Hit the North Festival Reveals Second Wave of Heavyweight Acts

London Rockers Shame & Local Boys The Lake Poets Confirmed…

In what is shaping up to be the strongest Hit the North Festival yet, today its organisers have announced that London’s Shame, The Academic, Sunderland’s The Lake Poets, SOAK and Columbia Records’ music duo Seafret have been added to the line-up.

The event, which will already boast headlining performances from the likes of Jake Bugg and Tom Grennan, will take place on Sunday 5th May across some of Newcastle’s most celebrated venues with special events occurring throughout the early May bank holiday.

Building on the success of the last two years, the North East’s largest inner city live music event is confident that the new additions to the billing will make this the biggest and most diverse gathering to date.

2018’s angriest and loudest British guitar band Shame represents a major coup for the region. Singing songs about politics, perverts and their insecurities, the notorious London five-piece are known for their ferocious live shows.

Their debut album, ‘Songs of Praise’, released in early 2018 on Dead Oceans Records, received national acclaim and placed the band as firm favourites among the critics including NME and Clash Magazine.

Taking their musical cues from the likes of Manchester legends The Fall and led by their enigmatic frontman Charlie Steen, Shame’s abrasive guitars and provoking lyrics will be the perfect fit for the boundary-pushing Hit the North Festival.

“There’s no doubt that Hit the North Festival is back with its best line-up this year and we know fans of Shame and The Lake Poets will be delighted that they’re heading to Newcastle in May,” says Hit the North Festival organiser, Steve Davis.

“Last year’s event was amazing but this is a step up for sure. We’re building a reputation as one of the UK’s leading city-centre festivals and we can’t wait to see all of these amazing bands in action.”

Irish quartet The Academic have been a mainstay in the Irish music scene for several years now and will also be a welcome addition to this year’s showdown. Since their inception in 2013, the band have opened for the likes of Twenty One Pilots, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Catfish & The Bottlemen, and most recently, The Kooks.

‘Tales from the Backseat’ was the debut studio album by Irish indie rock band and it debuted at number 1 on the Irish Albums Chart and received favourable critical reception.

With infections guitar hooks and big choruses, the band have been exploding overseas and recently sold out their first-ever UK tour.

Meanwhile, the haunting, melancholic world of Sunderland’s The Lake Poets will provide an ethereal alternative to the high octane guitar bands that will be on show at Hit the North.

Led by the singer-songwriting prodigy that is Martin Longstaff, The Lake Poets are one of the North East’s leading musical lights and the great man’s unique and poignant folk fuelled material has earned him praise throughout the globe.

Fresh from a UK tour and international recognition for his spellbinding tribute to Sunderland’s shipbuilding heritage in his song Shipyards – as featured on the Netflix docu-series Sunderland ‘Til I die – fans of The Lake Poets can expect a raft of classics in May as well as a boatload of new material.

Hit the North’s organisers have promised that yet more great acts and details of the full weekend will be announced in the coming weeks and have encouraged music fans in the region to stay tuned for further updates including new venues and one-off special events during the May Bank Holiday Weekend.

Tickets for Hit the North Festival are available now via Ticketline: https://www.ticketline.co.uk/hit-the-north

For more information about the festival  and to view the full line-up visit:  hitthenorthfestival.co.uk