R.E.M’s show at the Royal Albert Hall on March 24 will be aired live on the radio by BBC, on Radio 2. The show, which will be broadcast in its entierty, will be part of the birthday celebrations for the Institute of Fine Arts. R.E.M. will play the Main Stage of the Sziget Festival on the 16th of August.

While we wait for more news on this year’s line-up, check out this video of what Iron Maiden can do live and what everyone that comes to Budapest for the Sziget Festival will experience on the 12th of August…

We finally have more information on Natacha Atlas’ performance at this year’s Sziget Festival. Rumor has it that Atlas will play with Transglobal Underground, her former band, on the World Music Stage. The concert will take place on the 14th of August, according to Natacha Atlas’ website Here’s something to watch while you wait for august to come - the video of “C’est la vie”, by Jean Michel Jarre featuring Natacha Atlas.

This is a great French ska band called N&SK, playing at Sziget this year. Check them out, you’ll be hooked.

This is a fake flyer for the festival that’s going around the Internet… How do we know it’s a fake? First, the dates are wrong and second, why would the organizers not mention R.E.M.? Still, it would be nice to have all these artists on the island this year…

According to caboodle.hu, Budapest District III (Óbuda) mayor Balázs Bús has applied for the section of Hajógyári (Shipxyard) Island owned by the City to be transferred to the district. A little more than half of the island, the venue for the annual Sziget festival, is owned by the state, while the rest (43%) is controlled by the City.

The mayor thinks the city neglects this area, where illegal races are being held at night. He also feels that if more of the island would be owned by the district, the green area would be larger, and more development aid would be assigned to the district. Those resources would be spent on the island. He added that within the framework of the “Dream Island” investment planned for the southern part of the island, some €1.5 million would be spent on managing the green areas.

About the effects this would have on the festival, Balázs Bús said that “We don’t think that the Sziget Festival should be canceled or changed.” However, he added that they would like to reach better agreements with organizers of the festival to protect the interests of local residents.

We just stumbled across this site, where you can see some fantastic panorama pictures of last year’s festival. It’s well worth seeing!

If there are other bands you’d like to see performing at the festival, the wishlist for the 2008 edition is still on (we don’t know for how long). So get voting, get your friends to vote, get the cat to vote and have your favourite band on one of Sziget’s many stages.

The latest rumor we heard says that Natacha Atlas will be playing this year’s Sziget Festival. More to follow on this.

According to Sziget’s Last.fm event page, Yonderboi, that played the festival’s WAN2 stage last year, will play this year, too. Other names for this year’s festival are Transglobal Underground, Neo, Besh o droM, Tankcsapda, Hiperkarma, Heaven Street Seven, Quimby,Korai Öröm, zuboly, Frenk, Erik Sumo Band and Pannonia Allstar Ska Orchestra.

As recently announced, R.E.M.’ s summer festival dates for 2008 will promote their new album, “Accelerate”, to be released on April 1. Although R.E.M.  promises that “Accelerate” is the band’s most energetic album to date, they will also get into their classic playlist.

After Iron Maiden was confirmed to headline this year’s 0-day of the Sziget Festival, R.E.M. is the second large act to honour this year’s Budapest music gathering. As mentioned on their website, remhq.com, R.E.M. will play at Sziget on the 16th of August. Apart from Germans  Die Ärzte, the other known acts until now are Kocani Orkestar, N&SK, and Les Touffes Krétiennes.