Bench Live launched in June 2010, and so far we’ve had a very busy year!
May saw us partner local event Liverpool Sound City. Now in its third year, Liverpool Sound City consists of 3 days and 4 nights of intensive gigs, parties and events all taking place in Liverpool City Centre. Spread over more than 35 venues, it showcases over 400 live acts and artists and features the very best of the North West, UK, USA and European zeitgeist talent to over 35,000 live music lovers
2010 built on last year’s line up, which provided a platform for some of the best new bands emerging in 2009 such as White Lies, The XX, Cage the Elephant, Metronomy, Little Boots and White Denim
In June Bench were the Official Fashion Partner of the Ian Brown and Parklife Festival, marking a 100 year celebration of Platt Fields Park.
The two day event had a capacity of 15,000, with an Ian Brown homecoming concert on the Friday and a huge event on the Saturday including performances from Friendly Fires, Calvin Harris and Kele from Bloc Party.
During England’s debut World Cup game which was shown on a huge screen at the event, 200 branded Bench beach balls where thrown into the crowd.
Bench also launched a successful Parklife DJ Competition before the event, in association with Mixcloud. This offered an aspiring DJ the chance to play an hour set at within the Artist Area. Contestants uploaded their mixes to Mixcloud and Bench shortlisted 5 entrants. The final judging lay with Warehouse Project resident Krysko and Hacienda legend Mike Pickering.
July was a busy month, with Les Eurockéennes in France and Melt! in Germany.
Les Eurockéennes took place on the weekend of Friday 2 until Sunday 4 July on the peninsula of Malsaucy near Belfort in France. The festival has two open stages, one of which is on the beach, two marquees and a sound system. With a capacity of 100,000 it is one of the biggest festivals in the country.
Melt! celebrated its 13 year anniversary in 2010, bringing together 20,000 enthusiastic music lovers, including a large and growing number of foreign visitors which adds to the international flair of the festival.
Still to come we have this year’s winner of the ‘Festival of the Year’ accolade – Creamfields. August bank holiday is set to be a big one with Bench hosting their very own arena, housing DJ’s such as James Zabiela, Sasha and Paul van Dyk.
After that Bench are partnering Warehouse Project throughout their 12 week event in Manchester. We shall be present every weekend, and we have some very special competitions planned for Bench fans…
Then that’s it up until New Year’s Day. Oh no wait, we have all of 2011…
