Wakefield’s stellar celebrations of the Apollo 11 moon landings are set to get louder with the announcement that acclaimed alchemists of sampling and live performance, Public Service Broadcasting will play their entire space adventure-themed album, The Race For Space, in its entirety on Fri 6 September 2019 as part of the Festival Of The Moon.
Believed to be Wakefield’s biggest indoor live music event in living memory, the city’s former Market Hall is to be radically repurposed to welcome over 1,000 gig goers. The unmissable night of music is set to be an historic moment for the Union Street building as it takes on a new life as a new creative and cultural hub. Wakefield will also welcome soon-to-be-announced support bands to complete the live and loud line-up.
The announcement comes as The Cribs’ Ross Jarman confirms a festival DJ-ing date alongside Blur drummer, Dave Rowntree on Sat 24 August, who also who visits the former Market Hall on the same day for a daytime talk on his own experiences of reaching into space.
As a member of legendary, multi-platinum selling band Blur, drummer, Dave Rowntree alongside band mate, Alex James helped take the Beagle 2 mission to mars from an initial idea by British planetary scientist, Colin Pillinger to a space-bound reality. The band composed the first music believed to have ever been played on Mars, as the mission’s unmanned Beagle 2 Mars Lander touched down on the surface of the red planet in 2003 with their track of the same name on board. Dave will be in conversation with Terry Dobson, vice chair of the Rosse Observatory, to discuss his and the band’s involvement in the mission and his lifelong enthusiasm and passion for astronomy.
Later that night he’ll join Jarman at the former Market Hall to dig into their extensive record collections, playing their favourite cuts in a night of live music, street food, craft beer and more.
Before the arrival of the newly announced guests, the former Market Hall will already have been put through its paces as a night-time entertainment venue, not least the festival’s FREE launch party on Fri 23 August and Wakefield’s Moon Dance on Sat 31 August, when Leeds’ Galaxians and Night Giants play live, with DJs and digital entertainment added to the bill.
Tickets for Public Service Broadcasting’s show will be available via links published at www.experiencewakefield.co.uk/moon from 9am on Thu 25 July 2019 alongside other festival updates.
