West Coast Blues n Roots 2010

THE WEST COAST BLUES N ROOTS FESTIVAL RETURNS WITH CROWDED HOUSE!

There is no event that better encapsulates the great West Australian lifestyle quite like the West Coast Blues n Roots Festival. Now the event returns in 2010 with a new home, increased comforts and none other than Crowded House headlining the amazing list of talent on Sunday, March 28, 2010!

In 2010 the Blues n Roots moves to its spectacular new home, Fremantle Park. Significantly more spacious, the new site will better accommodate the broad demographic which attends the event and allows us to increase comfort, with patrons welcome to bring picnic rugs and chairs (for designated areas), a unique seated Theatre Stage, a wine and Little Creatures beer tent, a massive seated and shaded international food court, expanded Freo-style markets, grassy banks overlooking the festival and Fremantle town and an Under-18s Discount Ticket for families, plus much more. But the festival remains committed to bringing you the finest in entertainment from the world over.

Crowded House are perhaps the greatest band Australia (and New Zealand) has ever produced. Songs such as Weather With You and Dont Dream Its Over still resonate across Australian airwaves year in, year out as certified classics. And the exciting news is the band is back in the studio recording a brand new album of anthems to follow up 2007s exceptional Time On Earth, and will be released just in time for their performance at Fremantle Park.

Joining Crowded House is Australias king of roots John Butler Trio. Armed with a new single, One Way Road, and an album entitled April Uprising schedule for a late March 2010 release, get set as Butler takes you on a journey of new and old returning to his home of Fremantle and the West Coast Blues n Roots.

We are also mighty proud to welcome two of the biggest names in blues to the 2010 festival Buddy Guy and Jeff Beck. Be electrified as two heroes of the six string and pioneers of the blues and rock genres descend on Freo for the ultimate Music Lovers Festival.

Newton Faulkner has dazzled hundreds of thousands of fans the world over (including Blues n Roots goers in 2008) with his unique anthems. And now the architect of Dream Catch Me is rolling back into Australia to join his contemporaries, both old and new.

Get set for some genre-busting excitement! In their debut Australian appearance, Gogol Bordello is a multi-ethnic Gypsy punk band from the Lower East Side of New York City. Formed in 1999, the band are known for supercharged music based on a gypsy two step rhythm that sounds like an Eastern European cousin of ska, augmented by punk, metal, rap, flamenco, roots reggae, Italian spaghetti, Western twang, dub and other sounds generated by gypsies and rebels from across the globe. Convinced? If not, you will be

Joining this staggering line-up is none other than pan-Atlantic godfathers of blues John Mayall and Taj Mahal, old time string band sensation Old Crow Medicine Show and the haunting, beautiful and Oscar winning stars of Once, The Swell Season featuring Glen Hansard of Irish heroes The Frames. The Swell Season return with a hugely acclaimed new album, Strict Joy.

But it doesnt stop there also rolling down to Fremantle Park will be Aussie greats Angus & Julia Stone, Aussie songstress Lisa Mitchell, Australian blues king Dave Hole, plus The Backsliders and Blues Preachers.

And there are plenty more acts to be announced. More than 40 bands will descend on Fremantle Park across four stages for the seventh annual West Coast Blues n Roots Festival for a true feast of song, in a spectacular and comfortable new setting.

And its all within easy walking distance of the Fremantle Train station.

NO SMOKING around the festival site, except in the designated smoking areas

Were giving Blues n Roots patrons the opportunity to offset your own travel emissions to and from the festival, as well as reducing the overall impact of the festival, by taking up the Optional Green Fee. For an additional $3.00 on the normal ticket price, an Optional Green Fee is the basic peace of mind that youve more than covered your own carbon footprint.  

With the $3 Optional Green Fee - paid by you to offset your carbon footprint. We then purchase carbon credits on your behalf, with the money also going towards initiatives such as:

Recycling stations throughout the site
Off-site sorting of recyclable materials
Free Eco Stalls for Environmental Groups
Green Stamp Printing - all posters, flyers and programmes created are printed on 55% recycled paper and 45% oxygen-bleached paper by our Green Stamped printers

We will announce all Green Roots initiatives in the months ahead, plus will document all post festival developments so you can see where your money has gone.