MANCHESTER has waved goodbye to a number of its urban-festivals recently, but is this the start of the comeback?
The good folk behind A Carefully Planned Festival are hoping to fill the void left by the absence of In The City, Hungry Pigeon and Friends of Manchester – and they’ve brought a wave of acts to help them.
“A large part of Carefully Planned has been about seeing new music or bands that I haven’t seen before.”
Tall Ships, Brontide, We Are The Physics, Shield Your Eyes, Ben Butler & Mousepad, and Sleepingdog are all confirmed for ACPF2012.
The Northern Quarter festival, which takes place across venues such as 2022NQ, Kraak, The Castle, Gullivers, Nexus, and Soup Kitchen is scheduled for the weekend of 20/21 October.
There’s over 100 acts on the bill, plus an art exhibition at 2022NQ, and there’ll be a host of DJs – including Now Wave gang, Underachievers, Please Try Hard, and Red Deer Club – plus after hours on the Saturday at The Castle and 2022NQ.
Shield Your Eyes
The idea for the first A Carefully Planned Festival was born out of the increasingly successfully Carefully Planned all-dayers at The Castle.
Last year turned out to be such a success, that’s its back again for 2012 – only this time it’s bigger and better.
Matt Boycott-Garnett, started Carefully Planned in 2008 - back then it was just a monthly live music night at Kro Bar - and got the name from a song by Faraquet.
He said: "I had found with my previous live music event ('You Are Invited' in Huddersfield) that close attention to detail regarding the juxtaposition of different genres and dynamics on the same line-up was what made it particularly worthwhile for punters."
He asked Michael Glenister, with whom he'd worked with on a one-off co-promo with his band, Yves, to put together a line-up for a city centre event at multiple venues, and Carefully Planned was born.
More than 400 people payed-in over the two day festival in 2011, and Matt and his team are hoping to double that footfall this time around
"With the bigger venues, bigger bands, a bigger team, and a much better understanding of how things should go, we think it's looking pretty good."
So in such a vast line-up, who is worth looking out for?
“I’m probably most excited about Alasdair Roberts," says Matt. "I’ve been really, really into him since first hearing The Crook Of My Arm about ten years ago.”
Mike Glenister, who helped curate the line-up, as well as designing the website, said: “I’m excited about a lot of the acts we’ve booked this year, there is so much to choose from.”
Alistair Roberts
Amy Tidmarsh, the creative boffin behind all of Carefully Planned promotional material, said: “Its going to be good to see how the events unfold this year now that there are six of us involved with twice as many bands and venues.
“A large part of Carefully Planned for me has been about seeing new music or bands that I haven’t seen before. It’s exciting and unpredictable and never ceases to impress me.”
Early bird weekend tickets are £10 and are available now until to 20 August via wegottickets. Standard tickets will be on sale at £12.50 after that, and day tickets go on sale for £7 at the same time.
But how 'careful' has the planning actually been?
Matt said: "I've found in life that it's very rewarding to just do something and I, personally, just try and make sure it's carefully planned."
For the full line up click here.
You can follow Carefully Planned Festival on Twitter @ACPFestival2012
