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Sep 05, 2018 By Christopher Roberts Kelly Lee Owens

Back in February Scotland’s Belle and Sebastian told fans they were considering launching a Belle and Sebastian cruise in 2019 and wanted their fans’ opinions on it via a survey on their website. Then in May the band announced The Boaty Weekender, a floating festival to set sale from Barcelona to Sardinia and back again on August 8-12, 2019. Now Belle and Sebastian have announced the initial line-up. Most notably, it features Camera Obscura, who are making their return to performing live for the first time since the 2015 death of the band’s Carey Lander from cancer.

The lineup also includes several other Scottish bands, including Tracyanne & Danny (a side-project from Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell), Mogwai, Honeyblood, and Django Django. Also setting sail are Alvvays, The Buzzcocks, Japanese Breakfast, HINDS, Kelly Lee Owens, Nilüfer Yanya, and Whyte Horses, with more to be announced.

The band have issued this statement:

“It’s the start of September, Belle and Sebastian are facing the autumn term, back in the studio, back to the blackboard, sharpening their plectrums, already dreaming of next summer.

If only there was something to look forward to, a party, an adventure, something on the horizon, something to take the chill out of the thought of winter…

The Boaty Weekender: a sail around the Med, a nice little trip with friends, some of the best people, in some of the best places!

We’ve asked around, we collected the first shipmates. They’re going to earn their passage by playing their best for you, digging deep into their musical reservoirs.

We’re really going to try to make this a great holiday. We’d love to have you along for the trip!

‘I thought about a new destination

I’m never short of new inspiration

Roll out the map and mark it with a gin!’

-Belle & Sebastian”

The Boaty Weekender will include five stages featuring performances from Belle and Sebastian, as well as from other bands they like. According to a previous band statement there will be “yoga and cocktails and club nights and themed balls and crèches and quizzes and scrabble tournaments - and gigs.” The first 350 state rooms booked will be treated to a performance of their 2000-released album Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, an album they’ve never performed in full before. Get tickets here.

Belle and Sebastian recently released three interconnected EPs, all titled How to Solve Your Human Problems. How to Solve Your Human Problems Part 1 came out in December, Part 2 came out in January, and Part 3 came out in February. Then all three EPs were collected in a vinyl box set and CD compilation that also came out in February.

Read our interview with Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch on How to Solve Your Human Problems.

Read our review of How to Solve Your Human Problems.

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