Melvin Benn, festival organiser, talks about Heavenly Planet

At the press launch of next year's Heavenly Planet festival I was able to get a few words from Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic.

Heavenly Planet is the brainchild of Reading Borough Council, Reading Festival organiser Melvin Benn and WOMAD's ex-artistic director Thomas Brooman, the festival is planned to feature various genres of music from across the world and will be aimed at families and teenagers with entertainment which will appeal to all generations. There will also be a sister festival held in Palermo, Sicily.

Melvin, how did you first get into the industry; promoting festivals?
That's a very long chat but I came into it through politics. I used to promote campaigning concerts, campaigning festivals, free festivals.

What festivals are you involved in?
Reading Festival, Leeds Festival, Latitude Festival, 40% of Glastonbury Festival holding the entertainment license so pretty key to that as well as the RISE festival, St Patricks Day, the Fleadh Festival; quite a lot of festivals.

Are you only involved with festivals?
Well, we own the Astoria as well.

In the current Global economic Crisis, how do you see that specifically affecting festivals?
We don't know, I mean the truth is we don't know. I don't think it's going to particularly affect us too adversely, I think people will still want to go out and enjoy themselves, I think they won't go out quite as often and I think they will then pick the special occasions that they do go out and I would like to think that our festival will be one of the special occasions that they pick.

Do you think that people will pick just one place to go to?
I still think that they might pick more than one place, but they won’t pick six or seven places and I think there are a few people who have been going to, you know, half a dozen festivals, but I still think that people will pick a large festival and a small festival, I think that will be the essence of what people will do.

Is this the right time to launch a new festival?
You know, people ask me that and the reality is sort of like asking prospective parents whether it is a right time to have a baby. Economically there is never a good time to have a baby; economically there is never a good time to give birth to a new festival. I see this as something that we will nurture, I see this as something we will grow, I see this as some thing we will celebrate and bring along with us and to be absolutely honest I don’t have any qualm about the fact that we are in an economic recession, I’m very comfortable about it actually.

Have you got any acts confirmed for anywhere other than the Heavenly Planet festival?
Oh of course yes, we've got people very much confirmed for Reading, Leeds and Latitude but I'm not at liberty to tell you who they are!

Not even a clue?
Not even a clue, the only clue I will give you is that the three headliners have all got guitars. [I'm sure I've heard that answer somewhere before.]

This is billed as the first all weather festival, how is going to be all weather?
Well it is going to be all weather in that there will be actually be four music stages, one is really a late night stage inside the Rivermead centre but the three main stages will all be under canvas roofs in giant big tops and we will have completely open sides but in the main there will be protection so come rain or shine because we are aiming for families so we think that that is important.

This seems to be in direct competition to WOMAD, do you see it like that?
I don't think it's in direct competition to WOMAD per se, I think it's in competition with every festival. I think that when potential festival goers are looking at the calendar they look to find something that fits with what they want so we are no more in competition with WOMAD than we are with The Big Chill for instance or with Glastonbury so it's not about competing with one.

You have a sister festival in Sicily, are you planning to move into other territories?
Our aim is to have festivals across the world, starting with the birthplace of the festival and its spiritual home here in Reading but the second place we will have one is in Sicily and hopefully we will have a good number of them.

Heavenly Planet is the new international music festival which will be held at Rivermead, Reading. The festival will take place over the weekend from Friday 10th and Saturday 11th July, and features two days of music. The event is being billed as the first all weather outdoor festival.

br> Weekend passes for the event are priced at £75 for adults, and day passes, are priced at £35 for Friday, and £45 for Saturday. Camping priced at £15 is paid for separately, and campervan tickets are £40. Children aged 15 and under free with full paying adult.

To buy tickets, click here.

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