Shangri-La announces plans for Glastonbury Festival 2011

The Shangri-La area of Glastonbury Festival have revealed the first details of their plans for this year's Festival.

The Shangri-La team have been organising the late night area of the site since 2008 and covers over 40 acres or three large fields. Uniquely among festivals, it has a narrative and full-field film-set that, when animated by the performers and audience, creates a wholly immersive world for the audience to become lost within.

The evolving storyline develops year by year: In 2009 it was a pleasure city run by a corrupt dictatorship. In 2010 the ruling administration was overthrown and the city opened up to rebels and chancers. In 2011, the population has given up trying to save the city and have colonised a new world, they're packing up and preparing to flee before the end of the world in 2012.

All those who contribute to Shangri-La, from artists to audience, become part of this story. They respond to and intervene with this world, creating sub-plots via their installations, venues and performances that take the story and the audience into a myriad of fresh places. Packed with venues varying in scale from the massive to the minute, there are interactive venues, big live stages, an outdoor dance arena and maze of covered alleys riddled with tiny nano-venues with hidden doors leading to further doors hiding more places inside, It is a complex world within the Festival with layers and layers and layers forFestival goers to explore over the weekend.

The organisers have published the following blog about their plans (here). The blog says:

End of Jan and the Shangri-train is rolling, we've done the concept and design development, now working on detail and ploughing through the mountain of pre-production to be done. We've had some great news and there are a couple massive new scores that I can tell you about (as opposed to the ones that I can't tell you about).

We've just scored the use of 4 x 35k HD projectors for the video mapping, making a total of a whopping 140,000 lumen being thrown at that wall. Last year we had 72k, you'd have thought that would be enough but no, so big thanks to Darkroom and LM Productions for that - hopefully the videomapping in the Hub will reach its full potential this year.

A big thank-you goes to The Wellcome Trust, who have enabled us to make us exciting new developments this year by commissioning us as part of their season on DIRT to design and build a whole new aspect to Shangri-La….…introducing The Skywalk, Decontamination Chambers and Virus.

As you may know, Shangri-La has a storyline that evolves year by year and willingly or not, you become part of it. In 2009 it was a pleasure city run by a corrupt dictatorship. In 2010 the ruling administration was overthrown and the city was opened up to rebels and chancers who had to fight for resources to carve out their own little piece of paradise.

2011 sees the population preparing to flee before, as they believe, the end of the world in 2012. They've given up trying to save the planet, it was all a bit too much like hard work so they've colonised somewhere else instead. It's a new world, apparently much nicer, and only those who make the grade will be allowed to go there. Everything valuable has been shrinkwrapped in preparation for the first transport shipment to the new world (first ship leaves on Monday) and everything else, especially those vile and virus-ridden slums, is being left to rot in its own miasma.

In order to gain your place in the new and much nicer colony, please make your way to the decontamination facility, where the scientists there can determine whether you are in need of physical or moral decontamination. Post-decontamination, you will given your bio-hazard suit and only then will you be granted access to the Skywalk and be able to take the first step up out of the filth, your journey to the new world….

Tickets have sold out for this summer's Glastonbury Festival which runs for five full days from Wednesday 22nd until Sunday 26th June 2011 across a 1000 hectares (2470 acres) of beautiful countryside at Worthy Farm, Somerset. Resales of unwanted tickets are expected at some point in April.

No acts are officially confirmed as yet, although U2 look likely, and organiser Michael Eavis confirmed to eFestivals that this year's Festival will be headlined by "The three biggest bands in the world. You won't believe who we've got."

As usual eFestivals bring you the very best-sourced rumours, allowing festival-goers to see who is playing long before the bands are formally announced - keep your eyes on the Glastonbury 2011 rumours, updated as we receive information.

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