Industry Music promoter Founded 1982 | Founder Vince Power Headquarters London, United Kingdom | |
 | ||
Type Private limited company Key people Melvin Benn (Director)
Denis Desmond (Director)
Stuart Douglas (Director)
Paul Latham (Director)
Elizabeth Willard (Director) Website www.festivalrepublic.com Parent organizations Live Nation Entertainment, Live Nation Profiles | ||
Jon mcildowie reading leeds festival interview festival republic hq london april 2014
Festival Republic is a UK music promoter. It was founded as Mean Fiddler Group in 1982 by Irish born chairman John Vincent Power, as a venue-management and music promotion group. Its move into festivals started when they took control of the Reading Festival from Harold Pendleton at the end of the 1980s. After the group was taken over by Hamsard Ltd in 2005 the focus became more concentrated on festivals, and in 2007 the venues along with the Mean Fiddler name were sold on, with the remaining company being renamed Festival Republic.
Contents
History
The group was founded in 1982 by Irish born chairman John Vincent Power, with a venue called simply Mean Fiddler. After acquiring the LA2 (now known as the Astoria2) in Charing Cross Road in 2000, it was renamed to become the Mean Fiddler Music Group. Melvin Benn is the current managing director.
In April 2005, they accepted a takeover bid from Hamsard Ltd, a co-operative company 50.1% owned by Live Nation UK (formerly the entertainment division of Clear Channel UK but now part of Live Nation International) and 49.9% owned by Irish event organiser MCD.
In 2006, the Mean Fiddler Music Group reduced its touring and promotion activities to concentrate on running festivals. It maintained control of the successful Reading and Leeds festivals and announced a new addition – Latitude Festival.
In 2007, the Mean Fiddler Music Group was sold along with several venues to Mama Group Plc in order to allow Festival Republic to concentrate fully on promoting festivals. As part of the sale, the Mama Group has acquired the rights to the Mean Fiddler trademark.
Festival Promotion and Production
Festival Republic's flagship events are the Reading and Leeds Festivals. These are a pair of annual events which take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend, sharing the same bill. In addition they also run the Latitude Festival in Suffolk, the Wireless Festival and the Community Festival in London, EDC UK in Milton Keynes, and the Download Festival in Leicestershire.
In Ireland they organize the Longitude Festival and Electric Picnic. In Norway they run the Hove Festival., In Germany they have expanded from running the Berlin Festival to running the first European Lollapalooza.
They have previously been responsible for Big Chill festival, which last ran in 2011, and were the operators of the Glastonbury Festival from 2002 until 2012.