New Milton Keynes music festival ‘here to stay’ says MK Dons chief executive

SMK Live, which is taking place at Milton Keynes Dons ground over the weekend of June 27 and 28, is set to feature a host of top bands and artists across various musical genres.

Basement Jaxx, Clean Bandit and Groove Armada are among those taking to the stage on Saturday 27th, with Black Eyed Peas, Jason Derulo and Cat Burns among the line-up on Sunday 28th.

Neil told the Citizen that the full artist line-up had been finalised and they were now focused on filling the stadium for the weekend.

"SMK Live is here to stay - it’s our inaugural event but it will be here every year," Neil said.

"We’ll build upon it and make it an annual event at the stadium and roll with it each year.

"The stadium is built for it, and when the season finishes we’ve got the opportunity to flip into music mode.

"We’re there now with the artists, a full line-up for each day.

"I’m really pleased to get Jason Derulo because he’s touring and selling out venues on his own.

"We’ll market the hell out of it for the next few months to try and fill this stadium. There are 20,000 tickets available for each night.

"We’re working with a lot of partners across the music sector so I’m confident that’ll be a huge success."

Milton Keynes has multiple big music festivals scheduled this summer, including Reggae Land at The National Bowl from July 31 to August 2, and The Totally 90s Festival at Willen Lake, which is being held the same weekend as SMK Live.

On bringing more music to the city Neil added: "With music, you have to be proactive and a bit relentless, and I don’t think we have been in recent years but we’ve waited for the phone to ring.

"Now we have a team of people chasing down those opportunities.

"We’re talking to one promotion at the moment and giving them dates for the stadium and for the Bowl. So we’re just being productive."