First Splendour rumour for2012

Tue 8th Nov, 2011 in Local News

We still don’t even know the full lineups for the Big Day Out, Playground Weekender, Soundwave or Bluesfest, but already a very exciting rumour for the Splendour in the Grass 2012 lineup has emerged.

It may seem disgustingly early to begin speculating about a festival that’s roughly eight months away, but the resurrected Stone Roses have announced a series of festival sets that put them firmly into Splendour contention.

The band sold out their three reunion gigs Manchester’s Heaton Park in just 14 minutes and have now added three July festivals to their schedule – Scotland’s T In The Park Festival (5th-8th July), Spain’s Benicassim Festival (12th – 15th July), and Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival. The dates for Fuji Rock 2012 haven’t been confirmed, but the festival is usually held on the weekend before we all venture to Woodfordia for Splendour

This year Splendour shared nine bands with Fuji Rock and three with the other major festival of the Japanese summer – Summersonic – but when FasterLouder spoke to Splendour organiser Jess Ducrou earlier this year she revealed that the relationship between the three festivals is likely to be even closer in 2012. “We’ve always had a light dialogue on dates and so on,” she explained, “but interestingly this year we have started talking more with them and I think that will really benefit everyone.”

Ducrou also revealed that booking the lineup has become a year round job. Coldplay contacted Splendour during the 2010 festival to begin negotiations for this year’s headline set and Ducrou revealed that the plans for the 2012 lineup had begun three months before Kanye and Coldplay had hit the stage at this year’s festival. “We’re already talking about next year 15 months out from the festival,” she told FL. “That’s not just headliners, that’s from a broad range of acts including acts that we approached this year that couldn’t do it but want to try and fit it in next year. It’s becoming a never ending job.”