UK festival organisers are now invited to register their application in the short online form here: www.virtualfestivals.com/apply. 

Taking place this year on Thursday 19 November 2009 at IndigO2, the UK Festival Awards are the “Oscars” of the festival world and represent the true opinions of UK festival goers. Festival organisers must apply for their festival to be represented in the appropriate award categories before the first round of longlist voting. The deadline for applications is 13 September 2009.

Now in its fourth year as a live gala ceremony, the UK Festival Awards features 13 public voted categories that have been tweaked slightly to fully represent the UK’s diverse festival industry. The first round of longlist voting will begin on Wednesday 16 September 2009 to decide on the final shortlists. A second round of public voting will then follow to decide on the overall winner in each category. The award categories in full are as follows:

•    Best Major Festival
•    Best Medium-Sized Festival
•    Best Small Festival
•    Best Toilets
•    The Grass Roots Festival Award
•    Best Overseas Festival
•    Best Family Festival
•    Anthem of the Summer
•    Best Breakthrough Artist
•    Best Headline Artist
•    Best Dance Event
•    Best Metropolitan Festival
•    Most Memorable Moment


Brand new for 2009 is the ‘Best Metropolitan Festival’, which has been added to the list of awards to represent the burgeoning number of multi-venue festivals staged within urban conurbations such as the Camden Crawl, The Great Escape in Brighton, Dot-To-Dot in Bristol and Nottingham, Stag & Dagger Festival in London, Leeds and Glasgow and more.  In addition to this, the UK Festival Awards will invite festival goers to submit their ‘Most Memorable Moment’ via www.virtualfestivals.com to determine the final shortlist. Festival goers will be incentivised to vote through the traditional ‘Ultimate Festival Package’ prize.  Anyone who votes in the awards, on any of the voting platforms, will be entered into the prize draw to win two VIP tickets to each of the winning festivals, potentially 11 different events in total.

In addition to the public-voted categories there will also be a number of industry-decided awards including ‘The Greener Festival’ award, which will be decided by the team behind www.agreenerfestival.com, the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ award, the ‘Promoter of the Year’ award, the ‘Best Sponsor Activation’ award and finally, the ‘Line-Up of the Year’ award, which will be decided by a panel of leading music journalists.

“There has never been a greater need for the festival and live music industry to collaborate and join forces which is exactly why we started the UK Festival Awards back in 2004. The British market is unique in its volume and vibrancy and the awards not only celebrate this but also give a direct and much needed communication channel between the promoters and the most important people of all, the fans. We are proud that the UKFA have developed in tandem with the music festival market and have invested considerable time and resources into making this year’s show and conference worthy of such a remarkable industry," commented UK Festival Awards co-Director Chris McCormick.

UK Festival Awards co-Director Steve Jenner added: “A tough year has seen the UK’s festival industry step up and deliver a truly remarkable and spectacular season in 2009, giving enjoyment and inspiration to millions of live music fans through these trying times. In recognition of this overall achievement, and the many individual triumphs that have comprised it, we intend to pull out all the stops and give the industry its greatest celebration yet.”

www.festivalawards.com