There’s no hiding it anymore – winter’s here. The sunshine has packed up and gone down south, and summer’s long gone.

We’ve got another 7 months until 2010’s festival season gets truly underway, so what can you do to pass the time until the next time you can watch the sun rise over the stone circle, or wake up next to someone not remembering their name, let alone your own? Well, we’d suggest that you give Sony’s Fantasy Festival a go.

Unfortunately it doesn’t involve getting your wellies muddy, or having too much warm beer than is probably healthy,  but it does offer you the chance to make your own fantasy festival lineup, and possibly win prizes along the way. How? Using the rather large amount of data that those nice guys at last.fm have amassed, you assemble your ultimate, imaginary festival line-up and gain as many points as possible through your acts’ popularity in the real world (calculated by activity online – blog posts, twitter mentions, last.fm plays etc).

Bands are given “buzz points” every Wednesday, and the person who creates the highest value Festival will be presented with four “money can’t buy” tickets (including VIP accommodation, flights and spending money) to one of Europe’s best festivals next summer. Alongside this, there are other prizes up for grabs in weekly draws. If you choose a band that is relatively unknown now, but starts to generate buzz over the next few months, we will give you kudos points in the main competition.

I’ve created a There Goes The Fear fantasy festival – a nice mixture of bands I love and are already huge, as well as a league for you to compete against us – it’s called, rather unimaginately, “TGTF”. Join that and pit your festival against ours – who knows, if you’re ahead of the crowd and spot the next Killers, you could well beat us!

There’s nothing like a good photo of a gig that manages to capture the perfect memory. Something that will stay with you forever. I know I’ve got a few from gigs this year that just bring a smile to my face, be it the smirk on Kele from Bloc Party’s face as they headlined Hydro Connect this summer (right), or the intimacy of Delays on a Sunday afternoon (below left).

Either way, there’s finally recognition for us amateur photographers out there. Sony have launched the World Photography Awards, and are accepting entries until the end of the month (31st December) for entries in the categories of Architecture; Conceptual and Constructed; Fashion; Landscape; Music; Natural History; Portraiture and Sport, so those of you who are interested in stuff outside of music can branch out and let your artistic flair go.

Now, looking at last year’s winner in the professional music category (top), and the amateur winner, my snaps aren’t going to win any awards, but if yours are looking a bit better you’ll probably want to enter – the prizes look pretty darned good.

The overall winner and a guest will be flown to Cannes, receive two nights’ accommodation in a luxury hotel on the famous Croisette, receive VIP tickets to attend the evening gala awards ceremony on the 16th of April, 2009, and collect their prize of $5,000 and a Sony gift. The winner will also receive week-long passes to attend the World Photography Festival screenings, workshops, exhibitions, talks and other events taking place throughout the city of Cannes from the 14th – 19th of April.

The winner will be announced early next year on 17th March, and if you want to be in with a chance just go over to their website and enter.

An exhibition of the finalists’ work – in both the professional and amateur categories – will be held at the Palais des Festival in Cannes from 14-18 April 2009.