Festival Alert: Bingley Music Live

In a usually quiet corner of West Yorkshire, the leafy Myrtle Park in Bingley bursts into life over the first weekend of September as music fans from around the county and beyond come together to see off another festival season.

Regardless of the temperamental summer weather, you’re going to have to dig out your Ray Bans to get your peepers round the glittering line-up of acts heading to Bingley Music Live this summer – from reggae-metal, blistering alt-rock and indie to bubblegum pop, Motown soul, grime and chart-topping dubstep.

This all-embracing attitude to great music is what makes Bingley Music Live so unique. Where else are you going to find SKINDRED and ELIZA DOOLITTLE on the same bill? Answers on a postcard, please…

So let’s see. Who’ve we got? First and foremost, there are the headliners. New York funk-rockers FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINALS will top the FREE Friday night bill. Saturday night sees Geordie art-rockers MAXIMO PARK apply some pressure, and the mighty CHASE AND STATUS will bring the weekend to an explosive close.

Dishing out the beats over the weekend will be rising grime star DOT ROTTEN and collaborator RUSSO, British hip-hop heroes STEREO MCs, Example’s Unorthodox pal WRETCH 32 and Brighton’s wild style hip-pop guitar-rockers THE GO! TEAM.

Then there’s the sun-kissed pop of ELIZA DOOLITTLE, young soul sensation DIONNE BROMFIELD, BBC Sound of 2011 top ten and Gorillaz collaborator DALEY, and the psychedelic pop-rock delights of ALICE GOLD.

Plugging in and rocking out will be YOUNG GUNS and SKINDRED, and FEEDER, THE CORAL, ATHLETE, MYSTERY JETS, THE SUNSHINE UNDERGROUND, JON FRATELLI and WHITE DENIM will provide the indie hits.

Scooby Snacks? Connected? Wires? Buck Rogers? Dreaming Of You? Skinny Genes? Going Missing? Warning? Time? Whoever helps you get your groove on, there’s going to be a huge sing-along festival moment in there for everyone.

Over the last four years, music legends like THE BUZZCOCKS, HAPPY MONDAYS, JAMES, and PUBLIC IMAGE LTD and upcoming new artists and some of today’s hottest acts like EDITORS, THE BLACKOUT, EXAMPLE, THE FUTUREHEADS and KASSIDY have played to crowds of around 15,000 each day at Bingley Music Live.

We dare you to find a festival which focuses as much on family-friendliness and value for money as it does on the great acts to grace its stage. Bingley Music Live is not about being cutting-edge and cool (though we definitely have our collective fingers on the pulse). It’s about getting together and having a great time before the summer calls it quits once again.

Weekend tickets are available from HMV stores around Yorkshire, Crash and Jumbo in Leeds, Attick in York, Leeds Visitor Centre and TICs around Yorkshire, and online at www.seetickets.com, priced £35 (plus booking fee). For more information click here. “Like” the festival at www.facebook.com/bingleymusiclive, or follow on Twitter @BingleyFestival.