Kings of Leon will headline the British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park next year while The Pixies and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats have been confirmed as support acts for the event.
They join already announced headliners Phil Collins and Green Day, who will perform on the 30th June and the 1st July respectively before KOL take to the stage on the 6th July. By the time they do The British Summer Time Festival will be in its fourth year. Head of Events at The Royal Parks, said, per TeamRock.com, that the festival had become ‘a firm favourite in the events calendar, bringing a diverse range of entertainment and the world’s biggest artists to this iconic park.’ The festival has attracted Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones, Kylie Minogue and Stevie Wonder to headline in previous years.
Kings of Leon come off the success of their latest album, WALLS, which went to number 1 in the UK earlier this year. The Kings of Leon owe a lot to the UK, at a secret gig they played in London back in October, Caleb Followill told the crowd, ‘it’s good to be home, with our friends,’ according to The Daily Telegraph. It should therefore be no surprise that this Hyde Park gig will be supplemented with a UK Tour in February which will take in five cities across the UK. In addition, the band have recently expressed a desire to headline Glastonbury as well, with Nathan Followill telling the BBC, ‘We love Glastonbury. I think that was the first festival we ever played in Europe. Do they still do it where it’s on one year, off one year to let the grass grow?’ As for the bills they are actually already on, Caleb Followill spoke to Billboard about the Tour, saying, ‘We’re not going to be floating on a stage like Kanye or anything like that. But we’re going to be doing some cool shit and we’re going to be breaking the show up into parts and doing things that are hopefully going to have people leaving saying it was the best show they’ve ever been to.’ Nathan added, ‘It’s always a pleasure to party with our amazing fans at Hyde Park.’ Full details of the Kings of Leon’s UK Touring schedule are shown below:
19/2 – First Direct Arena – Leeds
20/2 – Genting Arena – Birmingham
24/2 – Metro Radio Arena – Newcastle
25/2 – Echo Arena – Liverpool
27/2 – SSE Hydro – Glasgow
6/7 – Hyde Park, British Summer Time – London
As for The Pixies, the band are about to embark on a UK Tour to promote their album, Head Carrier, which was released earlier in the year. The Pixies added dates to the Tour to ensure that disappointed fans did not purchase tickets at vastly inflated prices on secondary ticketing websites, something which has recently been a hot issue in the music community and was recently discussed in Parliament, as reported by mxdwn.uk. However, the band have also had problems; guitarist Joey Santiago entered a rehabilitation clinic in September to receive treatment for drug and alcohol issues. Full dates for The Pixies’ upcoming UK Tour are shown below:
28/11 – O2 Academy – Brixton
29/11 – O2 Academy – Brixton
30/11 – O2 Academy – Leeds
2/12 – Barrowlands – Glasgow
3/12 – O2 Academy – Newcastle
4/12 – O2 Apollo – Manchester
The US singer songwriter Nathaniel Rateliffe and his band The Night Sweats will also appear on the bill as support with more acts still to be announced as well.
Tickets for the event will go on general sale on the 30th November, with the fan club presale beginning five days earlier on the 25th. Those with a Barclaycard will be able to buy tickets from the 26th while the festival will hold its own presale on the 28th. The tickets range from £62.50-£299.
