Music festival to be held in zoo

Port Lympne was set up to protect rare and endangered species

A two-day music festival will take place in the setting of a wild animal park in Kent this summer.

Organisers say Zoo Thousand and Eight (ZOO8) will feature more than 100 top live acts and up to 20,000 revellers are expected at Port Lympne each day.

The full line-up for the inaugural event, from 4 to 6 July, is still to be announced, director Matt Dice said.

Zoo Thousand will be making a donation to the Aspinall Foundation, which runs the animal park near Ashford, he added.

The event will feature top acts such as Athlete, The Cribs and Funeral For A Friend.

Black rhino

The 600-acre site will also play host to many other bands and DJs including British Sea Power, Lethal Bizzle and Roni Size/Reprazent.

"It has been a real triumph for us to secure such great artists for the first Zoo Thousand music festival," Mr Dice said.

"We look forward to welcoming the best names in live music to our beautiful site at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park for a weekend of fun."

The Aspinall Foundation owns both Port Lympne and Howletts Wild Animal Park near Canterbury, which were set up by the late John Aspinall to protect and breed rare and endangered species.

Port Lympne is home to the largest breeding herd of black rhinos outside Africa, as well as Siberian and Indian tigers, African elephants, monkeys, Barbary lions and many more rare and endangered species.

Tricia Corkhill, spokeswoman for the wild animal park, said the event would not affect the animals there.

She said: "We have had festivals here before. We had a music festival last year. They're held on grassland outside the park.

"They're not actually in the park with the animals. We have got rather a lot of land."

Festivalgoers will be able to visit the animal park for a reduced price.