Phoenix Festival

The Phoenix Festival was set up by John Vincent Power of the Mean Fiddler Music Group in 1993 as an alternative to the established Glastonbury and Reading Festivals. It was held at Long Marston Airfield near Stratford-upon-Avon and was one of the first four-day festivals in Britain.

History

The first year of the festival (1993) featured headline performances by Sonic Youth, Hole, Faith No More and The Black Crowes, and included other notable acts such as Manic Street Preachers, Julian Cope, The Young Gods and House of Pain. However, the event was marred by controversy as festival goers were made to put out camp fires and turn off sound systems at midnight. These rules were in contrast to the 24-hour culture of the Glastonbury Festival, with which many of those present at Phoenix were familiar. There were even demands for refunds, and the festival's reputation was marred from the outset.

The festival never really recovered from its poor reception, and although it attracted consistently popular acts, festival goers were less than happy with the site (an old airstrip) and there were also complaints about the prices on site.

Problems with the event reached a climax in 1996 when many festival goers missed David Bowie on the Thursday night due to problems letting people on site. Having sold out that year for the first time due to the Glastonbury Festival taking its usual year off (every 5), the organisers struggled to cope with the crowds and extreme heat. Temperatures on site exceeded thirty degrees Celsius on all days. The weekend was further marred with problems with water being unavailable in parts of the site. The event was notable for the fact that the Sex Pistols headlined their first major UK festival on that weekend.

The festival continued for one more year but could never compete with its main rival, the Glastonbury Festival. The 1998 Phoenix event was cancelled due to poor ticket sales, but some acts were moved to that year's Reading Festival.

In July 2011 Vince Power announced his intention to resurrect the festival in his introduction to the programme of the Hop Farm Festival. Power wrote: "For those of you who remember the Phoenix Festival, it's my intention to resurrect this festival next year as Glastonbury is taking a break."

Lineups

1993

Phoenix Stage
Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
stage closed	Sonic Youth Julian Cope The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy Parliament-Funkadelic Hole The Fatima Mansions The God Machine Jacob's Mouse	Faith No More House of Pain The Young Gods Björn Again Fun-Da-Mental Consolidated That Petrol Emotion New Fast Automatic Daffodils Silverfish Die Cheerleader	The Black Crowes Pop Will Eat Itself Living Colour Manic Street Preachers Yothu Yindi Helmet Mercury Rev Bad Religion Hyperhead CNN

Zine Stage
Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
stage closed	The Buzzcocks The Family Cat Pulp The Funking Barstewards Eat The Pooh Sticks The Hair and Skin Trading Company Energy Orchard Ringo	Billy Bragg The Men They Couldn't Hang Martin Stephenson Red Devils Trash Can Sinatras The Fat Lady Sings Pele The Tansads Velocity Girl Nervous	The Wedding Present Thousand Yard Stare Los Lobos Ian McNabb A House Rainer Kinky Machine Molly Half Head The New Cranes

1994

The 1994 Phoenix was held from the 14th to the 17 July at Long Marston, Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Phoenix Stage
Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
stage closed	The Wonder Stuff Carter USM The Fall Squeeze The Posies	Paul Weller Pop Will Eat Itself Ozric Tentacles Crash Test Dummies Gil Scott-Heron Senseless Things Urban Dance Squad The Sandals The Red Devils Jah Wobble The Goats Whiteout	Iggy Pop Ned's Atomic Dustbin Killing Joke Buzzcocks Magnapop The Family Cat NOFX Blaggers ITA

Vox Stage
Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Gary Clail On U Sound System Bim Sherman Little Axe Adrian Sherwood	The Pogues John Cale Kirsty MacColl Tom Robinson The Trash Can Sinatras David Gray The Coalporters Ben Harper	The Beautiful South The Blue Aeroplanes Terry Hall Eddi Reader The Bible My Life Story Marion Cast Thrum	Inspiral Carpets Renegade Soundwave A House Mother Earth The Grid A Certain Ratio Sons of Arga Youthu Yindi Terry Edwards Baby Chaos

Melody Maker Stage
Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Dodgy Astralasia Trextasy Land Of Barbara Head	Spiritualized Stereolab Bark Psychosis Moonshake Golden Claw Radial Spangle ROC Drugstore Puppy Love Bomb Skunk Anansie	Back To The Planet Swervedriver Mega City Four These Animal Men Voodoo Queens Gunshot The Muddie Funksters Dub War Rub Ultra Done Lying Down Tribute To Nothing	Shellac Girls Against Boys Brick Layer Cake The Raincoats The Pastels Bailterspace Tsunami Mambo Taxi AC Acoustics

Jazzterania Stage
Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Incognito Urban Species Raw Stylus Ian & Ro]	Donald Byrd Courtney Pine Greg Osby Freakpower Ian & Rob	Galliano Snowboy Fishbelly Black Vibe Tribe	Herbie Hancock Roy Ayers Courduroy D*Note Jhelisa

Loaded Comedy Stage
Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Frank Sidebottom John Shuttleworth Kevin Day Ian Cognito Phil Kay Martin Coyote Mike Hayley Andre Vincent Ardal O'Hanlon	Mark Thomas Jeff Green Rubber Bishops Man with Beard Sean Connery Brotherhood Alistair MacGowan Dave Spikey	Lee Evans Mark Steel Mark Hurst Lee Hurst Linda Smith Dominic Holland Hattie Hayridge	Eddie Izzard Richard Moton Attila the Stockbroker Sean Meo Simon Bligh Fred MacAulay Paul Tonkinson John Moloney Rhona Cameron

External links

• Phoenix Festival 96 fansite