, visit www.edensessions.com or call 01726811972. The Eden Sessions are on Facebook at www.facebook.com/edensessions and on Twitter on www.twitter.com/TheEdenSessions

They say that if 10,000 people buy their advance ticket for £30 for the whole weekend before 31st Dec 2011, they will have the community festival at the Ashton Court estate in 2012. If there isn’t enough tickets sold, or for t doesn’t go ahead, they say they will refund everyone. They’re aiming for a capacity of 20,000 so will hopefully be able to release more tickets nearer the event too. The date will be mid September 2012 and the festival will feature all the stages and entertainment of BrisFest with a lively mix of local and national acts plus some crowd pleasing big names. There will be kids areas, food stalls, dance lessons, workshops, and a massive variety of music from ska and electronic to rock and folk! Everything you’d expect from a family orientated action packed festival! We’re aiming to revive the spirit of the old Ashton Court Festival, its friendly atmosphere and volunteer-led enthusiasm, but with a little BrisFest thrown in.

BrisFest (which takes place at Bristol harbourside on September 23rd-25th) and Stokes Croft Streetfest (which takes place on May 21st this year), came together in 2007 following the demise of Ashton Court Festival as we wanted to ensure the survival of a community festival for the city. They are a group of local volunteers (promoters, musicians, industry and members of the public) who felt it vital that the city retained a not for profit event, offering high profile exposure to local talent as well as an accessible, affordable festival for all that would be an asset to the city. When it became apparent that they couldn’t help save the previous festival they staged the first ‘Bristol Festival’ and have now held 3 annual festivals in the harbourside.

The spokesman added: “Unfortunately it’s impossible to stage a large festival for free these days, even with everyone working and performing for free. Licensing and health and safety laws have developed so that we now have to provide a basic level of infrastructure such as plenty of toilets, safety barriers, security personnel, ambulances etc and these all cost a lot of money. Even the ‘free’ events that currently happen are paid for by council taxes. But it’s not all bad; events are a lot safer than they used to be with better access, less environmental damage (from pee-ing in the woods for example) and we have all come to expect safety and protection should anything bad happen. The festival will cost around £600,000 to stage and as we don’t receive public funding we have to raise all of this ourselves through selling sponsorship, advertising, fundraising events, trade pitches, and tickets. But by keeping the profit in the festival and everyone volunteering we keep the ticket prices as low as possible. This is as cheap as it can be delivered for, but anyone that can’t afford it can lend a hand for free entry and kids are free.”

More info at www.brisfest.co.uk

Exeter Roots Music and Cider Festival will be happening at Timepiece, Little Castle St, Exeter, EX4 3PX on Sunday 1st May. Entry is £3 before 9.30pm, £4 after. Doors 7.30pm 18+