Gloucester City Council is delighted to announce its refreshed one-day music festival will return for a second year, under another new name. Introduced in July last year as Park:Live, the event has been forced to rebrand following a legal challenge, and will now be known as Summer Sound Festival.
Organiser Joe Schiavon explains more about the name change ‘Obviously it’s a bit of a shame we’ve had to change it after making such a strong start with Park:Live last year, plus we all really liked that name. But there’s a festival in Manchester with a very similar name, and they’ve got a trademark, so we didn’t want any trouble, and said we’d look at something different. Plus, we’d only been going a year with the old one, so it’s not a massive loss. The most important thing for us is about keeping a consistent level of quality with the lineup, and I’m more than confident we’ve achieved that.’
After setting the bar pretty high musically last year, the pressure has been on to match or better the lineup. Headlining this year will be Welsh rockers Kids In Glass Houses. One of the biggest names in UK rock music, this is the first time the band have played in the area, and they’ll no doubt be premiering a lot of new songs from their hotly-anticipated fourth album, due out later in the year.
Main support is the fantastic Chloe Howl, a rising star poised to join the ranks of household female pop names like Ellie Goulding with her sassy beat-driven songs.
We’re delighted to be giving a massive opportunity to local heroes Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun, who have really moved up a level in the last six months after massive tours supporting Frank Turner and Dropkick Murphys in the UK and US respectively. This will be their biggest ever UK show and a well deserved, triumphant homecoming.
Making up the support bill are The Struts, who write massive stadium pop-rock anthems, Propellers, whose sound will remind you of the vintage era for NME-type indie guitar bands (2002-2006, in case you were wondering), Sons and Lovers, who also know their way around a chorus, and have the same manager as Ellie Goulding, and Drive By Night, purveyors of songs bigger than American highways. Kitten and Bear are the other local band on the bill, and they’re about as far removed musically from Jim Lockey’s band as it’s possible to be, but no less talented.
Full lineup:
Kids In Glass Houses
Chloe Howl
Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun
The Struts
Propellers
Sons and Lovers
Drive By Night
Kitten and Bear
Saturday 20th July // Free Entry (no ticket required) // Music from 2pm // All Ages
For more info, please visit the festival online: www.summersounduk.co.uk