Crystal Palace Overground Festival

The 2017 Crystal Palace Overground Festival heralds the return of the free festival to Crystal Palace Park this June!

Crystal Palace Park has been the scene of many a free concert and additionally the bowl has a long history of legendary gigs from the very beginning in 1967 when Pink Floyd performed all the way up to the famous Bob Marley concert in 1980 and finally in 1999 with the last concert by Pixies.

This summer sees the return of the free festival to the landmark park with the relaunch of the Crystal Palace Overground Festival on 17 June 2017.

The festival will take place in the heart of the park and 10,000 festival visitors are expected from all over London. Festival Director Noreen Meehan says “We have a gorgeous site in the park which we are very excited about and an amazing line up including Morcheeba as headliners for the main stage!”

Morcheeba’s involvement came about by happy accident with Ross Godfrey from the band hearing about the festival from a mutual friend. Ross says "Crystal Palace Park has always been a magical place for me and deeply connected to music. I attended the BRIT School when it first opened in the early 1990’s and used to spend weekends hanging out in the park and playing my guitar. I used to wonder at the pictures of Cream standing in front of the Dinosaurs and talk to my family about the legendary concerts that took place at the bowl in the 1970’s and always wished to play there myself. When we formed Morcheeba in the mid 1995 I got my chance when Paul Weller invited us to play his all day festival in the sports arena with the likes of Travis and Hurricane #1. But the idea of playing in the park itself was still a dream until I became involved with the Crystal Palace Overground Festival organisers in 2016. 17 June will a magical day with some wonderful music, suitable for all ages and tastes and personally I can’t wait!"

90% of the events during this family friendly arts and culture festival are FREE. There’s tons more to see and do with events all week from 12 – 18 June 2017 including; live music, theatre, visual arts and crafts, spoken word, comedy, storytelling, community activities, sports, amazing food and drink, vintage shopping plus much much more! See the full programme at crystalpalacefestival.org

Other highlights of the 2017 programme include:

• Lemn Sissay, the official poet for the London Olympics, headlines the Spoken Word & Comedy Tent on 17 June
• Kianja, a finalist in the Mayor’s GIGs competition and guest artist with the Jazz Warriors, headlines the Youth Takeover Stage on 17 June
• Dr Alex Paterson of The Orb presents Kompact Sounds and Balearic Beats with Nancy Noise and DJ Dadaist on 16 June
• Temujin Gill and Sunanda Biswas, from the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony creative team, perform and invite you to throwdown (dance) on 17 June in the park
• Sian Evans (Kosheen) and long-term writing partner Ron McElroy (DJ Fresh) perform new work and their substantial back catalogue on 17 June
• Sheku Kanneh-Mason, BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2016, performs in a very special concert with London Mozart Players at St John the Evangelist Church on 18 June.

The festival’s free status is maintained by a dedicated band of volunteers who donate their time and energy to organising this huge event and the support of many local businesses and other funders and sponsors.

Sponsors and supporters of CPOF 2017 are:

Arts Council, Heritage Lottery Fund, Crystal Palace Park Community Projects Fund, Croydon Council, Bromley Community Fund, PRS for Music, Frontier, Better, Just Giclee, Martin & Co., Amphlett Lissimore, Crystal Palace Physio Group, Acorn Group, Bambino, Brown & Green, Sefgrove Chemist, The Sparrowhawk, Papagaio, James Ware Stephenson, Coopers Yard Studios, Bamboo Fitness, BOB Wines, The White Hart, Bookseller Crow on the Hill, Merlin Shoes, Smash Bang Wallop, Westow House, D’Solo, Blue Door Bicycles, Domali Bar & Kitchen, Yak & Yeti, South of the River and Willie Smarts.