Butlins goes child-free for 1960s music fans

EUROPE’S largest domestic holiday centre, the Butlins resort in Minehead, will become a child-free zone at the end of the month.
Only people aged 18 years and older will be allowed to stay during a weekend music festival which runs from January 30 to February 2.
And guests will have to be at least in their 40s to actually remember any of the acts playing at the Festival of the 60s.
The event is part of a series of Big Weekend Breaks being staged by Butlins this year with tickets starting at £63 for the weekend.
Among the big names from the 1960s who will be appearing live at the retro-weekend are Gerry and the Pacemakers (pictured), Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, Herman’s Hermits, Swinging Blue Jeans, Dave Berry and the Cruisers, The Fortunes, Marmalade, and Brian Poole and the Dreamers.
Tickets can be bought by calling 0845 070 4730 or logging on to http://www.butlinsbigweekends.com/.

Eclectic mix of musicians for double festival weekend in Minehead

TENS of thousand of music fans are set to descend on Minehead for music festivals taking place on two weekends in May.
Both events are being organised at the town’s Butlins holiday centre by All Tomorrow’s Parties (ATP), an organisation promoting festivals and concerts worldwide.
The first festival is being held on the weekend of May 8 to 10 and has been titled The Fans Strike Back (TFSB).
Half of the bands and performers taking part will have been chosen by the fans themselves, with everybody who buys a ticket being entitled to vote, while ATP selects the other half of the line-up.
For TFSB, ATP has already booked Health, Shearwater, The Acorn, and The Pink Mountaintops, while among those the the fans have voted so far for are The Jesus Lizard, Devo, Sleep performing Holy Mountain, selections from Dopesmoker and more, Spiritualized, / Young Marble Giants performing Colossal Youth, Antipop Consortium, Grails, Sleepy Sun, and The Cave Singers.
The second event, Breeders, runs over May 15 to 17, and is curated for ATP by the legendary Breeders
So far the fans have picked Beirut, and offers to play have been sent to My Bloody Valentine, Flight Of The Conchords, and Electric Wizard.
CSS (pictured) and Supersuckers are among the latest additions to the Breeders, and will line up with the likes of Throwing Muses, Bon Iver, Foals, Teenage Fanclub, Kimya Dawson, Pit Er Pat, and The Soft Pack.
Both festivals are for over-18s only and ticket prices start at £300 and are on sale from http://www.atpfestival.com/.
Performances start mid-afternoon with more than 40 acts set to play live across each weekend.
There are also four pubs and DJ sets playing through until late.