This special event was called 2012 By Any Means, and happened as part of the Cultural Olympiad, celebrating the year leading up to the London 2012 Games.

Take a peek at the results below.

This is the third year of the Best Metropolitan Festival award category, with London’s Camden Crawl event taking the title in the first two years. The award category is for festivals that use the existing infrastructure of a town or city’s venues, and other events nominated in the category this year were The Great Escape (Brighton), Dot to Dot (Bristol/Nottingham/Manchester) and The Camden Crawl. Illustrious competition!

Tramlines Festival is also only in its third year, and already attracts an audience of over 150,000.

Festival Director Sarah Nulty said:

“As you can imagine we are all over the moon! There are so many people behind the scenes working on Tramlines in their own time and totally for free – getting industry recognition like this is exactly what they deserve. We survive on sponsors’ money, help from Sheffield Council and obviously all the enthusiasm from people within Sheffield who attend it. We’re already working on next year’s festival, and hope it will be just as successful.”

Metropolitan festivals are growing thanks to their flexibility: very little threat from the weather, no need to camp and the ability to hold them at any time of the year. The UK Festival Awards note that such festivals give people a chance to see multiple acts indoors and out.

James Drury, Managing Director of Festival Awards Ltd, said:

“In only three years Tramlines has established itself as a force to be reckoned with. It’s a great achievement to win this award in such a short space of time and is testament to the hard work of everyone involved.”

Councillor Julie Dore, Leader of Sheffield City Council added:

“What fantastic news for the city! Tramlines is a credit to Sheffield. The people behind it work tirelessly all year round to deliver an amazing weekend and this award is well deserved. The festival gets bigger and bigger and is a fantastic success story. I am very proud of the show the city puts on. Sheffield is alive during Tramlines weekend with so many different types of music, laughter and entertainment and everyone is always in good spirits, including me and my family. Here’s to 2012.”

It was a good night all round for independent events, as they took the majority of the gongs at this year’s awards. Here’s the full list of winners.

To all music fans:

You may have heard that the London riots have caused the destruction of a warehouse in North London housing many of the UK’s independent labels and artists. All the stock has been destroyed by fire.

This will lead to much hardship for the artists and labels affected.

What music fans can do to show their support for the indie label community, and help them survive this disaster is to buy a digital download of an album from any one of the digital retailers in the UK, as well as going to their local record store while stocks last.

This way, the labels will be able to remanufacture their CD’s and vinyl more quickly, to resupply the record shops who are also affected by the riots.

Alison Wenham, Chairman and CEO of AIM, the UK’s Trade Association for the Independent Music Industry commented: “This is a disaster for the music community, but with the fans’ help, labels and artists will survive. Please show your support for the music community by buying a digital album from an independent label today”.

Coming out the other side, we are pretty certain that Tramlines 2011 will go down as a vintage year. What an amazing atmosphere all weekend: the smile count was through the roof, and even though we had more people in the city, there were shorter queues at Devonshire Green and all the other stages stayed open for the whole weekend. Reading the messages on the different forums, it is amazing how many comments are about bands people have discovered over the weekend. Tramlines – The Wandering Festival has been truly born. And we are made up!

Everyone at Tramlines Towers wants to extend a massive ‘thank you’ to the people who came to this year’s event. It is you who create that really special atmosphere. We think this city just keeps excelling itself with the welcome it extends to people from far and wide, and in the sheer intensity of the party that we can throw. There were so many special moments and events that even trying to catalogue the highlights feels like an impossible job.

So we won’t try.

Instead, how about you lot keep chatting away with us over the Winter. Share your highlights, demand next year’s artists and most importantly of all, please keep coming back and visiting the city. There are great gigs and club nights on 52 weeks of the year.

See you at one of them – soon!

The Tramlines Team x

PS. We’ve made an online survey, and would love to get as much feedback from you lot on this year’s event as possible. Your views are important in helping us shape Tramlines 2012 – so get involved.

Throughout the weekend we will be running a service via Twitter to try and save you wasted journeys to venues that are too busy to let any more people in. If you can access Twitter on your phone, keep checking #TramlinesTraffic.

We will be posting regularly on there throughout the weekend to let you know queuing times at different venues and giving you the heads up on where some of the events’ alternative goings on are happening. On top of that, in the spirit of co-operation that lies at the very heart of the festival, we’re also asking you to keep us up to date on what is going on.

If you join a queue or bump into something that deserves a few more visitors, please tweet #TramlinesTraffic news onto the site. If you’re somewhere busy, then please be patient and always queue to the right. If an arena is full, remember that there are 70 other places where you can watch music plus hundreds of places to eat, relax and enjoy yourself.

We will do our best to keep you informed. Please help by keeping us informed too.

#tramlinestraffic #itwillworkifeveeryonejoinsin #excited

Exclusive T-shirts have been designed by Geo from the Hantu Collective and Martin Bedford. There’s also rubber wrist-bands, fabric bags and a limited edition A3 poster with the Hantu print.

Check it out - http://www.frooly.com/tramlines

We’re doing this Sheffield-style which means everyone invited and everyone involved. Tudor Square, just outside the Crucible Theatre will become an Olympic running track for the day. Arts and sports groups, bands, dancers, parents and toddlers, ravers, people in fancy dress, ramblers, knitters, stilt walkers, gymnasts, singers and the Lord Mayor herself will be lapping the track using any means or in any guise. This event is called 2012 By Any Means for a reason!

You can even catch a ride on the Flycycle – a fantastic means of transport which will take you around the track on a flying machine!

Our mission is to get as many people enjoying the day – you don’t need to prepare anything you can just turn up and get involved.  It’s all free and it’s suitable for children and adults of all ages.

Tudor Square will be full of artists and performers who will help you make fancy dress and carnival costumes and decorate your baby buggies, wheelchairs and bikes.   Some of the activity on the day will reflect the culture of international athletes who will be resident in the city during the 2012 Games and you will be able to have a go at Brazilian Capoeira and Carnival skills and enjoy Romany dancing.

Each lap of the track will go towards a final distance covered throughout the course of the day.  The target will be 297km – the distance between Tudor Square and the site of the Olympic Stadium.  The whole journey will be documented with time-lapse photography and shown live on a screen in Tudor Square which should prove very entertaining!

Around the corner in the front of the Cathedral, you’ll find Architects of Air which is an amazing luminarium which you can enter for a small fee.  Inside it’s like a multicoloured chill out space, created to give you a full sensory experience of art, music, sound and relaxation.  It’s suitable for all ages and it’s a once in a lifetime experience.

Hope to see you down there!

Tramlines 2011 is just around the corner and this year, people can travel around the ever expanding festival site in style – serenaded by some of Festival’s hottest bands.

After a resounding success last year, the Buskers’ Bus is back.  As with all things Tramlines, this year the Buskers’ Bus is bigger and better.

Two double-decker buses will take revellers around the festival, stopping at key venue destinations, all of course, for free.

Lee Mullin, Buskers’ Bus Manager said:

“Last year the Bromheads curated Buskers’ Bus was the highlight of many people’s weekend, travelling round the city whilst being entertained by Sheffield’s biggest artists. The Buskers’ Bus connects the peripheral venues with the city centre, making sure festival goers can take in the whole Tramlines site. This year we’ve pulled out all the stops. Two double deckers, national artists as well as home grown talent, secret sets, sing-alongs and much, much more.”

‘The Milestone Blues and Ale Bus’ starts at the Devonshire Cat on Wellington Street en route to Kelham Island. The route will feature bands like Pete David and the Payroll Union, Low Duo and Risky Heroes.

The ‘Steelworks-VOICE’ Buskers’ Bus’ will cover Broomhill, Hunters Bar and the Train Station and includes Elephant Keys, Mothers Ruin, and Skint & Demoralised.

Both buses run a 20-minute circuit starting at the Devonshire Cat 11am-10pm Saturday and Sunday. The routes have been sponsored by The Milestone, Steelworks and VOICE.

As with last year, there will be plenty of surprise guests and treats, with David Bowie and Beatles sing-along buses and big headline bands yet to be announced.

Last year, bus passengers were treated to surprise performances from the likes of Dinosaur Pile-Up and The Everley Pregnant Brothers. This year The Chapman Family and others have already confirmed that they will perform on the Buskers’ Bus at some point over the weekend. Revellers will have to hope they are on the right service to catch their intimate performances in what will be a once in a lifetime experience.

For times and updates look out on Bromheads Facebook page and follow the hashtag #buskersbus on Twitter.

For more information about getting to and from the festival by public transport go to www.travelsouthyorkshire.co.uk.

In a last-minute change the University Arms, which offers a good selection of cask ales from Thornbridge and other local breweries, has decided to feature indie/punk bands during Tramlines. Replacing the pub on the Blues and Ale Trail is Delaney’s Music Bar, a new venue located off London Road which serves well-kept cask ales. Along with some top blues bands and legends the pub will feature Thornbridge Jaipur as well as Yorkshire Farmer, Farmers Bitter, and Farmers Blonde, all from Bradfield Brewery, and also some special ciders.

Just inside the ring road is the Bath Hotel, a CAMRA Heritage pub that consists of two rooms, one with a checkerboard tiled floor, tiled walls, and stained glass details. There is a revolving selection of real ales from local and national breweries, with Abbeydale Deception and Barnsley Bitter being two of my favourites. The Bath regularly hosts live blues.

Down on Nursery Street, the Harlequin features books, darts, and a little courtyard garden that reminds me of New Orleans. The cask ale selection is wide and varied, and there is always at least one intensely hopped ale for us hopheads.

A short walk from the Harlequin is the Riverside, which has a back deck overlooking the River Don. This pubs hosts many music and literary events, and there will be lots of bands performing during Tramlines. The cask ales include the refreshingly crisp Riverside Pale brewed for the pub by the Brew Company.

Across the river and down the road, the multi-award-winning Kelham Island Tavern will be offering limited amounts of special brews from Bradfield Brewery and Chesterfield’s Spire Brewery. The back room is a comfortable space for listening to live music, as is the pub’s colourful garden.

Just around the corner is the Fat Cat, a maze of a pub with feline motifs found in surprising places. The bands will be playing in the beer garden on Saturday. Three special beers are being brewed by the Kelham Island Brewery for the event including Everly Pregnant Ale and Tramlines 2011.

Further down into Neepsend is the Gardeners Rest, a gem situated on the River Don. Home of Sheffield’s only remaining bar billiards table, the pub features art exhibits and plenty of reading material and local information. The nearby Sheffield Brewery has brewed a special Tramlines Ale which will be available at the pub and is already being sold at several other Sheffield pubs including the Bath Hotel. A percentage of the profits from the sales of this ale will help to fund the festival.

The main stage of the Blues and Ale Trail will be featuring nine bands all day Saturday at the Creative Arts Development Space (CADS) located in a former cutlery warehouse in Shalesmoor. Real ales will be available, of course.

Words by JC of www.coffeebeer.co.uk/

Earlier in the year they hosted the Heeley Festival which was a great success. Including them in the festival this year was an obvious choice and allows us to offer a very different kind of environment to the madness of the city centre. Their meadow has never looked better, decorations and tents are being constructed right now and all that’s needed is you!

They have produced a varied and eclectic line-up which includes loads of different styles of music. World, folk and ethereal will be meeting indie, soul and improvisation. It’s best described as a little slice inner-city Glastonbury.

Highlights include Salmagundi, a Nottingham based band offering vibrant beats from around the world, the wonderful Sieben/Matt Howden playing his magical violin loops, the up and coming noisy pop of Runaround Kids, The Motherfolkers, Gypsy Toes, Soulfunkful, Fay and Latta and loads more, not to mention a great selection of stalls and entertainment. Get yourself away from the hustle and bustle of town and enjoy a fun filled day in Heeley!

The Busker’s Bus route will take you from the city centre within 10 minutes walk from Heeley City Farm.