Wednesday, October 16Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Fifteenth Annual Eden Sessions Kick Off

‘See world-class bands and artists perform in front of our beautiful biomes with the amazing acoustics created by our natural amphitheatre’.

The Eden Project, a conservation project nestled within an abandoned quarry in St Austell, Cornwall, attracts over a million visitors per year. While the tropical bio-domes and artificial subterranean atmosphere attract the eccentric tree huggers and renewable energy enthusiasts, the Eden Sessions have become a hub for rockers and appreciators of quality music throughout the south. While the miniature festival’s initial years saw fledgling recognised names such as Elbow and Supergrass grace their stage, Eden has now boasted some of music’s greatest artists over the course of a decade, including Amy Winehouse, Grammy award winners Muse and 80s deity Elton John.

Summer 2016 brings Eden’s A-game to the forefront, as they continue their rivalry with beach-based festival favourite Boardmasters, the likes of welsh three-piece Manic Street Preachers and songstress of last year Jess Glynne playing alongside the line-up of parent-adored superstars Lionel Richie and Tom Jones. Commencing with Duran Duran as part of BBC Music Day in one week’s time, an evening at the Eden Sessions is truly the gig of a lifetime, the closest a band can get to ‘performing on a space station’ in the words of Blink 182 following their sell-out 2012 performance, Eden’s most jam-packed season to date with Tim Minchin through to The Vaccines rocking north Cornwall.

While the Richie-Jones tag team will play in June, Glynne, The Manics and PJ Harvey dominate July, several last minute mystery acts yet to be announced, the biggest names left to be revealed in truly tension-building Edenic style. Tickets are still available via the Eden Sessions and Eden Project websites, for what promise to be five-star acts.