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Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business
Team behind Glastonbury’s Shangri-La to launch new festival in Torquay
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 30 November 2016
The company that curates Glastonbury Festival’s Shangri-La zone – as well as Bestival’s Caravanserai, Boomtown’s Ballroom Stage and Wilderness’ Carousel, among other events – has announced it will launch a brand new festival next spring, and only in bloody Torquay.
Across fifteen stages with 200 acts, and no less than “myriad musical genres”, are being promised by Continental Drifts via its new event Grinagog, which will take place in venues around the seaside town from 7-9 Apr 2017. Akala, Jah Shaka, Sam Lee And Magpies Nest, Electro Swing Circus and the one-and-only Steve Davis are amongst the line-up already confirmed.
Continental Drifts man and Torquay native Chris Tofu says: “All my life, I’ve looked at Torquay and seen it as one humongous great festival site… with no mud! The place is like the ultimate festival venue, and I should know because I’ve started loads of festivals. I’m putting everything I possibly can into making an extremely diverse, cultural offering for young people in Torquay. We’re bringing together all the amazing promoters and cultural workers who are in the town and the surrounding area already into one big pot to create a cultural explosion that we hope can really be a place maker for this town”.
The mayor of Torbay, the borough in which Torquay sits, Gordon Oliver, adds: “Through funding from the Coastal Communities Fund and the Mayor’s Events Fund, Torbay Council is proud to facilitate this wonderful music festival. This event will provide access to great artists right on our doorstep and will be enjoyed by many of our young people and visitors to the Bay. Continental Drifts has been procured through a rigorous tender process and they bring a wealth of experience in the festival market ensuring that we host a high quality event. We are particularly excited to offer the residents in Torbay something very unique in the South West and I believe this festival will do this”.
