The superhuman, chart-topping force known as Rihanna performed her latest dance-y single "Where Have You Been," making a Gaga-like entrance by stepping out of a futuristic pyramid contraption. "I love you, Idol!," she declared.
LONDON – Rihanna, Drake, Deadmau5, Nicki Minaj and Pitbull are among the headline acts set to perform at the 8th annual Barclaycard Wireless Festival in London’s Hyde Park that takes place Friday through Sunday.
The Roots, Jessie J, Wiz Khalifa, Afrojack, Kaskade, Calvin Harris, Far East Movement and many more established and rising talents are also scheduled to entertain music fans on four stages at the open-air music gathering, organized by Live Nation.
Viacom’s MTV UK is the official TV partner for the festival, which organizers say is one of the biggest on the country’s festival calendar with more than 160,000 attendees expected over the course of the weekend. MTV’s coverage will air on July 28 and July 29 and include 10 live performances, a compilation show and a countdown of the festival’s top 50 moments.
The festival could create buzz beyond its performances given the recent showdown between Drake and Chris Brown, who isn’t scheduled for the festival, about Rihanna and U.K. bank Barclays’ interest rate manipulation scandal, which this week forced its CEO Bob Diamond to resign. The bank’s Barclaycard unit has been the festival’s title sponsor since 2009. The original sponsor was telecom giant O2.
Festival performances will start around 2pm every day and go as late as 10:30pm. The main stage will on Friday feature The Roots at 7:10pm followed by headliner Deadmau5 who is scheduled to play from 8:25pm until 10:25pm. Saturday’s main stage action will culminated with Nicki Minaj followed by Drake. And Jessie J followed by Rihanna will close out the festival on the main stage on Sunday.
Single-day tickets for around 50 pounds ($62) were still available for all days as of late Friday morning London time. Combination tickets for all three days were also still available, but two-day tickets were sold out.
Organizers have previously said that this year’s eighth edition of the music festival is shaping up to be the biggest and best-selling edition so far.
Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com
Twitter: @georgszalai
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