Radio 1's free music festival is heading for Carlisle this year, with acts including Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Olly Murs and Foo Fighters already confirmed to appear.
The ticket-only event for 40,000 listeners will be held at the Carlisle Airfield on 14 and 15 May.
Registration to apply for the tickets opens at 6.30am tomorrow (Thurs) – with 10,000 pairs being given away for each of the two days. Last year saw almost half a million people apply for the passes. Tickets are allocated randomly, but with a weighting given to those living in the Carlisle, Cumbria, Scottish borders and North East England areas.
Foo Fighters will headline the Big Weekend's main stage on the Saturday night, with other acts earlier in the day including Black Eyed Peas, Tinie Tempah, Plan B, Nicole Scherzinger, Chase and Status, Ellie Goulding and Jessie J. Sunday's line-up will be headlined by Lady Gaga and also includes My Chemical Romance, Bruno Mars, The Script, Taio Cruz, Katy B, Professor Green, Olly Murs and The Wombats. More acts for other stages will be announced over the next few days.
Scott Mills, who's covering Chris Moyles' breakfast show at the moment, was at a school in Carlisle this morning to make the announcement. He said: "Radio 1's Big Weekend is always a big highlight of the year for me. The line-up this year is simply incredible and I can't wait to come back to Carlisle again with the rest of the DJs in May."
Last year's Big Weekend was in Bangor, and previous locations include Swindon, Maidstone, Preston, Dundee and Sunderland. Its predecessor was 'One Big Weekend' which visited Birmingham, Londonderry, Cardiff and Manchester.
Neil Wyatt, Editor, Live Events, BBC Radio 1, says: "I'm really excited to be bringing Radio 1's Big Weekend, to Carlisle this year. Working alongside Carlisle City Council and Carlisle Tourism Partnership we've found a great site and should be able to deliver a fantastic event. I believe that this is our best line-up to date – we're bringing some huge international and UK artists to the city and it should have a huge impact on the area."
Director of Carlisle Tourism Partnership, Marie Whitehead, added: "This is without doubt the single biggest event to happen in Carlisle this side of the Millennium. To have the cream of today's music industry and radio talent coming to Carlisle is worth its weight in gold in publicity and will provide a great boost for the local tourism industry and for businesses in the region. Radio 1's Big Weekend is a fantastic event and we have all worked hard to make it happen. We can't underestimate the magnitude of an event like this taking place here and the opportunities it brings to Carlisle."