Bloody Hell – pretty much every single one of the UK’s heavyweight rock festivals came on strong today, tossing out new announcements to try to stay ahead of the competition and keep up the buzz. Some of them had something a bit more impressive to shout about than others though, it has to be said…
Top prize goes to Reading & Leeds Festival, announcing the full line-ups for the infamous Lock-Up Stage. We’ll be buggered if some of the bands announced aren’t among the best names playing at the entire festival. Take a butchers down below – there’s plenty of Thrash Hits favourites among them. Pretty boss, we think you’ll agree.
Friday 28th August (Reading) / Sunday 30 August (Leeds)
Billy Talent
Anti Flag
AlexisonFire
Bouncing Souls
Leftover Crack
The Aggrolites
Streetlight Manifesto
Fake Problems
Riverboat Gamblers
The Flatliners
The Ghost Of A Thousand (pictured above)
The Plight
Saturday 29th August (Reading) / Friday 28th August (Leeds)
Rise Against
Thursday
The Bronx
Mad Caddies
Rival Schools
Set Your Goals
Snuff
Municipal Waste
A Wilhelm Scream
Chuck Ragan
Polar Bear Club
The Computers
Second place in the Battle of the Festival Announcements is shared between Sonisphere and Bloodstock, as both festivals announce that the newly-reformed Fear Factory will be playing their only UK festival dates of 2009 at their respective festivals. The festivals will be the first UK stage that frontman, Burton C Bell, and guitarist, Dino Cazares, have shared since 2002. However original drummer, Raymond Herrera, and Belgian bassist, Christian Olde Wolbers, are not part of the reunion, instead being replaced by Strapping Young Lad members Gene Hoglan and Byron Stroud respectively. DRAMA!
And lowly-third place goes to Download Festival, who only just caught our attention with the announcement that a limited number of Day Tickets go on sale from the official Download website from Friday morning. Oh.