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the papers' view on the MF deal reversal

Wednesday 6th October 2004


The newspapers are speculating on the reasons for festival organiser Mean Fiddler reversing the changes that were announced last week (see here and here).

Firstly, let's get the comedy out of the way. According to Rachel Stevenson writing in the Independant (online here) "Four years ago, Mr Power took a stake in Glastonbury, and he is credited with turning it in to one of the most popular events in the music calendar."

Yeah, right. Glastonbury wasn't the most popular event in the music calendar before MFs involvement, was it? Hundreds of thousands (pre-2002, and MFs involvement) of people went down to Pilton each June because they hated it.

As for the "stake in Glastonbury", eFestivals understands that the "stake" expires in a year or two along with the current agreement between the Festival and MF. But perhaps The Indy can be forgiven here, as most reporting of MF seems to get this wrong.

Anyhow, with such inaccuracies, how much can the rest be believed? It says that Dean James, Mean Fiddler's long-standing chief operating officer, who was to take over as the chief executive, had since last week "began singing his own praises, crediting himself with turning around the financial performance of the company ... At the same time as his appointment, Melvin Benn, Mr Power's right-hand man who ran the festivals division, left abruptly - a sign that Mr James' succession was creating problems."

eFestivals believes that Melvin has left just the MF board, but not the company. How this leaves Glastonbury Festival - where he has an important role in making the Festival happen - isn't known at this time.

The Guardian has a completely different take on the whole thing (online here). It reports that "The decision to abandon the placing and acquisition is understood to have come after rival promoter Denis Desmond, who built a 24% stake in Mean Fiddler last year," (see here) "raised objections to the move" and that "Yesterday's decision to unwind Mean Fiddler's placing is likely to heighten speculation about Mr Desmond's holding".

Whatever the truth of this internal MF drama we hope it doesn't lead to them taking their eye off the ball festivals-wise, as events with their involvement are an important and popular part of the summer.