2012 Festival Dates Announced!

We're delighted to announce the festival will return for a third year on 29th/30th September 2012.

The festival will again be free entry. Better get those dates in the diary!

More info will be announced really soon.

Photo: Francesqa (Dominic Meason)

The Stage Is Set!

If all goes to plan, this will be our final web post before the weekend. (That's assuming no one else pulls out, which we'd really rather no one did, if any bands are reading this!)

We've been working on this festival since February, and we're so excited for you to come and see what we've got planned for you guys. We've got such an incredible and diverse lineup for you to enjoy, and lots of other exciting things going on around the building.

Just so you're completely set, here's everything you need in one easy to read post.

Final lineup here

Stage times here

How the festival entry system will work - Make sure you read this!

Directions to the venue here

If there's anything you need to know, the best way to find out is to send us an @ message or DM us on Twitter - @undergroundfest. And if you are on Twitter, please use the hashtag #Underground2011 when talking about the festival!

If not, we'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning!

Battle of the Bands Winners Announced

Last night we hosted the annual precursor to the festival itself, our battle of the bands event. The four bands that performed were the cream of the 300 bands that applied to play the BBC Introducing stage at the festival, and all gave a great account of themselves.

They were Furious E, The Dirty Tricks, Kitten and Bear and Funky Horse Milk.

Up for grabs were a slot on the main stage, a live session on BBC Introducing Gloucester, an instore at Rise Records, and a feature in the Gloucester Citizen, including a photoshoot with one of their professional photographers.

We were all blown away by worthy winners Kitten and Bear, a brother and sister duo who, aged just 15, have a massively bright future ahead of them. You can see Kitten and Bear opening the main stage on Saturday at 2.45pm, and again on the BBC Introducing stage later on at 4.15pm.

The Dirty Tricks came in second, and they open the main stage on Sunday at 1.45pm.

HOW FESTIVAL ENTRY WILL WORK

Right then. Let's keep this really simple.

Doors for the festival are at 12pm, each day. We have 650 wristbands for general admission, and once they're gone, they're gone.

So if you want one, you'll need to make sure you get here in time to pick one up when we start dishing them out at 12pm. If you're on the guaranteed entry list, don't panic, you'll get in whenever you arrive, but the general admission wristbands will be given out on a first come, first served basis EACH DAY (so you'll have to queue up both days. in theory).

Obviously this is our first year running the festival with this system, so until we've done it once we're not sure how it'll go, so please bear with us, but this is the most sensible and fair way of doing things we can come up with.

Look forward to seeing you all bright and early Saturday morning, and you enjoying the fantastic weekend we've been working so long and hard to put on for you!

Proxies Join The Line-Up Replacing Ramona

Ramona are the latest casualty of this year's lineup, but again we've got a cracking replacement sorted.

Proxies are from Yorkshire and make rock music with some beats and synths thrown in for good measure. They toured with Hadouken earlier in the year, will shortly be releasing their debut single 'Wishing Well' featuring Sean from The Blackout on Vocals, and Gareth from Pendulum is producing their album. These guys are set to blow up, and we're really stoked to have them on!

So, to sum up, Proxies replace Ramona on the main stage, Saturday afternoon.