575K Votes For UK Fest Awards

Nearly 600,000 votes have been cast for this year’s UK Festival Awards, which will announce the winners at London’s  Dec. 2.

That’s well up on the 500,000 who voted in 2012.

The category of best major festival lies between Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, T In The Park, Creamfields, Global Gathering and the relative newcomer Parklife Weekender in Manchester.

Parklife has sold out for the last four years and is the UK’s youngest major.

Having started out at the city’s Platt Field, this year it upsized to a 40,000-capacity site at Heaton Park, where The Stone Roses played three shows in 2012.

The headline performance of the year has thrown up a shortlist that includes Sigur Rós at End of The Road Festival, Rammstein at Download Festival, and Biffy Clyro and Eminem for their performances at Reading & Leeds.

The Rolling Stones have two chances of winning, with nominations for their shows at Glastonbury and London’s Hyde Park.

UK Festival Awards director James Drury said the 2013 festival season was one of the most “vibrant,” with “a huge number of must-see and incredible new acts.”