Friday night was kind of intimate but with some fantastic gigs to get us warmed up. Saturday was hectic, there were big queues and some sweaty venues, but the smile count remained high all day. And Sunday felt like a Sunday should feel, a genteel/hungover start with a legendary finish. Whether you preferred the Hawley/Bunnymen finale on Devonshire Green, or the Gallows directed running moshpit around the War Memorial in Barkers Pool is a matter of taste; they were both pretty awesome by all accounts.

Our vision for Tramlines is to show Sheffield at its best, and to showcase the diverse array of music on offer. That could be the big stages, the hundreds of local bands on show (most of whom played for free) or some of this year’s great new features like the Blues and Ale trail, The Bromheads Busker Line or the wicked Audio Visual Zone. It really is a city full of music – so please don’t leave it a year to come back and see us. There is great stuff on every week, and from this week a full listings service at ExposedMagazine.co.uk tell you what’s on around the city.

If you enjoyed the festival, and want to help us out – there is a voluntary donation scheme running. Any money donated will be spent on next year’s event.

We know there are things that could have run better – (our list is currently up to about 500 items and growing by the day)! Managing the safe flow of people, whilst keeping the city accessible is one of our main concerns. We think we did pretty well at keeping the event safe – but can probably improve the flow a bit next year.

Anyway – please chip in with your suggestions. We will be reading every comment on Facebook over the next few weeks to make sure we don’t miss anything. Please keep the comments friendly if you can; it would be nice to keep the festival vibe alive a little bit longer.

We are sure you all have your own highlights. If we have done our jobs properly then some of them will have been unexpected, and hopefully you discovered some new favourite bands along the way too.

For us the highlight was another fantastic, über-friendly event – where you lot made the city one of, if not the, happiest place in Britain. Many many thanks for that; it really was a pleasure having you around.

See you next year!

The Tramlines Team x

That said, we know the programme had a few errors in it and we inevitably had to do a bit of shuffling of bands around. Thanks for bearing with us, and apologies to those of you who missed an act as a result of these enforced changes. We hope you had a great weekend regardless.

Probably our biggest disappointment was the unavoidable cancellation of 65daysofstatic’s set in The Foundry on Sunday evening. This was due to a fault with electrical supplies, following an automatic power cut off being triggered by a heat detector on the fire alarm system. The venue tried to fix the fault and so we kept the crowd outside in the hope of restarting the gig – this eventually proved impossible despite their best efforts.

While the fault was something that no-one could have predicted, Sheffield Students’ Union are keen to receive feedback from customers who were present on Sunday. If you would like more information or were present and would like to comment, please contact Chris White, Head of Entertainments and Events.

Once again, we hope it didn’t spoil your weekend. We had a ball! Thanks for making it another great festival – see you next year.

The Tramlines Team x

Indeed, in true Family Fortunes style we’ve put together a little survey to find out what you think of Tramlines 2010.

So once the music’s over, pull up a comfy chair, pour yourself a mug of tea and tick some boxes – it won’t take a minute to fill in, and we’d really value your feedback to help us deliver an even better event in 2011.

As a little incentive to spur you on, we’re giving respondents the chance to win one of five VIP passes for next year’s Tramlines – giving you the chance to jump the queues and meet the stars!

Complete 10 quick questions for your chance to be a VIP at Tramlines 2011

Last summer, the city was buzzing, we had a legendary party, and there was so much love in Sheffield that crime rates actually fell. This year, it’s going to be even bigger and better.

Tramlines is put on by Sheffield’s music community – with the enthusiastic support of our city council. Our aim is to let each venue, promoter and musician, express themselves and showcase what they do best. The whole festival is free. There is music and entertainment everywhere. So why not experiment a bit? Wander into a venue you’ve never visited before. See someone you’ve never heard of. Do something you wouldn’t normally do. You have nothing to lose. This year, the booking team have excelled themselves. There’s great headliners, a mind blowing roster of local artists, and some really quirky treats at over 50 venues around town.

With so much interest in Tramlines, we’re expecting thousands of you to turn up for the party. There’ll be times when some arenas or venues will be full. At these times, we’ll need your cooperation. Please show the festival and your fellow revellers as much respect as you can, keep smiling, queue nicely and leave your rubbish in the bins. We want you and the festival to come back next year.

Enjoy Tramlines, and enjoy Sheffield. We hope this festival gives you a glimpse of what our beautiful city has to offer for the other 51 weeks of the year. Have fun!

The Tramlines Team x

PS. The official Tramlines Programme is now online. Have a read, and get excited!

Last year’s Tramlines saw over 400 litres of paper, 2080 litres of plastic and 560 litres of aluminium recycled from the outdoor element of the festival alone – and that’s before you count what each of the 35 venues recycled.

Sustainability is back on the agenda this year, with Sheffield Is My Planet getting involved to help reduce the environmental impact the festival has on the city. The partnership will see the festival’s carbon footprint reduced, while encouraging festival goers to change their behaviour for the better.

Initiatives include:

• A solar powered headphone disco on Devonshire Green (between 6-10pm on Saturday 24 July and Sunday 25 July).
• Cheap accommodation for festival goers via Unite.
• Carbon pledges – take a shower instead of a bath or recycle those empty beer bottles, for instance. See Sheffield Is My Planet’s website for more.
• The use of recycled and recyclable print wherever possible, and Biodiesel to power the site’s generators.
• Major recycling areas at all of the outdoor stages, and a daily recycling programme for the indoor venues and traders.

With your help, we can make Tramlines as environmentally friendly as possible – do your bit!

On Saturday July 24th, the Winter Gardens and Millennium Square will play host to Junior Tramlines, with DJ Rob Wellington overseeing a programme of music and dance for young people.

Taking place from 11am until 5pm, activities will include Mini Chance To Dance (with Sheffield Dragons, Stepz Dance Academy, City Limits and Concord Allstars), magic from Barney Baloney, storytelling, face painting, crafts and exercises with the Play Rangers.

Youngsters will even be able to take a walk on the Tramlines Red Carpet dressed as their favourite film or pop star and have their picture taken by a professional photographer for the Wall of Fame.

Councillor Paul Scriven, Leader of Sheffield City Council says:

“Tramlines is all about bringing the whole city together regardless of age or background, and the best news is that it is completely free. Junior Tramlines gives positive activities for our youngest festival goers with the Youth Music Festival at Corporation for teens and over 50 venues to entertain the adults. It doesn’t matter if you’re eight or eighty; Tramlines weekend will have something for you”

Headliners include: Echo & The Bunnymen, Mystery Jets, Simian Mobile Disco (DJ set), Blood Red Shoes, Craig David, Darwin Deez, The Hoosiers, The King Blues and Toddla T.

The Main Stage’s capacity on Devonshire Green will increase to 8,000 – but the festival will extend across the entire city to showcase every aspect of Sheffield’s music community, including a Youth Music Festival, Blues trail and a Ceilidh.

This year’s event is once again free, and there will no need for tickets for any part of the festival.

New venues joining Tramlines this year include the O2 Academy, which plays host to Ollie Hayes and special guests with Hallam FM on Saturday night, and The Leadmill, who celebrate their first year in the festival fold with prog-rock legends Focus.

There is also a brand new platform – The New Music Stage outside City Hall, which features Blood Red Shoes and Chapel Club, all under the DrownedinSound banner. DiS will also be hosting nights at The Harley and The Foundry.

Toddla T, one of last year’s star curators, returns to head up an all-star line-up at The Octagon, where he’ll will do battle with Annie Mac, Mary Anne Hobbsand Oris Jay. Also on a dance theme, Simian Mobile Disco promise to shake the foundations of DQ on Friday with one of their legendary DJ sets.

With the support of Sheffield Is My Planet, Tramlines will also be taking its first substantial green footsteps this year. Alongside a host of green initiatives being developed for the festival, we will be hosting a Solar Powered Disco!

The record number of venues will also be matched by a record number of local traders – there are currently over 40 signed up, including caterers, clothing retailers and much more.

Stay tuned for further announcements…