Roots Manuva is one of the most influential and unique hip-hop artists nowadays. He rocked the world back in 1999 and has got an impressive collection of Grammy and Mercury Awards. Currently he is one the most popular MCs in music history. Meaningful lyrics combined with ragga, R&B, funk and English trip-hop sounds attract to Roots Manuva the army of young intellectual fans. The rapper has been involved in various projects together with such bands as Gorillaz, U.N.K.L.E, Nightmares on Wax, The Cinematic Orchestra, Coldcut and many others. Even though his latest album Slime & Reason was released just a couple of years ago, Roots Manuva keeps on working hard.

Video Roots Manuva – Dreamy Days:

Ruble – a new project of Russian ska punks Leningrad will also perform in Norviliškės. The change of the name didn’t change the essence of these rowdies: they break the guitar strings with heavy riffs, swear and curse all possible social problems in their songs. The band’s vocalist Sergey Shnurov (a.k.a. Shnur) is one of the most notorious persons in Russia: a musician, an actor and an ingenious provocateur. He sings uncensored lyrics and would go on stage naked but he is always there brimming with energy.  Ruble shows are usually sold out and the success of the latest album Sovest (Conscience – Eng.) proves that Russian underground music legends haven’t lost either their influence on people’s minds or their popularity. Resurrected as Ruble, Leningrad guys go on with their mission of spreading the essence of rock music around the world.

Video Ruble – Doshirak:

A powerful show on Norviliškės stage will be made by the stars of London club scene – Crystal Fighters. They once dared to create dance music using Basque folk instruments which won Crystal Fighters the honor of playing live on BBC radio. The world’s main dance music magazine Mixmag chose the band’s hit I Love London “the best song of 2008”. Crystal Fighters play their music very fast and their live sets have become legendary in European clubs.

Video Crystal Fighters – I Love London:

Other bands to perform at music and arts festival Be2gether which will take place on June 25-27 are fancy Empire of the Sun, stylish WhoMadeWho, English rockers Skunk Anansie, beatboxers Bauchklang, Lithuanian Silence family, Norwegian Casiokids and famous Ukrainian Cossack rockers Haydamaky.

Norwegian band Casiokids will represent Scandinavian electronic music at the festival. Although the band lyrics are written in Norwegian, Casiokids has a lot of fans abroad. Since its creation in 2005 the band has played numerous renowned festivals in Europe. Musical critics compare Casiokids to Røyksöpp and two other bands which have rocked Norviliškės in 2007: Datarock and Kings of Convenience. Casiokids rather prefer having fun than reaching after fame. On stage the band performs using multicoloured drums, tape recorders, battered guitars and old toys.

Video „Casiokids“ – „En Vil Hest“:

Ukrainian Cossacks Haydamaky promised to play a hot rock show in Norviliškės. Ukrainian word “Haydamaky” was used to describe the Ukrainian soldiers fighting for their homeland in XVIII c. Modern Haydamaky changed swords to electro guitars, and they mix heavy rock with old Ukrainian war songs. The truly unique band is well known across Europe. Haydamaky has performed together with world-famous Gogol Bordelo ir Emir Kusturica’s The No Smoking Orhestra, and they are signed with the titan of a record label EMI. 

Video „Haydamaky“ – „Nemae Hliba, Spivaj!“:

One of the main beatbox stars in the world – Austrian Bauchkland, was also confirmed for our festival. Bauchklang guys break the boundaries of all music genres mixing together ragga, hip-hop, drum’n’bass, and progressive electronic music. They use nothing but human voice and a microphone. During 14 years of its existence Bauchklang has had a busy touring schedule and released 6 studio albums raising the bar of vocal music performance sky-high and harvesting the deserved music awards. 

Video „Bauchklang“ – „Barking News“:

Be2gether Festival also presents colorful Empire of the Sun, stylish WhoMadeWho, English rockers Skunk Anansie and Lithunian Silence family.

Festival ticket sales are made through „Tiketa“. 3 day ticket - LT 120, 1 day ticket - LT 70..

The festival’s primal four artists include one of the most popular Australian bands today - “Empire Of The Sun”. Their debut album released a few years ago, made it to the most promising new music talent top 4 of the BBC’s “Sounds of  Music 2009″.

At the “BRIT awards 2010″ they were nominees in two categories and now they’re called the hottest Australian artists not only for sudden success around the world and praises of famous music critics, but also for stunning live shows: cosmic costumes, dancing swordfish and light shows.

Video: Empire Of The Sun performing Live:

Visitors of the festival, who prefer a heavier style of music, will be rocked by stars from Great Britain “Skunk Anansie”. The band has been nominated many times for the MTV European Music Awards. “Skunk Anansie” toured with such bands as U2, Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz, Rammstein, Muse, played for Nelson Mandela and Dalai Lama. In 1999, lead-singer Skin quit the band and started a solo career. The band split up. In 2009 “Skunk Anansie” returned with the greatest hits album “Smashes and Trashes” including a brand new track “Because of You”.

Video: Skunk Anansie - “Because of You”:

 
Another band performing at the festival on the last weekend of June is an electronic rock trio from Denmark - “WhoMadeWho. With three albums - including the most recent “The Plot”, which was released just last year - the trio admires such artists as “Daft Punk”, “Hot Chip”, “LCD Soundsystem”, “Queens of the Stoneage”. “WhoMadeWho” drive the crowds wild with the combination of punk, stoner rock, electropop, disco music styles and costumes of skeletons or angels on stage.

Video: WhoMadeWho “-” Keep Me In My Plane”:

Lithuanian headliners of the festival are the musicians “Silence Family. “I’ll Be Gone,” “Who’s Shot the silence?”, “Free”, “Journey,” “Mano” are the artists’ musical signatures of their performance quality. Vidis, Mario Basanov, Jazzu, Leon Somov, Few New folder - call themselves an electronic music orchestra. The lithuanian elite of electronic music use computers and various acoustic instruments during their performance to make cold electronic whispers come alive.

Video Silence Family:

This year Be2gether will be rocked by popular Australian performers “Empire Of The Sun”, rock stars “Skunk Anansie”, electronic rock trio from Denmark “WhoMadeWho”, playful Casiokids, Cossacks Haydamaky and beatboxers Bauchklang. These are only the first announced performers.

For the fourth time the festival invites people to be together with various style of music from all over the world, as well as lots of art and entertainment, unforgettable emotions and energy. Be2gether is an important cultural event which unites Eastern and Western Europe.

Fans are now able to vote for a second time to determine the final winners in all eight of the above categories.

Voting will close once and for all on Wednesday 30 December before the winners are unveiled at the gala ceremony, which takes place on Wednesday 13 January in Netherlands. The voters can win two tickets to the winning festivals!

You can give your vote in the internet following this link:

http://eu.virtualfestivals.com/index.cfm?section=euroawards&yearid=7

EFA

Music and art festival ‚Be2gether‘ is nominated in the European Festival Awards 2009. It is the first Lithuanian festival nominated in the festival awards which is organized by Virtual Festivals Europe and festivals asocciation ‚Yourope‘ since 2004.
‘Be2gether’ only three years old festival is nominated in Best Small Festival category. To this nomination pretend festivals which gathers around 10 000 visitors. Festivals fan can vote for their favourites all December. Later music industry juries will rate festivals line – up and headliners. The winners will be announced on 13th of January in Netherlands.

Fans are now able to vote for a second time to determine the final winners in all eight of the above categories.

Voting will close once and for all on Wednesday 30 December before the winners are unveiled at the gala ceremony, which takes place on Wednesday 13 January in Netherlands. The voters can win two tickets to the winning festivals!

You can give your vote in the internet following this link.

EFA

Music and art festival ‚Be2gether‘ is nominated in the European Festival Awards 2009. It is the first Lithuanian festival nominated in the festival awards which is organized by Virtual Festivals Europe and festivals asocciation ‚Yourope‘ since 2004.

‘Be2gether’ only three years old festival is nominated in Best Small Festival category. To this nomination pretend festivals which gathers around 10 000 visitors. Festivals fan can vote for their favourites all December. Later music industry juries will rate festivals line – up and headliners. The winners will be announced on 13th of January in Netherlands.

You can give your vote in the internet following this link.

We found a few thousand wonderful people, and a ton of good vibes and new experiences (admittedly, we lost a lot of sleep).

If you lost something at the festival, or perhaps found something and would like to return it good-heartedly, please write to info@b2g.lt .

“Were excited about the new developments and we‘d like to thank those who worked together with us.  Foremost, we extend a big thanks to the people closest to the festival, those who helped create Be2gether.  We‘d also like to thank the Vilnius City Municipality for its support – this is very important to the festival,“ said festival coordinator Giedrius Klimkevičius.

Performing musicians reacted warmly to the festival as well.  “I never expected to get an audience like this here.  We‘d like to come back to Lithuania and perform again, the people here are great,“ said Eugene Hutz, leader of Gogol Bordello, the group that put on the most effective performance at the festival.

The festival, which went on near the Belarusian border for three days and two nights, took place without incident due to this year‘s professionally run security system.  Several hundred security personnel and 300 volunteers ensured security in the Norviliškės area, as well as police and canine detail.  Nearly 300 members of the media from various countries were accredited at Be2gether, because it was a main feature of Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009.