Wembley International Festival Of Country Music

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF COUNTRY MUSIC RETURNS TO LONDON AFTER OVER 20 YEARS!

REBA McENTIRE

RICKY SKAGGS, LONESTAR,

LITTLE BIG TOWN & MANY MORE...

UPDATE 3 DEC , 2011 - Little Big Town are NO longer appearing at Wembley they are replaced by Asleep at The Wheel and Charley Pride fill in!

 

WEMBLEY ARENA, SUNDAY FEBRUARY 26th 2012

Tickets on sale Monday October 10th 2011

Nashville,TN (October 6, 2011) -After a 20-year break, the pioneering and much loved International Festival of Country Music returns to Wembley Arena on Sunday, February 26th, 2012.  The stellar line-up features the very best in country, roots and bluegrass music. 

Headliner The gorgeous Reba McEntire

In a rare UK appearance, international country superstar Reba McEntire will headline the all day festival. With a career that spans over five decades and includes two Grammy Awards, 55 million worldwide album sales and 63 U.S. top ten hits, Reba is one of the biggest selling female artists of all time. Having last performed in the UK 12 years ago, the Wembley appearance will give British fans a rare opportunity to enjoy a true legend, live on the London stage.

Reba will be joined by fourteen-time Grammy Award winner Ricky Skaggs, a country trailblazer who struck his first chords on a mandolin over 52 years ago.  Ricky, who has collaborated with numerous artists including Bruce Hornsby, Emmylou Harris and Jack White, will be bringing his own inimitable take on bluegrass and roots music to the festival.

Feted country music band Lonestar, who first made their debut on the Billboard country music charts in 1995, are also featured on the bill. Lonestar have gained international respect and acclaim with ten number one singles on the U.S. country charts alone. British fans will instantly recognize their song 'Amazed' which spent eight weeks at number 1 on the Billboard chart.

Cautionary Note: Added to this Press Release - The lead singer Richie McDonald (The Voice Of Lonestar) left the band in 2007 and apparently took with him the rights to play all the material ("No News", "Amazed" etc). He has been the voice behind a total of twenty-seven singles on the country charts, with nine of those singles reaching Number One and performs. "AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH RICHIE MCDONALD" features all of these dynamic numbers ones and more.

LONESTAR has a new singer Cody Collins but perhaps don't expect them to sing all the well known songs.  ( See setlist from Sept 2010 )

Joining the headliners will be critically acclaimed quartet Little Big Town, who are also making their international debut at this event. As a band renowned for breaking new musical ground, Little Big Town have sold over 1.5 million records and garnered four Grammy nominations over the past twelve years.  ****   Little Big Town are NO longer appearing at Wembley  **** (see Above)

In addition to the four headliners, the festival will host an impressive array of supporting acts including; country and rockabilly legend, Narvel Felts, the "King of Cajun" Jo-El Sonnier and Texas-born George Ducas. The full line-up also features George Hamilton IV, Will Banister, Raymond Froggatt and John McNicholl, with more acts to be announced shortly.

The International Festival of Country Music ran for 23 years from 1969 to 1991 at Wembley Arena.  The shows, promoted by the legendary Mervyn Conn, were the first to introduce country music to the British public and featured a host of (now) legendary artists including; Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette, Jerry Lee Lewis, Crystal Gayle and many more.

International Festival of Country Music founder and CEO of MM Events Ltd., Mervyn Conn said: "I'm bringing the International Festival of Country Music back after over twenty years due to popular demand. The regard for Country Music has grown significantly in the UK since the first year I promoted this event and I believe that now is the time to reintroduce this once hugely popular event to converted fans of country music and to a new and emerging group of country music lovers. I have also brought back Trisha Walker-(Cunningham) who worked with me for 10 years in the early days and is my Company President in the USA."

Reba McEntire comments; "My band, crew and I are really looking forward to going back to Europe to play our music.  The last time we performed there was in 1999!  We have been very busy for the last 10 years doing the REBA TV show and concerts in North America. Now, we are so excited to be able to travel abroad and do both our new and old songs for our European audience, who has always been so good to us."

After the Wembley date, the festival will travel to Belfast, Zurich and Germany.

***  Wembley Tickets will go on sale from Monday October 10^th, 2011   ***

Tickets can be purchased via;
General Box Office: 0844 815 0815
Accessible seating: 020 8782 5629
Online: http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/International-Festival-of-Country-Music-tickets/artist/1645170 

*** Please Note the Festival takes place on the same day as the Carling Cup Final at nearby Wembley Stadium (80,000 fans!) expect severe crowd and traffic conjestion when planning your trip  ***

Additional dates and venues:
Belfast: Odyssey Arena - 29/02/12
Zurich: Hallenstadion - 02/03/12
Mannheim: SAP Arena - 04/03/12

Festival founder, Mervyn Conn is available for interviews

-END-

Notes to Editors

Full WEMBLEY Line-Up

Reba McEntire

Ricky Skaggs
Little Big Town

Lonestar
Narvel Felts
Jo-El Sonnier -  (Youtube)

George Ducas
George Hamilton IV
Will Banister
Raymond Froggatt
John McNicholl

# # #

 MEDIA CONTACTS:

FOR TRISHA WALKER-CUNNINGHAM

Martha E. Moore

so much MOORE media

615.746.3994

martha@somuchmoore.com

FOR THE FESTIVAL AND MM EVENTS LTD., U.K.

Laura McTurk

Taylor Herring PR

011 44(0)208 206 5151

laura.mcturk@taylorherring.com

UPDATES 20 Oct 2011

David Allan (Country Music People and Former BBC Radio 2 Country Club presenter) and country artist Steve Cherelle from BBC Radio Essex are to compere The Wembley Country Festival 2012 and BBC Radio Ulster’s Country aficionado, DJ Hugo Duncan will compere the Belfast festival 

The Booking fees online - £98 plus £9.80 booking fee (£107.80), £78 plus £7.95 fee (£85.95), and £53 plus £7 fee (£60) and then a £2.75 for postage on top.  Gulp !

In Mervyn Conn's interview with Lee Williams from CMR Nashville (14 Oct 2011)

Regarding Wembley 2012  Mervyn Conn said in interview

http://soundcloud.com/live0158/lee-williams-mervyn-conn

1) Doors open at 12:30 whereby the press/media will get access to the artists the music STARTS at 3pm2) Other names could be added
3) Headliners to play at least 45mins - 1 hour , Reba McEntire's set will be 70mins long4) Conn says he wants to give other "homegrown" acts "a fair crack of the whip" concerning set time
5) The reason it's an International festival with 4 European dates is that the American acts would not come over to do just ONE show
6) Its just one Wembley day this year because of logistics of the setting up the other 3 spin off dates
7) Conn has provisionally booked Wembley for a 2 DAY event in Easter 2013 (March 30 - 31st , 2013)