NIGHTWISH Confirmed For UK's BLOODSTOCK OPEN AIR Festival

Finnish/Swedish symphonic metal outfit NIGHTWISH has been confirmed for this year's Bloodstock Open Air festival, set to take place August 15-17, 2008 at Catton Hall in Derbyshire, England. The band will open the main stage on Sunday, August 17.

The festival billing is now shaping up as follows:

AS I LAY DYING
AT THE GATES
CLOUDSCAPE
COMMUNIC
CROWNING GLORY
DIMMU BORGIR
ELUVEITIE
EVILE
HELLOWEEN
ICED EARTH
KATAKLYSM
MOB RULES
MOONSORROW
NIGHTWISH
OPETH
OVERKILL
PRIMAL FEAR
SAINT DEAMON
SOILWORK
SWALLOW THE SUN
TÝR

As previously reported, NIGHTWISH will take part in a signing session on Wednesday, March 26 at 6 p.m. at the Zavvi store on Oxford Street in London, England.

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Warner Music Austria presented NIGHTWISH with gold-album awards for the band's latest CD, "Dark Passion Play", on February 28, 2008 prior to the group's sold-out concert in Vienna. The awards were handed out by Warner Music sales director Günter Unter before an audience of 5,000 enthusiastic fans.

NIGHTWISH's latest album, "Dark Passsion Play", has been certified quadruple-platium in Finland for sales in excess of 120,000 copies. The CD has also been certified platinum in Switzerland, and gold in Germany, Sweden and Poland.

NIGHTWISH has been nominated in the following categories at the Emma Gaala (Finnish Grammy equivalent):

* Band Of The Year
* Best Metal Album ("Dark Passion Play")
* Best Album" ("Dark Passion Play")
* Song Of The Year ("Amaranth")
* Best Finnish Artist

Emma Gaala will be held on Saturday March 8, 2008 at Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki.

NIGHTWISH will perform at the House of Blues in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 20 as part of the third U.S. leg of the band's tour in support of the "Dark Passion Play" album. The trek, which will also include a September 24 date at the Tremont Music Hall in Charlotte, North Carolina, is tentatively scheduled to begin at the end of August and run through the end of September. Final details, including special guest support and on-sale dates, will be officially announced in early April. Discussions have also started to bring the band back to North America in early 2009 for additional touring. Those plans should be finalized by the summer.

NIGHTWISH live in Milan, Italy, March 2, 2008: