Melvin Benn talks to eFestivals

After the Leeds & Reading festivals anouncements where made at The Cockpit in Leeds, efestivals took part in a press conference with Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic.

Can I just ask you how you the Leeds Festival benefits the communities of Brahmam and Thorner?
Oh crikey massively, I mean first of all, probably £20,000 goes into each of the communities every year, a huge amount of enjoyment for local people, of the local communities coming to the festival each year, we provide a load of tickets that the local community sell and keep the proceeds, then there is just the general business that comes into the area as a results of the festival, you know that's significant, very significant, it's lovely, you know I feel really comfortable and really at home with Thorner and Bramham, it's a really lovely relationship and I'm very pleased that it exists.

Over the last few years people always say to me how much better organized it is, how much traffic has gone down and how much noise has gone down and just it's really well organized how have you been able to do that?
We have done that by working in the community, what we've done is a partnership program with the local communities of Bramham and Thorner, you know we sit down and we talk to each other a few times each year and we just discuss what went well and what didn't go well and how they think it can be improved and I either take that on board or I do other things that I think will make it improved a different way.

Congratulations on the excellent line up for the next year, did this year being a non Glastonbury year add any pressure to make it a more classic and inclusive line up?
No absolutely not, I mean Glastonbury is a different Festival, I always think Reading and Leeds is the greatest music lineup of any music Festival at any place in any part of the world, of any year. I think that this year, it doesn't really make any difference to us at Leeds Reading whether Glastonbury is on. I mean Glastonbury is an amazing Festival but it's a different Festival to what is the amazing Festivals of Reading and Leeds.

So what do you think that music lovers can get from this year's line up but they can't get from other music festivals?
Orgasms! This is the most extraordinary line-up that will appear at any Festival this year as far as I'm concerned, the Cure, Kasabian, Foo Fighters, Black Keys, Florence and The Machine, Paramore, the Cure are playing Reading Festival for example for the first time since 1979, I was certain they must have played during the eighties, I knew they had played in 1979 because I was there, but I was certain they must have played in the eighties, I knew they had never played since 1989 when I first became involved, you know when we first became involved in Reading, I didn't realise it was 1979. The excitement around the Cure, the excitement around being in the same space, in the same field, being able to listen to Robert Smith, it's very special you know, it's incredibly special this, to me, you know Paramore before them I think works wonderfully well, Kasabian and Florence and The Machine, the Vaccines before them, thats the Brits taking the stage, that's us completely and utterly dominating it.

I think Kasabian, I think the first time I saw Kasabian was actually at Leeds Festival, it was chaos, it was carnage, it was fantastic and I felt then that they would probably become a headliner, I didn't know, but I felt they would and they have, they deserve to be and it's great. It's the first headline performance from them at Leeds and Reading and I have no doubt it will be an amazing night actually and then obviously with the kaiser chiefs, Black KEYS and the Foo Fighters, you know that's just a wonderful night to people that love music isn't it really it's, Leeds and Reading are music festivals, there's no clowns, no fire eaters, no jugglers, no you know, no baby areas, no nothing, you know they are music festivals and I think they have always got the best line-up, I don't think this years any different, I think we've got amazing line-ups.

I saw the Cure play Bestival last year and they played for I think it was about three hours are there any plans for them to play for the same length this year?
It was a little less than three hours and were still talking to them about time, I want them to play a good set and they want to play a good set, we're still talking to them about time but it won't be a short set by any means.

So longer than your standard festival headline do you think?
It won't be a short set, I don't know exactly how long it will be, I'm sure it will be at least a two hour set.

What can we expect from the comedy and alternative stage?
I haven't even begun to go with the comedy and alternative tents, much too early for us actually, no we always have a great night in there, great three nights in there but much too early for us to be thinking about that.

As soon as you mentioned the beer and burger scheme to the press, was there negative feedback from the rest of the Festival Republic or were the rest of the Festival Republic behind it?
Of course, it's fair to say that I think Festival Republic has always been behind whatever I come up with really. No the beer and burger thing I think really, you know, times are tough and I think festivals are a wonderful wonderful value for money way of having an extraordinary weekend where you hang out with like minded people, you have a few beers, you have an occasional bite to eat, you have an even less occasional amount of sleep and you see the best bands in the world, but I felt I wanted to give something back and you know Festival Republic we have, and you know of course I run a business, but I have a view that I always want to try and give things back and I don't know why I came up with it, it just came into my head, I thought it would be something to do and I have decided to do it before I had really costed it out, I hope the sponsors will pay for it, but there's not much sign of it at the minute but I hope the sponsors will pay for it but if they don't we are paying for it. We are absolutely totally and utterly behind this, I think it's a wonderful thing and everybody does. We're all hundred percent behind it now and I think it's a wonderful thing, I rather suspect one or two of the festivals may follow it in the future I think.

What makes a festival headliner, if you were to talk to a young musician out there, what would you say to them makes you want those bands and how do you choose them.
Young people know, bands know what makes a festival headline, of course they do and you know what makes it is the connection with the audience and building the audience and growing the audience and actually interestingly Pulled Apart By Horses is a perfect example of it, they opened the BBC introducing stage, they opened the Festival Republic stage, they opened the Radio One NME stage, they are opening the main stage. They are a band that actually are working hard, they know what they are doing, they are producing brilliant brilliant music, I genuinely think they are a band that you know will go a long long way, they have massive appeal overseas, they won't have just a domestic audience, they are very well-managed and they are a band that I am incredibly excited about. How do they become a festival headliner only they know, these things you can't write it down you can't write down seven tick points and you do those things and you become a festival headliner, it happens or it doesn't, it will happen for Pulled Apart By Horses I think.

Do you have any new anti-tout measures this year?
No we've got the same as we've always had, we've got the multi agency response vehicle MARV it's called, we've got that up in Leeds and then we've got the exclusion order down in Reading. I am very very happy with the operations of those two things, I think they work really well.

Are there any new rules to be introduced this year?
No no no, all very much the same really all very much the same, just come and have a great time that's the rule.

Thank you very much.

Reading Festival takes place on the bank holiday weekend, from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th August at Little Johns Farm, Richfield Avenue, Reading, Berkshire, with the sister event, Leeds Festival, taking place the same weekend at Bramham Park, Leeds, West Yorkshire.

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