This week on the MelodyTrip.com podcast: lots of news to wrap up San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Fest, more ticket buying drama on two continents, and podsafe music from The States, Jarez, and The Stone Coyotes.  

Show notes for podcast #27 can be found at MelodyTrip.com.

It’s Saturday, September 29, 2007 and this is our 26th podcast.  There’s a ton of news to cover this week!  I’m your hostess, Heather Larson.  Still working at 98-7 The Peak, coming to you out of Phoenix, Arizona. 

Whitney Houston is doing show again!  Thing is, you’re going to have to travel kind of far to see her.  Whitney is set to play in Kuala Lumpur with Dionne Warwick and James Ingram at the longest-running and largest music festival Southeast Asia has to offer.  “Live and Loud KL 07â€? is its name and it’s going on from November 23 through December 2. 

The John Lennon Northern Lights Festival happens in the British countryside of Durness.  The site of the festival was a favorite childhood vacation spot for Lennon, and he returned there later in life with wife Yoko and their son and daughter.  This is a festival rich with history and set in a town with a population of just over 300.  It’s a must for a true Lennon or Beatles fanatic! 

We have a sold out music festival!  The Pyramid Rock Festival in Victoria sold out in just 4 days.  On the bill are The Cat Empire, Hilltop Hoods, You Am I, Sneaky Sound System, Kisschasy, Wolf and Cub, Howling Bells, COG, British India and Blue King Brown from Australia as well as The Matches and That 1 Guy from the USA.  It’s a great way to ring in 2008! 

I’m going to read a little blurb we found online about how KT Tunstall met her hero, Jack White, at Fuji Rock Festival:

Now time for podsafe music from Atlanta’s Sovus Radio off of music.podshow.com.  The song is called Alison 3000. 

http://www.myspace.com/sovusradio

So how did Jerusalem Rocks go?  Pretty good!  Sure, Fergie in her hot outfits got taken off the BEP billboards advertising the show, but other than that there were no snags.  The band loved Israel, even missing the MTV VMAs to play the show.  (Probably a smart idea).  Arrested Development and the Commitments also played the fest.  Tickets to the show were a bit expensive at about $95 a piece! 

Here’s a video of it, made by Jeff Pulver, the festival’s co-founder:

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Are you ready to head to San Francisco next weekend for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival?  Half a million people showed up last year showing that blue grass is hot stuff.  Or maybe that a FREE music festival of any kind is unbeatable!  Bozz Scaggs, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and The Secret Life of Banjos will be there, just to name a few. 

The history of the Voodoo Music Festival in N’Awlins is quite interesting.  The fest’s organizer managed to hook up a performance from Eminem the second year, right as Em’s career was blowin’ up.  Last year, 93,000 people showed up, which is a long way from the humble beginnings of Voodoo in 1999 when only 8,000 showed up to see Wyclef, Ben Folds Five, Moby, Dr. John, and George Clinton. 

Roskilde in Denmark proved to be mud-free.  With The Chili Peppers, Tiesto, The Who, a ton of other big names and perfect camping conditions, this sounds like the place to be.  Definitely the ultimate travel destination for a music fan! 

Time for another podsafe music break.  This is another one of music.podshow.com from Adrienne Frantz, called “Halfway.â€? 

http://adriennefrantz.com/

http://myspace.com/adriennefrantz

Going on right now in Iceland is the Reykjavik Festival, featuring Sigur Ros.  There’s also a film festival involved in this.  Seriously, there are 87 films to watch!

Show Notes Bonus: Live reviews of Seattle fests, courtesy of KEXP

Linkin Park and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are set to play in China in November. 

A review of the Treasure Island Festival in the San Francisco Bay Area included M.I.A and DJ Shadow. 

Chazzfest in Charleston featured performances from Branford Marsalis and Kool & the Gang, who are the headliners. 

The Merrit Mountain Music Festival is going to go through some changes, like eliminating the party zones in Campground C and Tent City.  Traffic getting into the fest will change because of a golf course development, and reserved camping areas are going to be the way of the future for this fest.  The idea is to keep it quiet and comfortable, which is what we all want, isn’t it?  The fest is next July in Kamloops, BC, Canada. 

Our next podsafe song off music.podshow.com comes from The Passive Aggressives and it’s called “Evil Clown.�

http://www.thepassive.com

http://www.myspace.com/aggressives

Kylie Minogue at Glastonbury next year?  It could happen.

The Midpoint Music Festival is giving people a reason to go to Cincinnati.  With over 200 acts coming from all over the world, Midpoint is a great place to check out emerging talent.  If you can’t make it to SXSW, you can always try Midpoint.

Bjork will be a part of Sydney Festival ‘08

Don’t forget Detour Festival is coming up next weekend in Los Angeles

UB40 grabbed the headlining spot at the first ever International Raggamuffin Festival in New Zealand

A lineup too huge to cover in this podcast is online for the National Folk Festival in Richmond.  You may be on overload after looking at this one.

Which music festival generated 30 tons of trash in three days?  Austin City Limits…so much for “greenâ€? music festivals this year, huh?  Excellent article on the music festival trash problem here.

Go to MelodyTrip.com for the show notes!