What is Icebreaker Festival about?

 ICEBREAKER FESTIVAL 

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14th March 2014; the day that local promoters, musicians & DJ’s came together to form an annual, winter event to celebrate the unsigned music scene at a time of year which usually is very quiet in our thriving city. Our objective was to successfully allow musicians from Portsmouth and the surrounding areas to perform in front of large crowds across multiple venues in Southsea and for those musicians to gain much deserved media attention. The concept was simple, our customers can purchase one wristband to access all venues to watch as many artists as they’d like. Icebreaker Festival is based in multiple venues/pubs on Albert Road & Elm Grove in Southsea, those participating venues allow us to close their normal day to day establishment to become a wristband only venue for the festival. 

We’ve been very proud to learn that the local businesses on Albert Road & Elm Grove benefit from us hosting the festival. 

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Our debut festival was on 31st January 2015, we hosted 74 acts across 6 venues in one day. We quickly learnt the importance of this festival for Portsmouth, Hampshire and beyond from the resounding response from a sold-out festival and some incredible comments from the local media. 

"As one day festivals go, you would be hard pushed to find a better event to attend, especially in winter and it was an excellent day of live music. A big thanks has to go to everyone involved in it for making it one of the best events ever to be held in Portsmouth" 

Rock and Roll Creations January 2015 

"So with the organizers already advertising to recruit bands for next year’s event who knows where the festival will lead… but for now Icebreaker 2015 was just the tip of the iceberg, with those January blues becoming something well worth remembering" 

Mr Teeth Reviews January 2015 

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On Monday 25th January 2016 - Icebreaker were awarded runner up in ‘Best Event’ category behind our friends Victorious Festival in the Wow24/7 Awards which was hosted at The Kings Theatre, Albert Road. Also nominated were Munity Festival, Portsmouth Summer Show, America’s Cup and Wickham Festival. We take great pride in our award knowing the local scene voted for us based on 2015’s successful event as well as the hype for the 2016 festival, which was a mere few days afterwards. 

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Saturday 30th January 2016 saw Icebreaker Festival’s second event take place, we had expanded the festival from 6 to 10 venues and had the privilege of 105 acts passing through our venues on one day. We found 2016’s festival had cemented Icebreaker into Portsmouth’s full time event calendar after Portsmouth City Council placed our festival in its annual events guide, The Portsmouth News placed Icebreaker in the top 10 ‘things to do’ in 2016 as well as support from Team Locals, Strong Island and Victorious Festival to name a few. 

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"You’d be really hard pushed to find a live event featuring this much musical talent anywhere else at this time of year, so Icebreaker Festival has definitely become an unmissable addition to our ever-growing music scene here in Southsea. With brilliant musicians of all genres and a great range of venues to choose from – it wasn’t a bad way to spend a chilly Saturday this winter" 

Strong Island January 2016 

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“Consider the ice well and truly broken…” 

Portsmouth News 2016 

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Saturday 28th January 2017, our most recent festival was one to remember with 120 acts over 12 venues and 2,000 people in attendance. This year’s event saw some of Portsmouth’s big names including Blackfoot Circle, Marley Blandford, Emptifish and Zegema Beach as well as some upcoming acts from Glasgow, London, Brighton & Reading. Southampton’s highly rated Signals headlined the Wedgewood Rooms to a full house. 

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‘Overall, Icebreaker Festival exceeded all of my expectations from the year before and is definitely set in stone as one of my highlights of the year, especially as a festival for finding brand new, mostly local music. It’s always great to see bands that I’m already aware of, yet find bands that I’ve never heard of. Icebreaker really puts Southsea on the map as a place with an incredibly diverse music scene as well as many small, yet mighty venues. I’m really excited to see the festival return as a two day festival next year and I’m already looking forward to it!’

MIX IT ALL UP 

‘It was great to see so many packed out venues playing host to the best up-and-coming artists in the Portsmouth and the surrounding areas, with attendance figures no doubt helped by the fact everything was super convenient for festival goers’

11 IS LOUDER THAN 10 

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Icebreaker Festival 2018 

Promising to be our best yet, next year’s Icebreaker Festival takes place over two days! After nearly 900 applications for 2017’s event, we learnt that we needed to add additional slots to the venues we currently work with, adding Friday evening was a perfect solution. Next year, we will host over 150 acts over 7 venues on Friday 2nd February and 11 on Saturday 3rd February, 

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Our venues for this year are The Wedgewood Rooms, Edge of the Wedge, Royal Albert, Acapulco, Wine Vaults (Saturday only) The Loft, The Fat Fox, The Atrium (Saturday only) One Eyed Dog, The Deco, The Honest Poli (Saturday only) 

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Wristbands are priced at Friday - £8, Saturday - £12 or a weekend ticket at just £15! 

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Our Headliners for 2018 are;

Richard Morris, Is Bliss, The Collision, Bel Esprit, The Paul Dillon Band, Archie Langley, Foxer, Eyes to the Skies, The Machete, Temples of Youth, Coax, Mint Gun Club, Fainites, Horseflies, Roy Peplow, Minque, Arcade Hearts, Sleepwalker, Morass of Molasses and Noyo Mathis.

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