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The annual iTunes Festival in London returns tonight for its eighth edition and will run for 30 nights during September, showcasing some of the biggest and most diverse names in music. The festival takes place at Camden’s historic Roundhouse, one of London’s most intimate and special venues. Apple will be streaming the live shows via iTunes – so everyone can watch the action, from the comfort of their own home. And if you have Apple TV you can stream it straight to your Big Screen.

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Since its inception, more than 400 artists have performed at the festival, while millions of fans have watched the magic live. In an interview with The Guardian, Oliver Schusser, Senior Director of iTunes International at Apple, said that he hopes that fans are happy with the selection of artists on offer this year.

Arctic Monkeys – iTunes Festival 2013

“This is our eighth year, and from the first year on, for us it was about diversity” he said. “It’s really a fully-curated month: we want to make sure we have some pop artists, some classical artists, jazz. Some well-established artists, and some up-and-coming artists that we really believe in. I’m really proud, because I think it’s as diverse as we can get.”

Indeed, this year’s line-up is quite the mixed bag of goodies and surprises. Deadmau5 is to kick off the festivities tonight, while Clean Bandit, Tony Bennett, Kiesza, Sam Smith, Jungle, Pharrell Williams, Foxes, Mary J. Blige, Blondie, Lenny Kravitz, Kylie Minogue and Ed Sheeran are amongst those on the eclectic line up. It has just been confirmed that opera legend Plácido Domingo will close the festival.

Ed Sheeran – iTunes Festival 2012

The festival itself has had a major influence on the timing of new releases and marketing campaigns targeted around artists performing at the event. “It feels like this has become really a great part of everyone’s promo activity, from a label and manager and artist perspective”, explains Schusser. “It happened already two years ago: all of a sudden this became a key part of everyone’s plan. Lady Gaga opened last year on the first, and that was the kick-off for her new project, and the same for Katy Perry at the end.”

As always, tickets to attend the festival cannot be purchased and are being handed out to contest winners in Europe, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico and the U.S., via online competitions run by local media partners on platforms such as iTunes, Twitter and Shazam, in newspapers such as the London Evening Standard and on radio stations like Global Radio.

Alicia Keys – iTunes Festival 2011

iTunes provides live-streaming, live news feeds, and even a way for fans to apply for tickets. It also allows people to stream the September gigs for free in more than 100 countries.

This is Apple’s genius way of giving the festival a global profile and allowing up-and-coming artists in support slots – Jungle, Foxes, Jess Glynne, Luke Sital-Singh, MNEK and Wolf Alice – to reach a worldwide audience. Not only is this an excellent way of promoting these artists, it also gives the London festival a first-class rating.

“We do invest a lot in the technology: spending a lot of time, energy and R&D in making sure we have the right cameras, the best angles, the synchronisation between the cameras and the stage. It’s really a one-year project every time.”

iTunes Festival line-up

01 Deadmau5	02 Beck Jenny Lewis
03 David Guetta Clean Bandit + Robin Schulz	04 5 Seconds of Summer Charlie Simpson
05 Kasabian	06 Tony Bennett Imelda May
07 Calvin Harris	08 Robert Plant Luke Sital-Singh
09 Sam Smith Sohn	10 Pharrell Williams Jungle
11 Maroon 5 Matthew Koma + Nick Gardner	12 Elbow Nick Mulvey
13 Paolo Nutini Rae Morris	14 David Gray Lisa Hannigan
15 The Script Foxes	16 Blondie + Chrissie Hynde
17 Gregory Porter Eric Whitacre	18 Jessie Ware Little Dragon
19 SBTRKT	20 Rudimental Jess Glynne
21 Ryan Adams First Aid Kit	22 Jessie J James Bay
23 Placebo The Mirror Trap	24 Ben Howard Hozier
25 Mary J. Blige	26 Lenny Kravitz Wolf Alice
27 Kylie Minek	28 Nicola Benedetti Milos + Alison Balsom
29 Ed Sheeran Foy Vance	30 Plácido Domingo

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Michigan Indie/Rock band Citizen have become one of the most well known bands in the alternative music scene, following the launch of their latest album, Youth (2013).

Citizen, who play a blend of emo, melodic hardcore and grunge, signed to Run For Cover Records in 2012 – a move that led to the release of their EP Young States and to them jumping on tour with key bands such as Circa Survive, Title Fight and Daylight.

After speaking with Nick Hamm (guitarist) from Citizen, it’s clear that the guys have all the high hopes and excitement of a band grasping their bright future in the palms of their hands, as they prepare for their first headline tour this autumn.

You’re one of the most well known bands in the alternative music scene. To whom or to what do you owe your success?
Honestly, I don’t know how much I’m able to recognize or even gauge where we are as a band. I just really don’t know. I see a lot of bands selling out shows quicker and playing to more people, but I do know that the past year has been really cool. I don’t really know what we owe it to. I think we were 18 year olds writing songs that we liked and other people ended up liking them too. I know that’s not the most introspective answer but we just kind of wrote what we wanted to write, and it ended up being a fun year.

How does it feel to play to huge audiences such as at the Vans Warped Tour, Riot Fest and Fashion Meets Music Festival?
I generally view most shows in the same manner. Once you’re up there, it’s business as usual and it more so feels like the 5 of us are in a room together. I really like playing small intimate rooms with no barrier but playing big shows and fests allow me to appreciate the smaller ones so much more.

What’s the greatest thing about playing at a festival?
Seeing bands you don’t usually get to play with. That’s by far the best part.

What’s the craziest thing that’s happened on tour?
We’re pretty tame but one time, our booking agent, Peanut, fell down an entire flight of spiral stairs. I was the only one who asked him if he was okay but he thought I was making fun of him and flipped out on me. That’s a memory we always bring up.

Stagediving – a) How awesome is it? b) How dangerous is it?
I love it but obviously sometimes people just shouldn’t do it. I see a lot of people run to the edge of the stage, stop, and then try to jump with no momentum. That’s not a good idea.

What was it like to produce your latest album, Youth, at Studio 4 with Will Yip?
3 weeks of recording and writing with your best friends (Will Yip included). It was one of the best times of my life.

Which is your favourite song on the album and why?
“The Summer” is the song that we collaborated the most on. I think it’s the most definitive Citizen song because it sounds straight up like Mat’s writing style meeting my writing style. I’m not really sick of that song yet. I haven’t listened to the record in a really long time so it’s hard for me to say. My other fav is “Figure You Out”.

Citizen – The Summer

How do you divide the song-writing tasks between the band members?
On Youth, it was mostly either me writing a song and letting Mat screw with it a little bit, or Mat writing a song and then letting me screwing with that. I really like the way we do that. I think the new one will probably have more direction from everyone though.

What do you enjoy the most about being in a band?
Traveling and not having to work!

You just finished touring the UK. How does the response in Europe differ to in the US?
It was honestly pretty similar. I think the people coming to the shows might be a little more excited to see us since they haven’t before but besides that, pretty similar to the US.

Do you have a favourite city or crowd to play to?
I love Philadelphia and Chicago. Those are my top two. London was also incredible.

Your latest album, Youth, got leaked. How do you feel about the Internet age, illegal downloads, streaming and the general loss of control over the diffusion of your music?
At the time Youth leaked, I was glad it leaked because I just wanted people to hear it. However, we didn’t have some crazy airtight roll out plan that was sacrificed or anything. As far as the Internet age, it sort of sucks because I love physical packaging and record covers and all of that. I think packaging is really important.

You begin your very first US headline tour this fall. How psyched are you and what are you looking forward to the most?
Oh I can’t wait. This is Citizen’s first opportunity (tour-wise) to offer something that we’ve kind of built ourselves. We got to pick all of the bands and it was really exciting putting it together. I think it’s going to be a blast.

Citizen – Silo

From the 7″/Digital “Silo,” available only on the band’s Fall 2014 tour with You Blew It!, Hostage Calm, True Love and Praise. Tickets available at www.citizentheband.net

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Citizen chose our Sunday Sessions this week. Click here for the playlist!

Youth Tracklist 1. Roam The Room 2. Figure You Out 3. The Summer 4. Sleep 5. How Does It Feel? 6. The Night I Drove Alone 7. Speaking With A Ghost 8. Your Head Got Misplaced 9. Sick And Impatient 10. Drawn Out Buy Youth at the Run For Cover store!

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Operas are often perceived as dry and dull affairs and, indeed, many of them are. The Bregenz Festival in Austria, however, will surely change your mind. Held on the banks of Lake Constance, the festival is famous for not only the high standard of the opera productions, but also its amazing floating stage.

The first Bregenz Festival was held in 1946 – the week-long Bregenz Festwoche. The inaugural performance was staged upon two barges moored on Lake Constance – one carrying the stage structures for Mozart’s early work, the other the orchestra. In a town that didn’t even possess a theatre, the idea of mounting a festival seemed eccentric; but the initially makeshift solution of choosing the loveliest part of the town – the lake – as the stage proved to be a hugely successful one. Visitors from Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France made the Festival an international event in its very first year. The Festival orchestra from the outset was the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, which has made a major contribution to the evolution and success of the Festival.

The floating stage faces an auditorium of 7,000 making it one of the biggest lakeside venues in the world and thousands of music enthusiasts from all over the globe come every year to experience “The play on the lake”. There’s a fabulous atmosphere as the audience enjoys a pre show drink and then settles down to enjoy the production as the sun slowly sets over the lake.

It is not only the spectacular stage scenery that impresses but also the wonderful music. This year’s Bergenz Festival had the motto “Vienna bitter-sweet”. Turning our attention to “wealth, poverty, charm, corruption, high spirits and neuroses, cultivatedness and deviancy, sensibility and sentimentality, friendliness and falsity”, this last season, under the artistic director, David Poutney, paid tribute to the “many-layered antitheses of Austria’s legendary capital, Vienna.”

The fantastic fairy tale opera, “The Magic Flute” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was staged on the incredible floating stage. Directed by David Poutney, the opera played to almost 100% of its capacity, with just over 200,000 people witnessing the perfect performance for a magical setting. With an audience totaling approximately 406,000 over its two-year run, the opera achieved the best audience figures since the festival was founded in 1946, and is rumoured to have set a new record, surpassing the musical “West Side Story”, which drew an audience of 405,314 in 2003 and 2004.

Directed by Michael Sturminger and composed by Heinz Karl Gruber, the bitter satire about the mendacity and brutality of the petit-bourgeoisie, “Tales from the Vienna Woods”, was premiered for the first time. The opera sold out 97% of its tickets and was all in all seen by 4,074 people.

“Gloria von Jaxtberg” (Gloria – A Pig Tale), also composed by Heinz Karl Gruber, and directed by Frederic Wake-Walker in co-production with the UK’s Mahogany Opera Group and Buxton Festival, ran on two nights and was performed to 833 people, selling 79% of seats. The satirical opera tells the story of a pig called Gloria who falls in love with her butcher.

The festival also staged family operas in the Great Hall of Festspeilhaus, which consisted of two short operas played back-to-back: “Le Rossignol” (The Nightingale) by Igor Stravinsky and “L’hirondelle Inattendue” (The Unexpected Swallow) by Simon Laks. Described as “two enchanting tales about the power of song”, the operas were eagerly received by a multi-generational audience, which included children of six years old and over.

There was also a cross-culture program for children and young people between the ages of 6 and 26 and almost 6,000 participants attended the workshops, tours and concerts.

After 11 years of service, the Bregenz Festival said farewell to the festival’s beloved artistic director, David Poutney, who, only a few days ago, came to the end of his final season. Under the motto “Vienna bitter-sweet”, Poutney put together a multi-dimensional festival program that included four music theatre and three chamber music world premiers. His farewell concert, held last Sunday morning, heard the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra perform works by Leonard Bernstein, as well as “Der Schauspieldirektor” (The Impresario) and “Singspeil” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in an adaptation by Poutney himself.

“David Pountney’s final season is the highly successful close of a sensational eleven-year era as artistic director, in which the festival has developed substantially and has created many artistic achievements and magic moments. My thanks go not only to David Pountney, however, but to all the artists and the personnel too,” said the president of the festival, Hans-Peter Metzler. “It is time to say goodbye. After such a marvellous season that’s as easy as it’s difficult. The festival has once again brought together the popular and the radical, the entertaining and the avant-garde, and has found its audience. That makes me happy,” David Pountney said.

The Bregenz Festival will return in the summer of 2015 and will welcome its new artistic director, Elisabeth Sobotko. Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Turandot”, directed by Marco Arturo Marelli, will open next year’s festival on the lake stage. Jacques Offenbach’s opera “The Tales of Hoffmann”, in production by Stefan Herheim, will be performed at the Festspielhaus, and the orchestral concert will feature works by Luciano Berio, Johannes Brahms, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Franz Schubert. Miroslav Srnka’s orchestral work “No Night No Land No Sky” will also be included in the program, along with performances of Wesendonck Lieder of Richard Wagner by the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra and Johannes Brahm’s Symphony No.4 in E minor.

The Magic Flute – Building of the Seebuehne (Lake Stage)

The Bregenz Festival 2015 will run from July 22 – August 23. Tickets for next year can now be booked online via the festival website:
www.bregenzerfestspiele.com