Evolution Music Festival director talks exclusively to eFestivals

eFestivals spoke exclusively to festival director Jim Mawdsley at the announcement of Newcastle's Evolution Music Festival line-up. Since the festivals inception in 2005 Jim and his team at Generator have worked tirelessly each year to deliver the music line-up. This year he's managed to deliver a range of acts that wouldn't look out of place at most large scale festivals.

Jim was clearly pleased to have finally announced the line-up which features Paolo Nutini, Enter Shikari, Fake Blood, Delphic, The Unthanks, and Donovan, out in the open, after many weeks of speculation. He told eFestivals, "It's a bit of a relief to get the lineup out in the open. We work on it all year round, and we've been working on the programme since August, and as you get closer to launch you're still trying to nail key acts. The difficulty for us is that because we're in May we're under greater pressure to finalise the line-up before everyone else."

This event attracts music fans from across the UK to the North East region and has a significant impact on the region's visitor economy, Jim hopes that the festival will be at it's current location for the foreseeable future thanks to the support of the local council, "The council are very supportive but every now and again they mention that they don't know how long the land might be there for, because the government put local authorities under pressure to get capital receipts for land, to sell it, so to speak, but because of the state of the property market at the minute, it hasn't materialised yet."

Jim feels that with Evolution becoming a bigger and bigger event each year since the first free event in 2005, it now has become a festival proper, but it's not the kind of event that should be seen as a threat by the country's bigger events. He explained, "In terms of competing with the big boys, we don't see ourselves as that kind of event. We see ourselves as a weekender, rather than a festival, but we are trying to festivalise the festival this year, with more stalls and attractions as well as the main stages. I think this year is the first year it will feel more like a festival than a big gig."

Jim also feels that the North East offers a wealth of decent homegrown talent he can showcase at Evolution. Jim was enthusiastic about the local talent on the bill, "When you're booking an event like this you look to book bands at certain levels, and we couldn't ignore the local talent that's prevalent right now. We've wanted Field Music for years, and we think Frankie and the Heartstrings are going places, and the new Futureheads album is fantastic, so we didn't even have to think about putting local talent on this year, it was just there for us."

It's not just established talent showcased that the Evolution Weekender, it also promotes emerging North-East music on the Saturday will be a host of free gigs where upcoming Northside musicians get a chance to perform.

This year's line-up has just been announced and features Paolo Nutini, Enter Shikari, Fake Blood, and Delphic topping a bill that includes Calvin Harris, Tinchy Stryder, The Futureheads, Field Music, The Horrors, De la Soul, Ellie Goulding, Dananananaykroyd, Benga, Rusko, Scratch Perverts, Beardyman, Filthy Dukes, Hadouken!, Example, Frankmusik, I Blame Coco, Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, The Unthanks, Donovan, Baskery, and more.

Evolution's two existing main stages will be joined in 2010 by a new folk and roots stage. For the line-up details as available please click here.


Evolution Music Festival returns over two days again, with a crowd of 60,000 expected over the weekend and culminating in the outdoor shows at Spiller's Wharf and Baltic Square on the Gateshead quayside on the Bank Holiday Weekend, Sunday 30th and Monday 31st May 2010.

For the line-up details as available please click here.

Tickets are priced at £25 for both dats or £17.50 for either day. To buy tickets click here.

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