The
Stamford Mercury newspaper are once again supporting the Riverside Team
by running
a competition to secure the final slot for a band/artist to perform at
the
popular Riverside Festival which this year is scheduled to take place on
Saturday 3rd and Sunday
4th July on The Meadows in
the
centre of Stamford.
Entries
to the competition will be taken until April
26th. After that the most popular
band/artist
as voted for by the public in the Stamford Mercury and on-line will win a
main stage
slot to play at the festival.
Festival
Organiser Martin Smith said: “This is a great opportunity for bands and
solo
singers to get their fan base behind them to ensure they play at
Riverside. In
this MySpace and Facebook era bands and artists are becoming very adept
at
managing their fan bases and this is a chance for them to use these new
media
resources and pull out all the stops to get people to vote for them.”
Martin
went on to say “The competition is exciting for us as organisers as we
have no
idea what genre of music the winners will represent, past winners have
included
indie/rock, teen metal and pop/punk bands. With our stages featuring an
even
broader range of musical genres this year there is even more scope for
competition entries.”
As
applications direct to the festival have now closed, the only way
bands/artists
can apply to play at the festival is to enter the Stamford
Mercury’s Road
to
Riverside Competition. By the 28th
February which
was the closing date for applications direct to the Festival, Riverside
Organisers had received applications from more than 700 bands and
artists! The
Festivals Music Committees are still working their way through
listening
to and short-listing all these applications to decide the final
line up.
The high level of applications direct to the festival means that
competition
from Road to Riverside
entries to
secure the final place on offer to play at the festival is going to be
really
fierce this year.
This
competition is a real chance to play to a large audience, last year more
than 46,000
people visited the festival over the course of the day, and this year is
already being predicted to be even busier with the festival looking to
expand
to a two day event this year.
Pervious
winners of the competition say playing at the festival has really helped
to
boost their profile. 2007 winners The Brays have gone on to play at the
02
Indigo Arena and were selected
by
Britain Rocks, to be one of the flagship bands on its promotional tour
of US Universities; while
2008 winners were the Prophecy True from Bourne who at the time of
winning had
an average age of just 14 years of age. Last years winners White Clouds
and
Gunfire recently told Soundscape Magazine that “the Riverside Festival
was
their best experience in their business so far” and “has inspired them
to keep
working hard to do bigger and better things.”
Stamford
Mercury Editor Eileen Green said “Road to
Riverside
has been a real success in the past and I’m
sure we
will get a fantastic response again this year. The Riverside Festival is
a
superb event for Stamford and shows what a vibrant music scene we have
in this
area.”
To
enter the Road to Riverside Competition please e-mail your MySpace links
or
music demos to smeditor@stamfordmercury.co.uk, you can also send a
CD
to the Stamford
Mercury at Sheep Market, Stamford, PE9 2QZ, marking your entries clearly
Road
To Riverside, but
whichever route you choose please make sure you apply by no later than
the 26th
April.
The
bands/artists entering will be featured in the Stamford Mercury over the
coming
weeks and their music uploaded to the Stamford Mercury website at www.stamfordmercury.co.uk/riverside.
The
public will then have just two weeks to vote for their favourite by
using a
voting slip in the newspaper or voting on-line.
Further
details about the competition and the competition rules are available
from the
Stamford Mercury.
Art and Soul
