Boomtown Fair has announced it will be giving at least two unsigned bands and acts the chance to play their 2012 event as part of the Live & Unsigned 2012 competition!

Boomtown is the UK’s premier ska and reggae festival in Hampshire and it returns for its fourth year over the weekend 9th-12th August 2012.

Boomtown Fair

The 2011 event saw the festival sell out for a third time in its three year history with the festival goers bringing as much of the entertainment to the show as the organisers.

With so much packed into the small town, last year’s highlights included; majestic headliner Gogol Bordello, late night shenanigans from the Arcadia crew in their custom built roaming ‘Bug’ stage, dance-offs, marriages and body shaking bass round the clock from Bassline Circus and The Lions Den!

Year-on-year Boomtown Fair receives thousands of requests from unsigned acts from around the region (as one of the premier festivals in Hampshire) and across the UK applying to play at the festival, but spaces are always limited. So, for the first time, the Hampshire Festival has joined forces with the Live and Unsigned competition to give festival gigs to at least two acts to perform at the award winning festival! The lucky winners will be chosen from the Live Showcase Finals, to play a slot at Boomtown Fair.

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Cotton Steadman of Boomtown Fair says; ‘Here at Boomtown we are excited to be working alongside Live and Unsigned. As a grassroots festival it's all about supporting up and coming artists and new music and keeping the scene new and fresh. We are really looking forward to discovering some new talent!’

Live & Unsigned is the biggest unsigned music competition for original unsigned bands and artists in the UK. It offers the winning act the chance to play at The O2 in London alongside some of the UK's best musicians as well as £100,000 in prizes, including an additional new main cash prize of £10,000 for the winning act to spend on development.

Auditions will begin in January 2012 and all acts in the competition are auditioned live. Acts that make it through the audition stage will get to perform to industry judges, A & R associates and celebrity guests. Judging last year’s competition and hopefully set to join the panel again in 2012 include Radio 1 DJs Annie Nightingale, Ras Kwame, Tom Deacon and Daniel P Carter, Kerrang’s Alex Baker and Happy Mondays star Bez.

If you are interested in playing the best festivals in Hampshire and beyond in 2012, click here to check out all the festival partners for Live and Unsigned 2012.