2012
On 23 May 2011, it was announced that for 2012, Radio 1 would be replacing the Big Weekend with a 'Hackney Weekend' to form part of the London 2012 Festival, in the build up to the 2012 Olympics. The festival duly took place on the Hackney Marshes over the weekend of 23 and 24 June 2012.
50,000 people attended each of the two days in 2012, meaning a total of 100,000 people visited the site over the weekend: more than double the previous highest attendances (40,000 across the weekends in each of 2010 and 2011). Due to the upgraded scale of the festival, the number of stages were increased (from four to six) and, for the first time, the Main Stage was outdoors rather than inside a tent.
Florence + The Machine were initially announced as playing on Saturday 23 June, but a double booking at another European festival meant that they actually performed on Sunday 24 June.
The Ting Tings were initially announced as to be playing on Saturday 23 June, but due to logistical reasons beyond their control they had to pull out of the bill.
On both days of the festival, a number of unannounced special guests performed with artists on the bill, the most noteworthy of which were Rihanna, M.I.A. and Kanye West appearing as part of Jay-Z's headlining set on Saturday; and, in turn, Jay-Z went on to return the favour and make a special multiple-song contribution during Rihanna's own headlining set the next day.
Read more about this topic: Radio 1's Big Weekend