Zoo Thousand Music Festival

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Festival information

Music meets mammal with the launch of Zoo Thousand, the newest addition to the festival circuit, set in the stunning Kent countryside.

Taking place at the beautiful Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in the Garden of England, July 2008 will see the debut of the Zoo Thousand music festival, where over 100 top live acts, bands and DJs will perform beside the park’s mix of ferocious, fearsome and friendly animals.

Catering for a range of musical tastes, Zoo Thousand and Eight (ZOO8) will feature indie, dance, UK hip-hop, drum and bass as well as the more family-friendly chart sounds. The festival will accommodate 20,000 revellers, with onsite camping available, meaning that it will be amongst the largest music festivals in the South East. Keeping in mind its location, ZOO8 will be one of the greener festivals on the calendar.

Port Lympne Wild Animal Park is run by registered charity The Aspinall Foundation and every ticket sold will include a donation to the Foundation to help pay for the upkeep of the animals and their enclosures. A car-sharing scheme will be in place to minimise the number of visitors arriving by vehicle, and there will be a tree-planting initiative to take part in.

Whilst the animals will be kept at a safe distance from the crowds and artists in the 600-acre site, festival-goers will be able to visit the Animal Park which is home to the Palace of the Apes, the biggest gorillarium in the world, and the largest breeding herd of black rhino outside Africa as well as Siberian and Indian tigers, African elephants and many endangered species besides. There will even be the opportunity to take in the African Experience Safari, where giraffes, rhinos, wildebeest, ostrich antelope roam free. Please see www.zoothousand.com and www.totallywild.net/portlympne for full details.

Festival dates

Friday 4..th.., Saturday 5..th.. and Sunday 6..th.. July 2008

Festival venue

Port Lympne Wild Animal Park is set in 600 acres in the heart of the Garden of England. It includes a magnificent mansion with breathtaking views of Romney Marsh and 15 acres of beautiful landscaped gardens.

It is home to the largest breeding herd of black rhino outside Africa as well as Siberian and Indian tigers, African elephants, small cats, monkeys, Barbary lions and many more rare and endangered species. It also includes the world's largest gorillarium - 'The Palace of the Apes'.

Make your visit even more memorable by taking a day safari on The African Experience! Take your seat and head out into the wild where you'll see giraffe, black rhino, zebra, wildebeest, ostrich, antelope and other wonderful wild animals roaming free as if on the plains of Africa...

The John Aspinall Foundation

"Our commitment is to conservation, through captive breeding, education, and reintroduction"

John Aspinall started his famous animal collection in 1957 when he bought Howletts Wild Animal Park. In 1973 he bought Port Lympne Wild Animal Park to help house the growing groups of animals. Today the two wild animal parks are home to over 1000 animals and 90 different species.

Now through The John Aspinall Foundation, a registered charity, we work to ensure that the late John Aspinall's innovative work in protecting and breeding wild animals should continue. As well as the two wild animal parks in Kent, The John Aspinall Foundation manages two gorilla rescue and rehabilitation projects in central African countries of Gabon and Congo, where we have successfully re-introduced over 50 gorillas to the wild.

It is a sad fact that humans are likely to cause the extinction of a quarter of all known species in the next 20 years, unless we work to protect them now. If just one species disappears, many others may suffer — we all rely on others to survive, upsetting this balance can put many in danger. Imagine a world without animals?

Contact ZOO8

Visit www.zoothousand.com or e-mail info@zoothousand.com.

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