Prog For Peart 2022 music festival has announced that Karnataka and The Enid are to headline the Friday night & the Saturday night respectively. The festival is scheduled for Friday, July 1st and Saturday, July 2nd at The Northcourt in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England.
Sixteen progressive rock bands will play over the two days, eight on each day. Other bands on the bill are Red Bazar, Also Eden, The Far Meadow, Tiger Moth Tales, Stuckfish, Paradox Twin, The Gift, The Dame (from The Netherlands), Godsticks and several more.
The festival was envisioned by Mark Cunningham in response to hearing of the loss of Rush drummer Neil Peart in 2020 to a fatal form of brain cancer called Glioblastoma Multiforme. Last year saw the inaugural event take place and raise enough money to fund 25% of preparation work and pre-trial experiments to enable Nottingham Trent University to carry out human trials on a very promising treatment for the deadly disease.
When asked how this year’s festival came about, Mark said, “It was very clear almost from the start of organizing the 2021 event that there was a collective sense from the artists that they were right behind the cause and had felt Neil’s loss as personally as I had. So much so several were urging me to make it annual almost from day one. Once the dust settled after last year’s event, I had time to consider things. I was delighted and proud to see that all the artists who had performed were universally praising the running of the event across social media & how it was structured. Let me tell you, and I know any festival organizer will agree; when you are standing there in the middle of the event with so many different threads and concerns all pulling you in different directions simultaneously, it feels anything but well organized.”
Mark Cunningham added, “It came as a great surprise to learn from a couple of the bands that Prog Magazine’s readers had voted Prog For Peart one of the events of 2021. Alan Carter of Emerald Dawn was the first to send me the news. We were both also somewhat amused that his copy of Prog Magazine had arrived down at the tip of the British Isles in St Ives before mine had arrived in Oxfordshire.”
“That’s what sealed it really to be honest. I thought that here we have prog fans who have taken the event and what we are trying to do to their hearts and right then, any last doubts were swept away. The choice of the first half dozen bands was quite easy. I approached the bands that had had to pull out when last year’s date change was forced onto us by covid restrictions. I am delighted to tell you, they all said yes right away. I then rang Ian Jones of Karnataka. We had already been in touch over playing last year, but we simply couldn’t get the dates to work around the band’s other activities, not the least of which was the writing and recording of their new album. This time the dates fitted perfectly for the band and Karnataka agreed to headline the Friday night. I was then able to get in contact with Mick Wilson of Red Bazar and Tiger Moth Tales, Paul Menel of IQ fame got a message to me saying he was interested in playing and suddenly most of the lineup was in place. It all came together pretty quickly, I have to admit; except for the headline band on the Saturday night. Whilst I was contemplating what to do about the festival headliner, a friend suggested contacting The Enid. I confess I thought there’s no way I am going to get that to fly, after all the band and RJG are musical legends and Prog For Peart is a small festival at a 200 capacity venue only in its second year. But, I am over the moon to say they agreed to be headliners. The whole concept seems to have captured people’s imaginations, both musicians and prog fans. I think I said last year that at times it seemed to have taken on a life of its own. Well, that is more than ever the case now.”
All profits will go to the Headcase Cancer Trust. Tickets are on sale now from the venue site www.NorthcourtMusic.Com and other ticket sites.