Plymouth Summer Sessions organisers want Queen to play on The Hoe

Organisers have big ambitions for the future, including hopes to secure Queen to play on The Hoe

Plymouth is set to play host to a large-scale music festival this summer, with plans for it to become a regular fixture in Britain’s Ocean City’s cracking events calendar. And the promoters hope to bring rock legends Queen to the city in future years.

Events company Live Nation and promoters, Cuffe and Taylor, will bring the best of rock and pop names to The Hoe over a four day weekend between June 13 to 16 at Plymouth’s inaugural Summer Sessions. Headlining this year’s event will be Tom Jones, Bryan Adams, Madness, and Sting.

It will also see a number of special guests including Gabrielle, Cassyette, The Lightning Seeds, and Blondie. Peter Taylor, Co-Founder of Cuffe and Taylor said they are expecting 60,000 people to descend on Plymouth Hoe over the four days.

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It is hoped that if this year’s festival is a success, the event will be able to extend its agreement for up to five years and again for up to 10 years. There are also big ambitions to continue bringing huge acts to the city in the future, with hopes to eventually welcome British rock band Queen to Plymouth.

Mr Taylor said he is keen to invest in a long-term strategy to grow an event in partnership with Plymouth City Council and continue making live music accessible to people in Plymouth by bringing big acts right to their doorstep.

Cuffe and Taylor held their first festival in 2010 in the Lancashire seaside town of Lytham St Annes where they grew up. The event has since grown from a one-night-only community Proms-style concert to a huge five-day live music event which now attracts well in excess of 100,000 people each summer.

The promoters now have a portfolio of festivals in towns and cities across the UK, with Plymouth Summer Sessions being one of their most recent additions. Speaking about why they decided to bring the festival to Plymouth, Mr Taylor said: “We basically started by looking geographically in that part of the world.

“We had festivals in the Midlands and Wales and the south of England but we noticed there isn’t anything regular in the music calendar in the summer [in Plymouth]. Obviously, there’s Glastonbury not a million miles away and there have been a few concerts at the football club (Home Park) but in terms of a concert series, there was nothing kind of regularly in the music calendar.”

Having presented a number of shows at the Pavilions and Home Park over the years, Mr Taylor said he has become familiar with Plymouth and its music venues. When looking for a suitable place to hold the festival, he said doing it at The Hoe was “a no brainer”.

Mr Taylor explained: “We do an event in Lytham in Lancashire which is in a similar location on the promenade by the sea and it was kind of what we knew and I thought it was a great backdrop to hold the concert on. When I saw The Hoe, I thought it was obvious that we needed to put on a concert there.

“There’s a big audience in Plymouth and it’s also a tourist destination. So, we spoke to the city council who were really keen for a regular live music festival, and we are committed to delivering a great experience in Plymouth.”

Plymouth Summer Sessions already has an exciting line-up of artists which have already been announced but Mr Taylor said there are a number of up and coming local acts and musicians who are yet to be announced.

“I’m excited to be working with icons in Plymouth,” Mr Taylor said. “On closing night [of Summer Sessions] we have Sting and Blondie who were kind of genre-setting artists who defined music for their generation. Blondie was and still is a female icon that many contemporary artists still look up to. There aren’t many cities that have this sort of line across one weekend.

“We also have a number of up and coming artists who are yet to be announced. It’s exciting and the live music industry has never been as buoyant as it is now with so many new acts and there is no shortage of amazing talent coming through the ranks.”

Cuffe and Taylor's roster of artists is extensive and varied including Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Rod Stewart, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Madness, Lewis Capaldi, Sir Tom Jones, and Bryan Adams. Mr Taylor said one of the biggest moments in his career was getting Britney Spears to play Scarborough Open Air Theatre in 2018.

When asked if there are any other acts he hopes to secure in the future, Mr Taylor said: “Britney was a pretty big moment and there are many artists we would love to come and perform but we would certainly love to do some work with Queen and they would be a great act for Plymouth. I keep chasing them and one day they are going to come and play.”

It is hoped that the festival will be able to return to the city and continue to grow in years to come. Mr Taylor said he would eventually like to have multiple stages and fringe events on offer at the same time.

Looking ahead at this summer’s festival, he said he is most excited to see Plymouth’s reaction to the event. “We are absolutely blown away by the ticket sales and interest in Plymouth,” he added.

“We are really excited for the future of the festival and to see people’s reaction to it which we are hopeful they will enjoy. More and more people are accessing music right on their doorsteps and it really is the future.”