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Music

Apple Music Festival Is No Longer, After a 10 Year Run

The much-loved event saw memorable gigs by acts from Britney Spears to Elton John.
Lauren O'Neill
London, GB
Imagen vía Wikimedia Commons

The saying goes that all good things must come to an end, and it's true: Love Island, Cadbury's Astros, my favourite jeans that got the big hole in the crotch: all things that I have loved and, later, lost. And sadly, the latest good thing to fall victim to the inevitable passage of time is Apple's annual London-based Apple Music Festival (formerly iTunes Festival), which has taken place every September at Camden's Roundhouse venue since 2007.

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Though Apple haven't disclosed why the festival will not run from 2017 onwards, the decision doesn't appear to be indicative of any attempts by the company to pull away from live music any time soon. In recent years, they've sponsored and streamed music events, and are now also moving into original content with the Carpool Karaoke series.

While all of this is exciting, it's still true that the Apple Music Festival – which brought huge artists like Elton John, Britney Spears, One Direction, Lady Gaga, and Arctic Monkeys to the relatively intimate Camden Roundhouse – will be much missed. Festivals in general are special: they bring people who love the same thing together, and it's literally proven that that's good for your mental health. But Apple Music Festival was that bit better because nobody paid to be there (everyone attending entered a competition to win tickets), making it that bit more exciting and special. Sadly, there's nothing else really quite like it on the UK landscape, and its fun and varied blend of big artists on a small scale will be difficult to replicate. RIP.

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