thelondonpaper launches Headliners, a new music festival in the capital PYM

Summer music festival guide 2009

LONDON'S hottest new music festival is coming - and it's going to be ours, all ours.

But you too can get a taste of the action if you sign up now.

It's thelondonpaper Headliners festival, a two-day extravaganza of the coolest new bands at the funkiest venues - plus some top secret big name guests.

More than 50 bands will take to the stage throughout Soho and the West End on 16 and 17 September at hotspots including the 100 Club, Heaven, Borderline, ULU, and The Fly.

Chart-topping acts will rub shoulders with breaking indie acts, and popsters will find themselves sharing stages with some of the finest singer-songwriters around.

The event will be run with a single wristband system, so music fans will be able to go from venue to venue to catch their favourites, just as if you were going between stages at a music festival.

It will also take over some of the more unusual spaces across Soho, with one-off, flash gigs that will take the public by surprise.

We are running the event along with the Mean Fiddler, the organisation behind the Glastonbury and Reading festivals.

The company’s promoter, Jon Mclldowie, explained: “Central London is ripe for this event. Despite the closure of a legendary venue like the Astoria, thelondonpaper HEADLINERS celebrates the true vibrancy of and demand for live music in London, and where better to do this than in the very heart of the city?”

Nicole Refson, the paper’s head of marketing, added: “It’s the first event of this kind in the heart of the capital, featuring big names and the opportunity to engage our readers across the city as we celebrate its musical heritage and create a festival atmosphere as they leave their offices.”

And Malcolm MacKenzie, our music editor, said: “London’s musical taste is the most eclectic in the world, it’s only right and proper that thelondonpaper HEADLINERS delivers a line-up that caters to the enormous variety of music fans in the capital, and it will.”

The first bands will be announced, and tickets will go on sale, any day now. Keep checking back for updates.

www.thelondonpaper.com/headliners

Summer music festival guide 2009