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Waves Festival rolls in once again to Sunderland
The all-day, multi-venue music festival, Waves, is set to return to Sunderland following a successful first year in the heart of the city.
First coming to the city of Sunderland in 2021, Waves Festival was a roaring success. Featuring some of the best established and forthcoming artists of the time, Waves Festival flourished across multiple venues; painting a trail of zestful virtuosic celebration across the town.
Venues, such as The Peacock, played host to this vivacious event! How could it be anything but a blazing success? Especially having been operated by Sunderland’s very own Barry Hyde - member of globally adored ensemble, The Futureheads!
The inaugural festival stretched across five different venues, consisting of local talent from the region.
To many's joy, this year welcomes back Waves Festival, eagerly awaited after popular demand. Returning stronger, this year's festival will see a vaster line-up, showcasing artists of local, national and international strokes!
Not only will the line-up be more varied in regards to genre, but a new venue will also lend their stage to the festival, acting as the vibrant, mid-scale performance venue. The Fire Station joins Independent, The Ship Isis, The Bunker and Live Lounge as host venues.
The Fire Station will be a welcomed venue, already attracting fresh, new faces to the event. It's the perfect addition to an abundance of well-known venues, where you can head-bang and stomp your feet; especially when bands such as Newcastle-based The Pale White headline.
The Pale White
Waves Festival is currently the band's only North East show date in 2022, following the release of their critically acclaimed album, 'Infinite Pleasure'. The band will feature a brand new line up, whilst still bringing their incendiary rock anthems to the Fire Station!
Headlining Independent Sunderland will see the return of Dutch Indie-Pop outfit, Pip Blom. Back to invigorate the crowd with their refreshing sound, having played a sold-out show in the city in April. The four-piece outfit have also had a raving musical journey so far: garnering roaring praise across their two albums from the likes of NME and Rolling Stone. Safe to say, they are ones to not miss!
Ben Wall from Independent added:
“We’re really proud of the line-up we’ve put together for this year's event. It's amazing to bring bands that have played and sold out Independent in the past (The Pale White, Pip Blom) back to the city, alongside so many more exciting emerging artists that are playing here for the first time. The further announcements to come only make the day better, with loads of more acts, stage takeovers and more still to be announced.”
The Bunker CIC, known for supporting, providing recording and training for local budding musicians, will be the host venue for the BBC MUSIC INTRODUCING stage. Curated by BBC Radio Newcastle and Introducing presenter, Nick Roberts, the BBC make their debut to the festival, bringing along local artists to the showcase with The Peevie Wonders being the chosen headliners.
The colourful, four-piece band will bring their high-energy delivery of observational and judgmental lyrics. Accompanied by wild, riff-infested melodies, the band's unique style mixes shouty and spoken vocals with occasional squeals to blow off some steam.
Leeds-based electronic/funk party band, Galaxians will headline Barry Hyde's venue, The Peacock, which will be on hand to offer a variety of ales, pints and spirits in the Edwardian pub. Galaxians comes to Waves following other festivals around the UK, playing at Tramlines and Bluedot.
Leeds based Galaxians
Alongside the various headliners remain some big names on the line-up, as if it wasn't already head-turning to begin with! Sunderland’s very own rising star, Tom A Smith graces the line-up. Having rubbed shoulders with pop legend Elton John, Tom impressed the masses, performing alongside Elton on his farewell tour. Additionally, the promising artist has featured on national TV, having performed at the cricket sporting event, The 100. Not only that, but with Tom's meteoric rise, Glastonbury came calling for the second time for the Mackem youngster. True to his roots, Tom returns home to feature on the Waves lineup.
Keeping in line with supporting Sunderland’s talents, Waves will also feature many bands from the city including, dark pop-indie outfit, Ghost//Signals. Recently supporting Life, the band have also released their debut album, 'Lives Defined by Winter Skies'. The five-piece band will bring their goth-inflected performances with guitar-shredding riffs to Waves which is certain to cause a storm!
Dance/pop outfit Vandebilt, psychedelic sounding The Dream Machine, Darlington's genre-bending alt-rapper Luke Royalty, and four-piece rock band Hivemind, are amongst the bulging line-up. Luckily, this means that the all-day festival features something for everyone and there's still many more artists to be announced!
Festival co-organiser Ben Richardson commented: “We can’t wait to host Waves Festival again this year, there was such a great atmosphere last time out and we’re predicting it to be exactly the same this time, just on a much bigger scale. The addition of The Fire Station as a main stage is a big coup and will allow us to bring bigger and better bands to Sunderland as part of the festival.”
Waves Festival comes to Sunderland on Saturday 5th November with tickets on sale now!
Keep up to date with Waves announcements on their socials
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