Win festival slots to play at the Bearded Theory Festival as Live and Unsigned confirm Bearded Theory as a festival partner. Unsigned bands and acts can now get festival slots at the Bearded Theory Festival as part of the Live & Unsigned 2012 competition.

The popular festival was announced as winner of the ‘Golden Welly’ for ‘Best Independent Festival’ at the AIM Independent music awards 2011! Bearded Theory Festival takes place annually in May, set in the stunning surroundings of National Trust property Kedleston Hall, 5 miles Northwest of Derby city centre. 

The quirky Bearded Theory Festival, which encourages all attendees to wear false beards for an annual world record attempt, beat strong opposition to be announced as winner at the star-studded inaugural AIM independent music ceremony in Central London. 

Bearded Theory Festival Gig

Year on year Bearded Theory Festival receives thousands of requests from unsigned acts from around the region and across the UK applying to play at the festival, but spaces are always limited. So, for the first time, Bearded Theory Festival have joined forces with the Live and Unsigned competition to give Derbyshire festival gigs to four acts to perform at the award winning festival. Acts will be chosen from the Derby Regional Finals to play a slot at Bearded Theory and the lucky winners will be able to say they played at the best independent festival in the UK!

The fiercely independent festival has firmly established itself over 5 years as the first ‘proper’ festival of the season and previous headliners have included The Waterboys, Alabama 3, The King Blues, Hawkwind and Athlete.Win Festival Slots at the Bearded Theory Festival

Chris Grayston, Managing Director of Live and Unsigned said; “It’s great to say we are partnered with the official Best Independent Festival for 2011. The whole point of Live and Unsigned is to open doors for unsigned acts that might otherwise seem closed, make no mistake: winning these gigs at Derbyshire’s Bearded Theory Festival is a big deal!’

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 DJ’s 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 of 2012, click here to check out all the festival partners for Live and Unsigned 2012