The first Evolution festival two-day event, which took place over the Bank Holiday weekend of 24th / 25th May in Newcastle/Gateshead has been declared to be a “great success” by the organisers.
Festival Director Jim Mawdsley, of Epic Leisure said: “This year was a great success and we were very happy with the numbers on site. We had well over 40,000 people over the two days, so it was magnificent”.
Commenting on the unpredictably great weather over the two days Mawdsley said: “Dave Stone (Evolution programmer) booked the weather too early in November so we couldn't have got better. I really didn't think we'd have people complaining of the heat and sunburn!”.
The festival, featuring headline performances from The Wombats and Dizzee Rascal (on the same day that he scored another Number One single with 'Bonkers') saw large crowds flocking to both sides of the Tyne river to enjoy the musical delights on offer over two stages.
When asked about his own personal musical highlights over the weekend, Mawdsley said: “Dizzee is an obvious one and he gave me a big cuddle coming off stage! Human League were great fun on Sunday, Friendly Fires are definitely becoming one of Britain’s best live bands but head and shoulders for me were The Maccabees . They've recorded my favourite song of the year so far 'No Kind Words' and when they opened with it, it was a proper spine tingling moment”.
In terms of the future of the massive outdoor event, Mawdsley is very positive: “As this is now a fully fledged festival it is great seeing all the acts rocking up and having big smiles on their faces and everyone was a joy to work with.
“Onwards and upwards now. Last year people warned against charging and to go from free 2 years ago to a 2-day festival with the quality of acts was a big challenge. We just want to keep pushing further”.
Have your say: Did you go to Evolution Festival ? What were your personal highlights? What would you like to see there next year?
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