A NEW festival has been announced for 2021 with a blast from the past … Creation Day, featuring Editors, Friendly Fires, Happy Mondays, Echo & The Bunnymen, Sleeper, Glasvegas and many more.
The festival is the vision of Creation Records founder Alan McGee, and will take place at Wolverhampton West Park over the weekend of May 29th and 30th, 2021. At least we hope it will …
The first Creation Day festival will be exclusively curated by Alan McGee himself, who has been at the epicentre of the indie music industry for most of the last four decades. McGee is opening up his enviable address book to conjure a formidable line-up for the first Creation Day Festival.
First-night headliners are proven party-starters, Happy Mondays. Now signed to McGee’s Creation Management, the band will be stepping up to the main stage as the certified ‘24 Hour Party People’ they are. Something that’s especially true for their infamous front man, Shaun Ryder, who will be also performing over the weekend with his other band, Black Grape. A Creation Day Festival Exclusive, this will be the first time Ryder will have fronted both acts at one festival.
Sunday night will be headlined by one of the Midlands’ greatest musical exports this century: Editors. Formed in Birmingham, the band launched into the consciousness of the mainstream with stunning 2005 debut, The Back Room. Fifteen years on they have released six studio albums (with two of them going platinum), consistently sold out UK venues, and headlined major festivals worldwide.
Arguably heirs to the Mondays’ indie-dance crossover crown, Friendly Fires bring their dancefloor-igniting creations to the party on Saturday night. Returning to the spotlight in 2019 with their acclaimed Top 20-charting LP, Inflorescent, and some huge shows, Friendly Fires proved they are still one of the UK’s hottest prospects.
Venerated all-time-greats, Echo & The Bunnymen are a band who hark back to Alan McGee’s earliest days in music and have crossed paths with him ever since. Expect Ian McCulloch and crew to deliver a hits-packed set to rival the best, laden with timeless treasures like “The Cutter”, “The Back Of Love”, “The Killing Moon”, and many more.
And marking the 25th anniversary of their All Change album this year, seminal Creation Management signees Cast will be serving up some of its thrills.
A set from Glasvegas – a band discovered by McGee in Glasgow in 2006 – will be back to remind us of the blistering tunes of their Mercury Music Prize-nominated debut; they will be revealing tracks from their much anticipated 2021 record, Godspeed.
As a man with something of a reputation for spotting future talent, Creation Day will also showcase an array of new talent Alan McGee has earmarked as next-big-things in waiting. Selecting a cross-section of bands from his current Creation 23 label, live sets by Marquis Drive, The Illicits, Cat SFX, The Clockworks, and Shambolics, as well as Heavy Lungs (signed to Balley Records – the imprint run by IDLES’ Joe Talbot and Mark Bent) will all promise a tantalising glimpse of the potential stars of tomorrow.
With a line-up already bustling with some of the most influential acts and rising stars, standby for further announcements in due course. The line-up also features Ash, Sonya Madan’s Echobelly and The Wedding Present.
Speaking about the inaugural Creation Day festival, Alan McGee says: “I’m looking forward to this one, some of the best old bands with some of the best new bands. I can’t wait to come and bring it all to Wolverhampton.
“Creation Day is the first time we have done anything like this since Doing It For The Kids. Hopefully we can do this every year.”
Limited first-release tickets for the festival will go on sale at 10am tomorrow, October 21st, with general ticket sales from 10am on Friday. You can find out more information about the inaugural Creation Day festival here.
