The Underage Festival was a

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or ho ...

Victoria Park, London Victoria Park (known colloquially as Vicky Park or the People's Park) is a park in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, England. It is the largest park in Tower Hamlets and one of London's most visited green spaces with approxim ...

that was open only to those between 13 and 17. The festival took place at the beginning of August each year. There were five main stages: the Converse Century Main Stage, the '' NME'' Stage, the

Topman Topman is a UK-based multinational men's fashion retail brand founded by Burton Group (later renamed Arcadia Group) in 1978. Along with its women's clothing counterpart Topshop and the rest of Arcadia Group, Topman went into administration i ...

New Music Stage, the

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also c ...

Stage (aptly named the "Domino 15th Anniversary Stage" for the label's 15th anniversary of creation in 2008), and the Red Bull Bedroom Jam Stage. As well, some of the smaller features included the

Habbo ''Habbo'' (formerly ''Habbo Hotel'') is an online community aimed at teens and young adults. It is owned and operated by Sulake, a Finnish company. Founded in 2000, Habbo has expanded to nine online communities (or "hotels"), with users from ...

Dj Tent, the CM Tower Hamlets Music Space Stage, and the

Artrocker Artrocker is a UK-based collective involved in music promotion and publishing. It was started by Paul Cox and Tom Fawcett who had been co-promoters of a London night called The Sausage Machine. Having started life with an online newsletter and eve ...

Signing Tent. The 2008 event also included a Myspace bus, where secret sets and interviews with bands took place. The festival evolved out of a series of club nights, held in the

Elephant and Castle The Elephant and Castle is an area around a major road junction in London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground stati ...

area of

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the boroughs, in whole or in part, of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sut ...

and hosted and organised by

Sam Kilcoyne Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional ...

, the teenage son of Barry 7 from Add N to (X) and current member of the band S.C.U.M, after he was refused admission to a

Buzzcocks Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in Bolton, England in 1976 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter Howard Devoto. They are regarded as a seminal influence on the Manchester music scene, the indepen ...

gig for being only 14. These grew popular with preteens and teenagers and even received press coverage in

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner and tabloid–compact formats. Description Many broadsheets measure roughly ...

national newspapers like

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

and the BBC's arts programmes, which reported it as a "youthquake". Following the cancellation of the 2012 event, no further editions have taken place.

Festivals held

2007

The 2007 festival took place on 10 August 2007.

2008

The 2008 festival took place on 8 August 2008. The event was a success, with around 10,000 fans attending. Many queued for hours prior to the gates opening to gain entry. Headliners included

Gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

Dizzee Rascal Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a British MC and rapper. A pioneer of grime music, his work has also incorporated elements of UK garage, bassline, British hip hop, and R&B. D ...

Foals A foal is an equine up to one year old; this term is used mainly for horses, but can be used for donkeys. More specific terms are colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, and are used until the horse is three or four. When the foal ...

, and

The Dykeenies The Dykeenies are a Scottish indie rock band from Cumbernauld, formed in 2005. The group consists of brothers Brian Henderson (vocals, synthesizers) and Andrew Henderson ( bass guitar, backing vocals), along with Steven Ramsay (lead guitar, bac ...

The Horrors The Horrors are an English rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea in 2005, consisting of lead vocalist Faris Badwan, guitarist Joshua Hayward, keyboardist and synthesizer player Tom Furse, bassist Rhys Webb, and drummer and percussionist Joe Spu ...

were originally scheduled to play the Main Stage, but had to pull out due to recording commitments. They were replaced by

Mystery Jets Mystery Jets are an English indie rock band, formerly based on Eel Pie Island in Twickenham, London. The band consists of Blaine Harrison (vocals, guitar and keyboards), Jack Flanagan (bass and vocals), Kapil Trivedi (drums) and Henry Harr ...

were also scheduled to open the festival with a set on the Main Stage, but pulled out just a few days before due to their lead singer Blaine Harrison being in hospital. They were replaced with

Kid Harpoon Thomas Edward Percy Hull (born 20 April 1982), known professionally as Kid Harpoon, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. Career Already a fixture at local venues in his hometown of Chatham, Kid Harpoon first emerg ...

. XX Teens set featured an appearance by famous

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to p ...

protester Brian Haw, who was at the time the longest residing resident of the

peace camp Peace camps are a form of physical protest camp that is focused on anti-war and anti-nuclear activity. They are set up outside military bases by members of the peace movement who oppose either the existence of the military bases themselves, the ...

situated outside

Parliament Square Parliament Square is a square at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster in central London. Laid out in the 19th century, it features a large open green area in the centre with trees to its west, and it contai ...

. Following set-closer "For Brian Haw", Haw gave a ten-minute speech regarding the

War in Iraq This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Iraq and its predecessor states. Other armed conflicts involving Iraq * Wars during Mandatory Iraq ** Ikhwan raid on South Iraq 1921 * Smaller conflicts, revolutions, coups and periphery confli ...

. The Myspace bus featured an acoustic set by

Bombay Bicycle Club Bombay Bicycle Club are an English indie rock band from Crouch End, London, consisting of Jack Steadman, Jamie MacColl, Suren de Saram, and Ed Nash. They are guitar-fronted and have experimented with different genres, including folk, electro ...

, as well as an interview with

for websit
need2know

2009

Soon after the 2008 festival, Eat Your Own Ears announced in an email to fans that the 2009 festival would again take place in Victoria Park in east London, on 2 August 2009. Tickets for the event were available from early February. During his BBC ''Introducing...'' show for Radio 1,

Huw Stephens Huw Meredydd Stephens (born 25 May 1981) is a Welsh radio and television presenter, currently broadcasting on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 6 Music. Stephens founded the Sŵn music festival with John Rostron and the yearly s ...

announced some of the acts playing the festival, including headliners, The Pigeon Detectives.

2010

The tickets for this year's festival first went on sale in early January, where it took place in Victoria Park, London, on 1 August 2010. The line-up consisted of newly famous acts such as

Ellie Goulding Elena Jane Goulding ( ; born 30 December 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. Her career began when she met record producers Starsmith and Frankmusik, and she was later spotted by Jamie Lillywhite, who became her manager and Artists and ...

Tinie Tempah Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu (born 7 November 1988), better known by his stage name Tinie Tempah, is a British rapper. He has been signed to Parlophone Records since 2009, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. He created his own entertainment compa ...

and Chiddy Bang, as well as some acts such as Hadouken! and

Tinchy Stryder Kwasi Esono Danquah III ( ; born 14 September 1986), known by the stage name Tinchy Stryder, is a Ghanaian-British rapper, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and investor. Stryder has released three solo studio albums, '' Star in the Hood'' (2 ...

returning for their second Underage Festival.

2011

The event was held on 5 August 2011 at

and tickets for the event went on sale in January 2011. The first line-up of this year's acts was announced on 8 March by Huw Stephens live on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance ...

. Huw Stephens announced that Yasmin, Frankie & The Heartstrings, The Midnight Beast, Yaaks, Spark,

Roll Deep Roll Deep (formerly Roll Deep Entourage) are a British grime crew. They were founded in 2001 by Wiley shortly before the disbandment of UK garage crew Pay As U Go Cartel. The group have had two UK No. 1 singles, "Good Times" and " Green Lig ...

, Giggs,

Janelle Monáe Janelle Monáe Robinson (; born December 1, 1985) is an American singer, rapper and actress. She is signed to Atlantic Records, as well as to her own imprint, the Wondaland Arts Society. Monáe has received eight Grammy Award nominations. Mon� ...

, Devlin, Fugative The Chapman Family, Maverick Sabre, Brother, Cocknbullkid, Florrie, Crystal Fighters, with

headlining. The Red Bull Bedroom Jam Stage is to be headlined by My Passion, whilst other acts on the stage include Page 44, Blitz Kids And Autumn In Disguise, as well as many more. The New Roundhouse Rising stage was opened by Younghearts, an up-and-coming London based indie band with a forthcoming single "Isolation" due to be released soon.

2012

The event was scheduled to be held on 31 August. On 27 July it was announced that due to production issues and the new location, the festival had been cancelled for 2012. Organisers stated they were hopeful of returning to the old site in 2013.

References

External links

*
Underage Club
at Myspace {{Coord, 51.537, -0.038, region:GB, display=title Music festivals in London Youth culture in the United Kingdom 2007 establishments in England Annual events in London Music festivals established in 2007