Tennent's Mutual gives genuine control to the people

With all this crazy talk of the suitability of acts for festivals, a new festival has launched giving all music fans an opportunity decide the complete line-up of their own favourite artists.

The Tennent's Mutual is a new Scottish music festival which allows fans to pick not just the bands but also the venues they will play in, how much to charge for tickets, the nature of the shows themselves, and indeed how the events are promoted and run. The event has a start up fund of £150,000 to be spent by music fans on staging the unique gigs by their favourite groups.

Organisers hope that the ticket revenue from the shows will generate a rolling fund for endless concerts created by the voting public. The first of the festival's shows are due to take place in October with fans debating artists, locations for gigs and even the price charged for tickets. Ticket income will then be plowed back into a central fund, creating a self-generating amount that will grow and continue to create yet more live events.

Registered music fans will also receive tips and advice from Rolling Stones svengali Andrew Loog Oldham, Babyshambles' guitarist Drew McConnell, journalist and broadcaster Keith Cameron, former Bluebells chart-topper and Stow college music lecturer Ken McCluskey plus local indie-label champion Stewart Henderson of Chemikal Underground and Johnny Lynch of The Fence Collective.

Music fans are looking forward to working together to direct the future of the Scottish music scene and decide who plays their hometowns. George Kyle, Head of Sponsorship at Tennent's Lager stated,

"The ethos behind it definitely reflects what music fans want right now. Who knows what gigs will happen and where? The point is that it's up to the fans to decide which is a tremendously exciting step. Ultimately we want people the length and breadth of Scotland to get involved in a great music debate and for their collective viewpoint to be heard as loudly as possible.

From our perspective, The Tennent's Mutual is fresh, creative and most importantly, very different to anything that we have done in the past. We've been committed to music in Scotland for many years and we knew that the time was right not just to continue our level of investment but to challenge ourselves to really innovate and push past traditional boundaries."

Those wanting to join in the music debate and wanting to be able to vote online as part of this groundbreaking interactive community can find out more clicking here. Those who sign up before Monday 30th June will be given founder member status and the right to vote on all decisions.

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