Festival Republic

Festival Republic is a UK music promoter. Among its other interests, it runs the Reading and Leeds festivals and is also contracted to manage the Glastonbury Festival.

History

The group was founded in 1982 by chairman Vince 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 reportedly 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. Hotbox Events, headed by director Mark Hatchard, has been supplying staff and volunteers for UK festivals on behalf of Festival Republic since 2003.

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

• Reading Festival
• Leeds Festival
• Latitude Festival
• Big Chill
• Glastonbury Festival
• Electric Picnic, Ireland
• Hove Festival, Norway

Former Venues

• London Astoria
• London Forum
• Mean Fiddler
• Jazz Café
• The Garage
• The Borderline
• The Grand
• The Old Fiddler
• The Crossbar
• The Complex
• Media
• Point 101
• Powers Bar
• Ion Bar
• Bartok
• The Z Bar

Sources

• [1]
• [2]

External links

• New official site
• MyNottingHill.co.uk: Vince Powers - The Mean Fiddler