With just under two weeks until the Grammys, it's time to start revisiting the songs that were the most popular — and by extension, the most grating — last year. And what better way to jog your memory than the Grammy Nominees 2003 album?

The disc includes Pink's "Get the Party Started," Britney Spears' "Overprotected," Avril Lavigne's "Complicated," Norah Jones' "Don't Know Why," Eminem's "Without Me," Nelly's "Hot in Herre," 'NSYNC's "Girlfriend" and Nickelback's "How You Remind Me."

On the other end of the spectrum are new releases from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Massive Attack. Cave's Nocturama comes two years after No More Shall We Part and features, among other tormented songs, a 14-minute "Babe, I'm on Fire." Meanwhile, following a five-year absence, Massive Attack return with 100th Window. The album offers the standard soaring Massive Attack sound, but this time with the addition of Sinead O'Connor on "What Your Soul Sings" and "A Prayer for England."

John Mayer's live Any Given Thursday shares shelf space with cheeky Supergrass' fourth album, Life on Other Planets.

And finally, the Ramones tribute album We're a Happy Family features the second all-star lineup of the week. Rob Zombie takes on "Blitzkrieg Bop," Marilyn Manson interprets "The KKK Took My Baby Away," Green Day and the Offspring weigh in with their versions of "Outsider" and "I Wanna Be Sedated," respectively. U2 sings "Beat on the Brat," while the Red Hot Chili Peppers tackle "Havana Affair."

As for the rest of this week's releases — hey, ho, let's go ...

Out Tuesday, February 11:

• David Ackles - American Gothic (Collector's Choice)
• Alathea - What Light Is All About (Rocketown)
• Paul Anka - Absolutely the Best: The 70s (Varese)
• Atom and his Package - Attention! Blah Blah Blah (Hopeless)
• The Bad Plus - These Are the Vistas (Columbia)
• Baka Beyond - East to West (Narada World)
• Bass Hit - Bass Re-Loaded (Neurodisc)
• Bloody Mary - Day of Resurrection (Danger)
• Boulevard Knights - Boulevard Knights (Familia)
• Kenny Brown - Stingray (Fat Possum)
• Michael Bublé - Michael Bublé (143/Reprise)
• C-Bo - West Coast Mafia: Chopped and Screwed (West Coast Mafia)
• Rodney Carrington - Nut Sack (Capitol)
• Karan Casey - Distant Shore (Shanachie)
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Nocturama (Anti/Epitaph)
  Read: "Nick Cave Delivers More Tales From The Dark Side"
  Buy Now: Nocturama (Anti/Epitaph)
• Chevelles - Girl God (Zip)
• Coachwhips - Get Yer Body Next Ta Mine (Narnack)
• Corporation 187 - Perfection in Pain (Wicked World)
• Data 80 - Data 80 (EFA/Caroline)
• Debbie Davies - Key to Love: A Tribute to John Mayall (Shanachie)
• Dr. Demento - Hits From Outer Space (Laugh.com)
• Duke - 21st Century Man (produced by Eddy Grant) (Ice)
• Tim Easton - Break Your Mother's Heart (New West)
• Eightball and MJG - On Top of the World (Draper)
• DJ Envy - The Desert Storm Mixtape: Blok Party Vol. 1 (Desert Storm/Epic)
• Fabulous Disaster - Panty Raid (Pink & Black)
• John Fahey - Red Cross (Revenant)
• Five Way Friday - Wrecked (Redeye)
• Flatline - Dead Man Walking (Thug City)
• Matt Flinner Quartet - Walking on the Moon (Compass)
• Fo Clips - Just Be Thankful (Danger)
• Foys Boys - My Life My Hustle (Dog Team)
• Funk Porcini - Fast Asleep (Ninja Tune)
• Further Seems Forever - How to Start a Fire (Tooth & Nail)
• Jeffrey Gaines - Toward the Sun (Artemis)
• Vince Gill - Next Big Thing (MCA Nashville)
• Girls in the Club - Girls in the Club (Downsouthrap.com)
• Grade 8 - Grade 8 (Lava/Atlantic)
• Hall & Oates - Do It for Love (U-Watch)
• John Hammond - Ready for Love (Back Porch)
• Stefon Harris - The Grand Unification Theory (Blue Note)
• JoJo Hermann - Defector (Fat Possum)
• Hexstatic - Solid Steel Mix (Ninja Tune)
• Holland - Photographs & Tidal Waves (Tooth & Nail)
• Jackpot - Bone-Ville (Future Farmer)
• Jackstraw - Jackstraw (High Horse)
• Kingzmen - Not of this World (Holy Hip Hop)
• Kissing Chaos - Enter With a Bullet (Fueled by Ramen)
• DJ Krush - The Message at the Depth (Red Ink)
• Patty Larkin - Red = Luck (Vanguard)
• Erik Larson - The Resounding (Small Stone)
• Kenny Lattimore/Chante Moore - Things That Lovers Do (Arista)
• Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak (Lookout!)
• Lil Mac - From the Cracks to the Stacks (Lock Down)
• Madder Mortem - Deadlands (The End)
• Madhouse - Holiday (Radikal)
• Massive Attack - 100th Window (Virgin)
  Buy Now: 100th Window (Virgin)
• John Mayer - Any Given Thursday (Sony)
• John McCusker - Goodnight Ginger (Compass)
• My Sick Friends - Simple (Hapi Skratch)
• Willie Nelson - Crazy: The Demo Sessions (Sugarhill)
• Gary Numan - Scarred: Live at Brixton Academy (2 CDs, Eagle)
• Erlend Oye - Unrest (Source/Astralwerks)
• Pacifier - Pacifier (Arista)
• Pumpkinhead - A Beautiful Mind (EP, Third Earth)
• Rae - Rae (Relentless)
• Rapture - Songs for the Withering (Century Media)
• Rush - The Spirit of Radio: 1974-1987 (Universal)
• Rusty Humphries - Bomb Iraq (Laugh.com)
• Joshua Ryan - By Design (System)
• Sanctus Real - Say It Loud (Sparrow)
• Slater - Can You Feel Me (T.O.P.)
• Stephan Smith - The Bell (Synchronic)
• Socialburn - Where You Are (Elektra)
• Sofia - Sofia (Big Sur)
• Spiv - Don'tcha Know (Pop Sweatshop)
• Tammy Faye Starlite & the Angels of Mercy - Used Country Female (Diesel Only)
• Miriam Stockley - Second Nature (Narada)
• George Strait - For the Last Time: Live from the Astrodome (MCA Nashville)
• Strapping Young Lad - SYL (Century Media)
• Supergrass - Life on Other Planets (Island)
  Read: "Supergrass Get Thrown For A L.O.O.P, Party With Skanks"
  Buy Now: Life on Other Planets (Island)
• Tech N9ne - Anghellic (MSC)
• Troika - Kingdom of the Sun (Narada)
• Twelfth Gate - Summoning (Crash Music)
• Paul van Dyk - Global (Mute)
• Vexers - The Vexers (Ace Fu)
• Cosmo Vitelli - Clean (Astralwerks)
• Viva - Blanksidesongs (Pitch a Tent)
• Otto Von Schirach - Chopped Zombie Fungus (Schematic)
• Voodou - Your Basic Evil Black Squadron (Underground Inc.)
• Doc Watson - Then and Now (Tomato)
• Carol Welsman - The Language of Love (Savoy Jazz)
• Yanni - Ethnicity (Virgin)
• Various artists - The American Song-Poem Anthology: Do You Know the Difference Between Big Wood and Brush (Bar/None)
• Various artists - "Ash Wednesday" soundtrack (Koch)
• Various artists - Buenos Aires Cafe (Narada)
• Various artists - Duck Down Records Presents: Collect Dis Edition (Duck Down)
• Various artists - Global Hits 2003 (Motown)
• Various artists - Grammy Nominees 2003 (Rhino)
• Various artists - Motown Soul Jams Vol. 1 (Motown)
• Various artists - Oil: Chicago Punk Refined (Thick)
• Various artists - Rollin on Dubs (Thump)
• Various artists - The Songs of Hank Williams Jr.: A Bocephus Celebration (Warner Bros./Curb)
• Various artists - Tribute to Bob Marley (K-Tel)
• Various artists - We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to the Ramones (DV8/Columbia)
  Read: "Garbage Give Ramones Electro Sheen While Manson Moans, Marches"
• DVD: Various artists - "Pass the Mic!" (Image Entertainment)
• DVD: The Gathering - "In Motion" (Century Media)
• DVD: John Mayer - "Any Given Thursday" (Columbia)
• DVD: Jane Monheit - "Live at the Rainbow Room" (N-Coded)

March 4:

• Cursive - Ugly Organ (Saddle Creek)
• Fabolous - Street Dreams (Elektra)
  Buy Now: Street Dreams (Elektra)
• Hootie & the Blowfish - Hootie & the Blowfish (Atlantic)
  Buy Now: Hootie & the Blowfish (Atlantic)
• Lil' Kim - La Bella Mafia (Atlantic)
  Buy Now: La Bella Mafia (Atlantic)
• Special Goodness - Land Air Sea (Control Group)
• Voivod - Voivod (Navarre)
  Read: "Jason Newsted Says His New Band Can Kick Metallica's Ass"

March 11:

• Various artists - Punk Goes Acoustic (Fearless)

March 18:

• Buzzcocks - Buzzcocks (Merge)

March 25:

• Celine Dion - One Heart (Sony)
• Linkin Park - Meteora (Warner Bros.)
  Read: "Linkin Park Discuss Meteora, Plan Surreal Video"

• Nick Cave
• Massive Attack
• John Mayer
• Supergrass
• Paul Van Dyk

Paul Oakenfold
Photo: Perfecto

Paul Oakenfold, Deep Dish, Gorillaz and more than 100 other electronic music acts from around the world will perform at a massive Miami Beach, Florida, party on March 23.

The fourth annual Ultra festival will kick off the Winter Music Conference, a yearly five-day electronic music gathering that has been transforming Miami Beach into the epicenter of DJ culture for 17 years.

Paul van Dyk, Carl Cox, DJ Skribble, Timo Maas, Goldie and Roni Size with MC Dynamite are among the other artists who will perform on six different stages at a yet-to-be-announced location.

Also on the bill are DJ Craze, DJ Dan, Christropher Lawrence, Rinôçérôse, Tall Paul, Josh Wink, DJ Rap, Dieselboy, DB, George Acosta, DJ Icey and Liquid Todd.

Gorillaz will perform live with Del the Funky Homosapien, the voice behind their massive single "Clint Eastwood."

Tickets will soon be available online at www.coolworld.com and www.ultrafestival.com.

The Winter Music Conference, scheduled from March 23 to March 27, will be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Last year's Ultra festival featured many of the same acts, along with John Digweed, Pete Tong and BT (see "Winter Music Diary: The Beats Go On With Bukem, Bahamadia, Digweed").

• Paul Oakenfold
• Deep Dish
• Gorillaz
• Paul Van Dyk
• Carl Cox

Paul van Dyk
Photo: Carlos Amoedo

BERLIN — The Love Parade made its 13th run through this kinetic city's streets Saturday, leaving in its thunderous wake evidence that techno — complete with all the trimmings (and trappings) — is the music for the masses here.

More urban Woodstock than rave with its sprawling outdoor environs and daytime setting, the annual paean to all things techno attracted electronic music lovers from all over the world who partied non-stop for the purest purpose: the love of a dope beat. Free from political undertones or social obligation, or, seemingly, any unifying theme whatsoever, the Love Parade has emerged as the largest musical gathering in the world today.

Beginning in mid-afternoon, Love Parade's 50-plus flat-bed floats, overflowing with young men and women in various states of undress moving and shaking to thumps and squelches of every variation, started down June 17th Street in Berlin's central Tiergarten park. After several months of uncertainty about the Parade's date and location (caused by a group concerned for the park's environmental health that stole the planned date of July 14), its existence alone was cause for celebration.

Not that anyone needed help getting into the groove. A different DJ helmed each lavishly decorated float, most of which welcomed attendees into the "Love Republic," including one covered in red fur and hearts, several with innovative air-powered "dancing" balloon figures and enough bare skin to put everyone in the mood for love. Berliner Paul van Dyk's annual crowd-pleaser emitted crisp, perpetually climaxing trance nuggets, while another featured Detroit techno veterans Alan Oldham (a.k.a. DJ T-1000) and Lawrence Burden on the decks, though musical subtlety was by no means the order of the day — the beat was the thing, and it literally never stopped. Although access to the floats themselves was restricted, the parade route was open to all, and it was thick with people of all ages marching to the sound of the drums. The crowd, which was dominated by teenagers and people in their early 20s, spilled over into the surrounding park paths, with some choosing to walk alongside the procession and others simply plotzing on the lawn. By sunset, the annual ritual was in full swing, as the caravans of funk encircled more than a million people (for the third consecutive year) at the Siegeshalle victory statue at Brandenburg Gate, ushering them into the rhythms of the night. Despite being an undeniable symbol of the raw power of music, as well as a massive financial boon for Berlin, Love Parade also put on display the techno scene's equally untamed underbelly. Having evolved from a tiny community gathering in 1989 into an overstuffed spectacle of global proportions, the unity that once fueled the parade — and the electronic music underground as a whole — was elusive, if present at all. Almost as common a sight as people hugging or dancing was teenagers defecating and vomiting in plain view or passed out and shivering in the dirt. The police siren became as common in the musical mix as the hi-hat. More in the Parade's founding spirit were the renegade generator-powered sound systems that dotted the Tiergarten Saturday, each one attracting a periodic spontaneous dance party to its park bench set-up. Much maligned by Berlin locals in recent years for diverting from its original intentions, Love Parade has actually begun inspiring protests of its own. Last weekend, a march calling itself the F--- Parade attempted its second annual event in opposition to the rampant commercialism of Love Parade, but city authorities quashed it for lacking a permit. A number of similar smaller events took place throughout the week, including the spirited Sex Parade, with all remaining peaceful.

As the sound died down around the Siegeshalle, Paraders flowed into Berlin's myriad nightclubs, where the vibe was decidedly less intense, though no less celebratory. Love Parade is now the centerpiece of a week-long festival of dance music, with options ranging from van Dyk spinning to a stadium of fans to John Acquaviva, Marshall Jefferson and Josh Wink frothing the crowd at the legendary Tresor club — which stayed open straight through from Friday night to Monday morning — to a deluge of underground sounds, including a party by the trailblazing Cologne experimental label Kompakt, and sets around town by DJ Hell, Claude Young and hundreds of others.

• Paul Van Dyk
• Josh Wink
• John Acquaviva

Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method and Orbital will headline America's first Creamfields festivals in Long Island, New York, and Las Vegas in September.

DJs Timo Maas, Tall Paul and John Aquaviva will also perform outside of the Big Apple on September 1, while Basement Jaxx, Sandra Collins and DJ Dan will play Sin City on September 29, organizers announced Monday (May 21).

Several other top electronic acts are slated for both shows, including former Underworld DJ Darren Emerson, Stereo MC's, Uberzone, Richie Hawtin, Pete Tong, Josh Wink, Photek, Max Graham, Scott Henry, Scott Hardkiss, Scanty Sandwich and the Dub Pistols.

The Long Island festival, which will feature an outdoor main stage and several circus tent arenas hosted by influential clubs from the East Coast and the U.K., will also include DJ Feelgood, Christian Smith, DJ Dara and DJ DB. The event will run from 2 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Dave Ralph, Donald Glaude, Bad Boy Bill, Christopher Lawrence and Adam Freeland will spin at the Las Vegas festival, which will feature an outdoor main stage and six tents. That show will run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

More acts, along with ticket information, will be announced later this month, organizers said.

Leading European dance event promoters Cream staged the first Creamfields in the U.K. in 1998. Held annually since, it has become one of the biggest dance-music festivals in the world, attracting 50,000 fans last year.

This year's U.K. fest will be held August 25 at the Old Liverpool Airfield in Liverpool. Fatboy Slim, Gorillaz, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, Sasha, John Digweed, Paul van Dyk, Goldie, Seb Fontaine, Judge Jules and Pete Tong are among the artists scheduled to appear.

• Fatboy Slim
• The Crystal Method
• Orbital
• Timo Maas
• DJ Dan

Paul Van Dyk
Photo: M. Tye Comer

Berlin's annual Love Parade is facing a burgeoning hate faction again this year. In an attempt to block the world-renowned celebration of peace, love and techno, a group of environmentalists calling themselves Save the Tiergarten has registered an event permit for the large public park that has served as the parade site for the past five years. By refusing a permit to Love Parade organizers at a press conference on Wednesday (April 4), Berlin's Authority for Public Assembly has left the party temporarily homeless, although the chance of its cancellation is highly unlikely, local sources said. The celebration, scheduled for July 14, is in its 13th year. As in recent years, organizers expect to attract more than 1 million revelers, who would contribute close to $100 million to Berlin's tourist revenues.

Founded in 1989 as a demonstration for world peace and unity, Love Parade now attracts scores of world-class DJs and dance-music lovers from all corners of the globe to what has grown into a week-long, citywide extravaganza. Past events have boasted such stars as Paul Van Dyk, Carl Cox and Paul Oakenfold DJing on a caravan of some 50 flatbed trucks that moves slowly through the massive, colorful crowd of onlookers.

Angered by the damage Love Parade's sometimes reckless throngs have inflicted on the Tiergarten — Berlin's largest public park — the 11-member Save the Tiergarten group secured a permit earlier this year to pre-empt the party and therefore any ensuing destruction that would be done to the park. Since 1996, the park's bisecting road, June 17 Street, has served as the caravan's main route, culminating in a giant dance party at its terminus, the Siegessäule column. "We regret the recent developments concerning the Love Parade date this year and are working very hard to find the best and most harmonious solution to the current situation," the event's organizers said in a letter to subscribers of the event's official Web site (www.loveparade.net).

A note on the site said that alternate routes are being explored. Save the Tiergarten members could not be reached for comment, but sources close to the Parade are confident the two sides will reach an agreement on the matter. Even its supporters agree that Love Parade inflicts undue damage on the park, but they also say the show must go on. "That's what it's about; it's a demonstration for peace," said Marc Snow, label manager of Tresor, the iconic Berlin techno record company and nightclub that hosts a marathon party coinciding with Love Parade.

Previously, similar groups have staged opposition events, including one last year called F--- Parade, but none has come close to derailing the juggernaut of Love Parade, which has grown steadily every year since its outset. "In years past, they've always been able to reach some decent, peaceful resolution," Snow said.

According to Berlin newspapers, Tiergarten has also been booked for the weeks preceding and following the Parade's scheduled date of July 14.

Regardless of Love Parade's fate this year, English station BBC Radio 1's offshoot in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, is moving forward with its July 21 party. Last year marked the first time the parade sprouted sister events in other cities, with successful parties going off in Leeds, England, and Vienna, Austria.

• Paul Van Dyk

Paul Oakenfold

MIAMI — South Beach holds the dubious honor of having the highest concentration of dance clubs in the country, and all of them produced snaking lines even on Friday, the night before the start of the Winter Music Conference.

One such event, a re-creation of the famed Parisian party Respect Is Burning, took place at the enormous Opium Garden nightclub. A throng of hundreds waited to be let inside to hear DJ Deep, who mixed the third volume of the Respect Is Burning CD series.

The Winter Music Conference, an annual dance music networking orgy, provides a showcase for the newest sounds, and although house music — electronic dance music raised in Chicago from disco's ashes — predominates, drum'n'bass, hip-hop, electro and techno are all represented during the conference's five days.

At Respect Is Burning, house music, particularly the soulful, vocal-driven version championed in New York, was the main attraction. While DJ Deep played a set that ranged from Afro-Beat (a funky, politically informed dance music born in Nigeria) to minimal instrumental tracks, several of house music's most important producers flocked to the DJ booth to exchange "white labels," or unreleased test pressings of potential dance-floor hits.

"Little" Louie Vega (half of the Masters at Work production team, along with Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez), King Britt (the Philadelphia producer behind the Slyk 130 project) and Marques Wyatt (a veteran DJ/producer from Los Angeles) came armed with their latest test pressings to hand to DJ Deep for instant dance-floor feedback.

Limited to early-bird attendees, savvy tourists and eager locals, Respect Is Burning carried on until nearly 7 a.m., the legal closing hour of Miami Beach's nightclubs.

By the following morning when the conference officially got underway, the party machine was on full tilt, with several events taking place during the day. By noon, the third annual Electronic Dance Music Festival, a massive outdoor gathering, opened in Bayfront Park, away from the beach-and-beer atmosphere of South Beach. Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, Sasha and Digweed, Paul Van Dyk, and Deep Dish, high-paid international celebrities of dance music, shared 10 different sound "environments" with dozens of other lesser-known DJs.

Meanwhile, back in South Beach, avatars of Detroit techno, including "godfather" Juan Atkins, hosted a rooftop barbecue from noon onwards. Representing hip-hop, the "Infiltrate 3.0" event kicked off in the early evening with a smattering of independent artists, including female MCs Bahamadia and Mystik, local New York celebs Cannibal Ox, and several turntablists.

As the day progressed, still more attendees flooded Miami Beach, culminating in South Beach's main nightclub strip, Washington Avenue, turning into a sea of discarded club flyers. Street promoters kept their hustle moving into the early morning, stuffing invitations and promotional materials into any empty hand, while the DJs, producers, promoters and musicians that constitute the bulk of WMC's attendees, shuffled from club to club, taking in as many of Saturday's events as was humanly possible.

• Little Louie Vega
• Paul Oakenfold
• Paul Van Dyk
• Sasha & Digweed
• Deep Dish

Paul Oakenfold

With more parties and more people expected to attend than ever before — again — the 16th annual Winter Music Conference for dance music of every kind is set to kick off Saturday in Miami Beach, Florida — its longtime, hedonistic home.

Some 6,500 people are expected for this year's conference, according to its official Web site (http://www.wmcon.com), and dozens of nightly parties (more than 50 on some nights) packed with all-star artists from every genre of dance music will overstuff the most dense concentration of nightclubs the country has to offer. With the pounding kick-drum as its perpetual soundtrack, the Winter Music Conference is dance music's premier gathering.

With virtually every top-tier producer and DJ from around the world performing during the conference's five days and nights — not including a healthy smattering of early-bird events Friday night — a well-placed explosive would leave the techno and house scenes stagnant for a decade to come. To wit: Beginning at noon on Saturday, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, Paul van Dyk, Sasha & Digweed, LTJ Bukem and Richard "Humpty" Vission will all be manning the turntables in Miami — at the same event. Although that event, dubbed the Electronic Dance Music Festival — which, like the majority of shows at the conference this year and last, is not officially affiliated with the Winter Music Conference — it's the stuff that many attendees' dreams are made of.

In another trend that began last year and is moving to the fore this year, the party will take place during the waking hours, in an attempt to bypass the overcrowding and entry hassles at South Beach's terminally hip nightclubs. And like a healthy number of parties this year, the Electronic Dance Music Festival is being held outside of the glamorous glut of SoBe hot spots, at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami.

Also, many of the conference's best-known performers — including Danny Tenaglia, Bukem, Derrick Carter, Roni Size & Reprazent and Richie Hawtin (a.k.a. Plastikman) — will be spinning at locations in the city proper.

Some promoters are tapping into the frustration many attendees experienced at the 2000 WMC and taking it a step further by barring free admission for registered badgeholders. Infiltrate 3.0, a two-night event of experimental electronic music organized by the renegade Beta Bodega coalition, is charging $15 admission at its Saturday-night party, or $25 for badgeholders. Its shows, featuring artists such as Miami's own Phoenicia and Rice & Beans, Atlanta's Richard Devine and Prefuse 73 (a.k.a. Scott Herren), boast no guest lists outside and no VIP areas inside, both of which were the source of some distress last year.

Nonetheless, it's dance music's stars that draw the majority of guests to South Beach each year, and 2001 is no exception. Where else can you see Detroit techno legends Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson rock a tag-team DJ set; Fatboy Slim, Darren Emerson and Armand Van Helden on the same bill; Basement Jaxx debuting material from their next album — on the beach, no less; Sasha & Digweed on a sunset boat cruise; or Boy George, Gilles Peterson, Goldie, DJ Craze and MJ Cole in a film studio? Yeah, it's that time of year again.

• Carl Cox
• Paul Oakenfold
• LTJ Bukem
• Danny Tenaglia
• Roni Size

Orbital
Photo: Sire

Concertgoers gearing up for Europe's annual string of outdoor music festivals should expect some hassle getting into the events — if they even happen.

Britain's outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease — which has little or no effect on humans but is easily spread on clothing and causes drastic weight loss in cattle, sheep and pigs — has festival organizers planning precautionary measures, because those festivals could give the disease an opportunity to flourish, according to an expert.

"Promoters risk people dragging infection from all over the UK to one spot, thus endangering local farm animals and wildlife," said John Ryan of the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease. "Another risk is the dissemination of the virus from those gatherings back to all parts of the UK and the world." Although many of Europe's top sporting events, such as horse racing's Cheltenham Festival, have been cancelled, concert promoters expect that their festivals will go on.

Ireland's Live Entertainment Industry Association announced last week that all of its concert venues have implemented stringent disinfectant procedures suggested by Ireland's Department of Agriculture to prevent the outbreak from spreading there, including placing disinfectant mats at all venue entry- and exit-points and spraying all cars and buses controlled by the association's venues.

Ryan said there are ways promoters can avoid the spread of foot-and-mouth, besides cleaning footwear and vehicles (especially tires) and spraying them with disinfectant.

"Festivals should allow no one access if they have visited farms or zoos in the previous five days," Ryan said. "And they should keep extremely strict controls on food waste and sewage." So far, no outbreaks have been reported outside of the UK.

Foot-and-mouth has not contaminated the site of Homelands, a club music festival scheduled for May 26 and 27 at Matterley Bowl in Hampshire, England. Promoter Melvin Benn said he is working to keep it that way.

"The event field has not had cattle or animals for over five months," Benn said. "The foot-and-mouth outbreak is not going to change anything." Homelands will feature several dozen acts, including Orbital, Pulp and Paul van Dyk. Mean Fiddler, the company behind the Reading and Leeds Carling festivals, organizes Homelands.

Promoters for T in the Park, who have not announced the dates for their late-summer festival, said in a statement they are monitoring the foot-and-mouth situation and taking advice from those working against the spread of the disease.

"The vast majority of the land where T in the Park takes place is not used for livestock farming, and the main arena is a disused airfield," the promoters' statement said. "However, organizers will be taking all responsible and appropriate steps in the five-month lead-time to this year's event." Foot-and-mouth last hit the UK in 1967 and took more than six months to bring under control. The disease appears to be spreading rapidly this time, as a record 25 cases were reported Sunday, bringing the current total to nearly 170, according to Reuters.

• Orbital
• Pulp
• Paul Van Dyk

2004 Coachella Valley Music Festival

• The Pixies
• Beck
• Howie Day
• The Distillers
• Kinky