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Japanese Popstars And Duke Special To Headline North-West Digital Festival

July 9, 2012

Derry’s CultureTECH festival has today announced details of an impressive music lineup including Derry’s own The Japanese Popstars and a free, public performance from Duke Special.

The CultureTECH festival, which takes place at the end of August in Derry-Londonderry, is being billed as a four-day celebration of digital technology, media and music and expects to attract over 500 industry delegates alongside some 8-10,000 members of the public across a conference, film screenings and live music events.

As festival organiser Mark Nagurski explained: “CultureTECH aims to celebrate digital media in all its forms – from how we make new things to how we consume them – and music is at the very heart of that. We are delighted to be able to welcome so many great acts, and given the lineup, expect this to be a huge event.”

In addition to a Friday night headline event featuring The Japanese Popstars (LIVE), Paul Woolford and Psycatron (back to back) and Screendeath, the organisers are planning live music events across the city centre – many of which will be free to attend.

Hometown electronic collective Culture Glitch will open the festival with an event that will be streamed live in New York. The Liverpool Sound City festival, Derry-based record label Smalltown America and hubb.it will host bands and acoustic showcase events across the entire festival. The Dublin Laptop Orchestra will showcase original music made “using lots of laptops, hands, golf controllers, and a wireless router”. And Duke Special will play a free, public gig in the city on the Saturday afternoon.

 CultureTECH will also play host to the debut performance of a unique collaboration between traditional Irish vocalist Grainne Holland and electronic producer Figure of 8. The audiovisual set will be accompanied by surreal visuals and a live string quartet courtesy of Serenity Strings.

The live music lineup and music industry sessions are being sponsored by Seagate, who have been major supporters of the creative industries in the city for many years. Brian Burns from Seagate said: “The creative industries, particularly games and music, are a hugely important growth area for Seagate. As digital content, such as music, video, photos and games, becomes more integrated into everyday life, the idea of static data storage is becoming obsolete.  Today, people want to access, share and secure digital content using dynamic storage solutions that give them the freedom to do business, and to create and interact at any time and anywhere. Seagate is in the business of delivering the advanced digital storage solutions that meet these needs. We’ve also been in Derry for nearly 20 years and have a long-standing association with the creative industries here. With that in mind, we’re enormously excited to be associated with what will undoubtedly be a fantastic event.”

Tickets for many of the music gigs will go on sale this week via the CultureTECH website at www.culturetech.co with prices ranging from £6-£12. Festival passes, currently on sale at £49 (£29 for students), include access to all music events, film screenings, parties and the main conference.

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