Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor, left, and Robin Finck perform during the Bonnaroo Arts and Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn., on June 14. (Dave Martin/Associated Press)Nine Inch Nails and Ben Harper & Relentless7 will headline the Virgin Festival in Ontario, festival organizers announced Tuesday.
The festival will be held Aug. 29 at Burl's Creek Park in Oro, Ont., 20 kilometres from Orillia, a surprise development after being held in Toronto for the past three years.
In previous years, the music festival was held on Toronto Island. That would be a risky choice this year with city workers still on strike and no ferry service.
A festival spokeswoman said the decision to move the festival was not made because of the strike but because the park has camping for music lovers who want to attend both days of the event.
On Aug. 29, Grammy-winning U.S. musician Ben Harper and his new band Relentless7 headline a day that features a clutch of Canadian indie favourites including Sloan, Lights, Plants and Animals, Down with Webster and the Rural Alberta Advantage.
Also on the bill are the reunited Boston alt-rock outfit the Pixies, Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand, Scottish-Italian singer Paolo Nutini, Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear and California new wave band Iglu and Hartly.
Cleveland's own Nine Inch Nails headlines the Sunday program, which is heavy on electro-rockers including Toronto's Thunderheist, Norway's Datarock and British electronic dance group Pet Shop Boys.
Canadian acts include Our Lady Peace and, from Quebec, singer Coeur de Pirate, Silver Starling and D'Ubervilles.
In addition to the main Virgin Mobile stage there will be a second stage featuring acts such as Anjuli, Candy Coated Killahz, Sean Kingston, Melani Fion and the New Cities.
Ticket sales begin Saturday.
Virgin Festivals were begun in Britain by Virgin Founder Richard Branson. This year there were festivals in Vancouver, Halifax, Calgary and Montreal.
