Indie star headlines Honeyfest 2012
3:01pm Tuesday 7th February 2012 in Latest News By Nigel Kerton
Damon Albarn will headline this year's Honeyfest
Indie legend Damon Albarn has been named as the headline act for the upcoming Honeyfest 2012.
The event is taking place at Rockley on Saturday, April 14, and the Blur singer will be supported by last year’s headliners Dry The River and a host of other bands and singers.
So far the line up includes Raghu Dixit project, Marlborough’s own Nick Harper, Cut-a-Shine, Rae Morris and Kidnap Alice.
In December it was exclusively revealed that the rock and pop festival, which is in its second year, has found a new home at Rockley just yards from where the Barbary International Horse Trials are held every year.
It will be on the opposite side of the Marlborough-Wootton Bassett Road at a location known as Tumuli Field, which is part of the grounds of Rockley Manor owned by wealthy telecoms entrepreneur Dr Andrew Rickman.
Albarn will be performing songs and music from Dr Dee, an opera he co-created with theatre director Rufus Norris, accompanied by musicians and singers from the original production.
Event organiser Sandra Bhatia led a community buy-out of the Barge Inn at Honeystreet and launched Honeyfest last year in the pub grounds.
Honeyfest was intended to be a fundraiser for the Barge Inn, but licence conditions for the cramped site around the canal-side pub and its campsite meant only 1,200 people could attend.
This year, the licence application to Wiltshire Council is for up to 4,000.
Honeyfest 2011 made a small loss but Ms Bhatia, who helped win £400,000 funding from the National Lottery for the Barge Inn project, said the festival was here to stay.
She said: "Damon Albarn will be picking up an Outstanding Contribution to Music Award with Blur at the Brits Awards on February 21 and the next gig he will be doing will be the Honeyfest."
Tickets cost £39 and are available through the website www.honeyfestuk.com, Ticket Web and Sound Knowledge in Marlborough.
Discounted tickets will be available for residents at The Barge Inn, Honey Street.
