Festival Republic is the UK’s leading Festival and Event promoter. We are extremely proud to be the team behind the greatest rock shows on the planet, including the Reading & Leeds Festival, the critically applauded Latitude, Ireland's Electric Picnic, Hove in Norway and the Berlin Festival.
In August 2007 we restructured our business, selling the majority of our venue portfolio and changing our name from Mean Fiddler to Festival Republic. In December 2008, the much celebrated jewels in the London venue crown, The Astoria and The Astoria 2 were issued a compulsory purchase order as part of the Crossrail project and have now been closed down. Since then, we have added Hove Festival in Arendal, Norway, which prides itself in being the first carbon neutral festival in Scandinavia, Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Republic of Ireland, in conjunction with Pod Concerts and the Berlin Festival in Germany to our exciting festival portfolio. In recent years, we have also promoted The Big Chill Festival in Herefordshire and our first US festival in Orlando, Florida. Until 2012 Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic, had operational responsibility for and was the licence holder of Glastonbury Festival.
A brief history
Formed in 1982, we largely created the modern music festival market in the UK. Under the name of Mean Fiddler, we took shared ownership of the Reading Festival in 1989 and took sole ownership in 1993. Since then we have built Reading into the most famous rock show on the planet and in 1999 created a parallel event in Leeds. From 2002 to 2012 we took over operational management of Glastonbury Festival and in 2007 increased the capacity of the festival to 177,500. In 2006 we launched Latitude, our fledgling music and arts festival, held on the beautiful Sunrise Coast in Suffolk. Latitude is doing phenomenally well; in its second year it almost doubled capacity to 20,000 visitors and has since increased to 35,000. Until 2008, we also produced the annual London festivals for the GLA; Rise and St Patrick’s Day. In 2009, we added Electric Picnic in Ireland and Hove Festival in Norway to our festival portfolio. In September 2009, we took majority ownership of The Big Chill Festival, which took place in the grounds of Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire, and in 2010 we promoted Orlando Calling, our first festival in Florida.
Awards we've won
Latitude Festival
Best Family Festival (UK Festival Awards 2012)
Highly Commended (Greener Festival Award 2012)
Three Stars Industry Green rating from Julie’s Bicycle (Industry Green 2012)
Headline Performance of the Year – Paolo Nutini (UK Festival Awards 2011)
Outstanding Contribution to British Arts Festivals for Tania Harrison (BAFA Awards 2011)
The Stage Award for Special Achievement in Regional Theatre (TMA Theatre Awards 2008)
Best Fan Friendly Award (UK Festival Awards 2007)
Inspiration Award for Tania Harrison (Women of The Year Awards 2006)
Reading Festival
Best Festival (NME Awards 2012)
Best headline performance for the Foo Fighters at Reading (Live UK Business Awards 2012)
Commended (Greener Festival Award 2012)
Three Stars Industry Green rating from Julie’s Bicycle (Industry Green 2012)
Best Live Event Reading & Leeds Festival (Shockwaves NME Awards 2008)
Best Live Event Reading & Leeds Festival (Shockwaves NME Awards 2007)
Best Event for Reading & Leeds Festival (Shockwaves NME Awards 2006)
Best Event for Carling Reading/Leeds Festival (NME Carling Awards 2003)
Leeds Festival
Best Festival (NME Awards 2012)
Commended (Greener Festival Award 2012)
Best Live Event Reading & Leeds Festival (Shockwaves NME Awards 2008)
Best Live Event Reading & Leeds Festival (Shockwaves NME Awards 2007)
Best Event for Reading & Leeds Festival (Shockwaves NME Awards 2006)
Best Event for Carling Reading/Leeds Festival (NME Carling Awards 2003)