Meribel will see a fortnight of festival fun in the latter half of March as a new music festival is set to be staged the week before the return of the Altitude music and comedy festival. The new Little World Festival which will run from March 13–19, is the brainchild of platinum selling The Feeling who have decided to organise their own festival, returning to the scene of their early career as an après-ski band.

The Little World Festival will feature over 30 separate events in the French Alps, combining small bar gigs, a huge on-piste main event, an indoor dance party with some of Europe’s best DJs and plenty of après-ski thrown in. The events will all be staged in Meribel’s bars, theatres and outdoors in the snow.

Tickets will cost 25 Euros for a day pass or 90 Euros (for advance purchase online) for a week long pass. One wristband will allow fans to cruise all the events at their leisure.
The festival will feature both established stars and new acts. So far confirmed are
Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Fiction Plane, Ed Harcourt, Sinead and the Dawnbreakers, 10cc’s Graham Goldman and Squeeze’s Glen Tilbrook with more to be announced. One special night will feature intimate collaborations between all the artists, a lo-fi counterpoint to the party on the piste.

“It’s a natural event for us to organise,” says The Feeling’s Richard Jones, “We love festivals, we love skiing, we have a history as a band in ski resorts. It combines all our passions. To have the luxury to go back where we started out together and to build our own boutique festival experience is a great privilege.”

The idea came from the band and is being organised by the band- Dan Gillespie Sells, Richard Jones, Kevin Jeremiah, Ciaran Jeremiah and Paul Stewart.

“We were inspired by our last trip to Maribel,” says felliw Feeling band member Dan Gillespie Sells, “The idea of taking our friends out there to play with, plus legends we admire like Graham Gouldman and Glen Tillbrook, was irresistible. Then to be able ski and snowboard by day and see bands by night is exactly what we want to do. In the end we decided to put it on ourselves.”

In 2008, The Feeling played a free gig on the piste in Meribel to 6,000 fans in a triumphant return for a group who performed covers in the resort’s bars back in 2001. The result was featured in the live DVD “Come Home” with narration by friend-of-the-band Kiefer Sutherland.

“That taught us that we could organise our own event,” says Richard, “More bands should try doing it for themselves, this an event just the way we want it, we have the freedom to be different and we are really enjoying pulling this together alongside recording the new album. We are all mad skiers and snowboarders, although Dan can more often be found on the balcony of the bars. There is something for everyone!”

http://www.meribel.net/

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Tags: France, Little World Festival, Meribel ski resort, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, The Feeling