Leicester’s Handmade Festival has announced their first wave of acts for the 2017 Festival, including headliners Twin Atlantic and Frightened Rabbit along with a host of support acts, as first reported by Dork.
The festival will take place at the O2 Academy and the Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester on the 29th and 30th of April next year but it might feel more like Edinburgh than the East Midlands, with both headliners hailing from north of the border. Twin Atlantic released their fourth album, ‘GLA’, back in September and finished the first leg of their UK Tour in October with a second leg that will take in Dublin, Belfast and Glasgow still to come in December. Frightened Rabbit have had an equally busy 2016, releasing ‘Painting of a Panic Attack’ as their fifth studio album in April of this year. They are currently mid-way through a UK Tour which will finish in Newcstle on the 12th December so if you can’t wait until next year to see the band, or just love them so much you want to see them twice, then the remaining dates of their tour are shown below. In September, the band’s drummer Grant Hutchison announced he would be taking a break from the band as a result of a ‘minor wobble’, according to The Southern Reporter. The band commented on twitter that they are ‘delighted to be headlining’ the festival.
7/12 – Roundhouse – London
9/12 – Trinity – Bristol
10/12 – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham
12/12 – Riverside – Newcastle
However, it’s not just these two headline acts which will entice music fans to head down to Leicester for the festival. Glaswegian rockers Honeyblood will join the Scottish contingent to play a set with the line-up completed by Yorkshiremen Pulled Apart By Horses, JAWS, British Sea Power, Muncie Girls, Tigercub, Puppy and Idles. Mxdwn.co.uk reported last month on the return of Pulled Apart By Horses with their new track, ‘The Big What If’, which will be followed by an album and a UK Tour scheduled for next Spring (March and April). Meanwhile, Bristolian indie outfit Idles easily take the crown for the best reaction to the news from among the bands; they took to Twitter following the announcement and wrote, ‘We’ve been accepted into the loving arms of Leicester for @HandmadeTotally. The lineup is littered with shit hotters. Don’t care, be there X.’ Well it’s a ringing endorsement for the rest of the bill and, frankly, if their online persona is anything like their stage persona, Idles sound like a fantastic live act. The band’s debut album, ‘Brutalism’ will be released on 10th March with their extensive UK Tour to begin on the 6th. JAWS, meanwhile, released their sophomore album, ‘Simplicity’ last month and will play a trio of other UK dates in 2017.
Festival co-organiser John Help noted his excitement while also looking ahead to future line-up news from the festival, saying, via Dork, ‘It feels so good to finally get this announcement out into the world. Handmade has grown every year since we started it in 2013, but this feels like our biggest step to date as we move into the main room of O2 Academy Leicester, as well as the many other spaces around the Academy and Attenborough Arts Centre. We could not be more excited about the line-up, and this is just a flavour of what you can expect across the two days.’
Weekend tickets for the event are available now and are priced at £44 inc. booking fee for adults; £33 for students and £22 for Under 18s.
Twin Atlantic
Frightened Rabbit
British Sea Power
Pulled Apart By Horses
Honeyblood
JAWS
Tigercub
Muncie Girls
Puppy
Idles
