Neil Pengelly leaves Festival Republic

Reading and Leeds festival booker Neil Pengelly is to leave Festival Republic after nearly 20 years working on the firm's events and booking 2500 bands.

A statement from Festival Republic said, "Few other people can lay claim to have contributed to a festivals growth and success more than Neil Pengelly can with Reading Festival and subsequently Leeds Festival."

Neil joined the company on April Fool's Day 1990 as a promoter and booked various London venues. After booking the comedy and second stage at Reading he took over booking all the music stages at Reading in 1994 and subsequently Leeds. 19 years at the creative helm of a festival that in 1994 was selling around 35,000 weekend and/or day tickets and now is selling around 200,000 weekend and/or day tickets across two sites.

Festival boss Melvin Benn stated, "His '94 headliners Cypress Hill, Primal Scream and Red Hot Chilli Peppers were ably supported by Radiohead and Pulp among many others and over the 18 subsequent years the list is so long it's hard to pick out the highlights but The Foo Fighters, Guns 'n Roses, Stone Roses, Rage, The Strokes, Eminem, 50 Cent, Green Day, Metallica, Arctic Monkeys, Pearl Jam and Muse are just a few of the headline highlights and down the bill the list is too long to mention. The man is a legend and will be a tough act to follow. To say he will be missed by me and the rest of the team is an understatement and my thanks would be too gushing to write down and be acceptable to him!

"My sorrow at seeing Neil go is tempered only by the confidence I have in welcoming his replacement to the FR team and the excitement I have in working with him to shape the next chapter at Reading and Leeds."

Chelsea fan Pengelly made his support for the club legendary amongst fans of the festival by slipping a player's name into the line-up announcement every year as a running joke. In recent years these included Ramires, David Luiz, Juliano Belletti, Paulo Ferreira, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank.

Pengelly will stay on at the helm through October and in an advisory and consultative role until March next year to support his replacement (who will join on the 9th November).

Yesterday Festival Republic also announced Natasha Haddad would be joining Benn and the Latitude team at Festival Republic. Haddad has spent the past five years working with The Great Escape and the wider MAMA team across many different events and festivals including Wilderness, and Lovebox and will now be working on the music programme at the eighth edition of Latitude and onwards.

No acts have been announced yet for next year's twin Reading and Leeds festivals which take place on the bank holiday weekend, from Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th August. Reading Festival takes place at Little Johns Farm, Richfield Avenue, Reading, Berkshire, and Leeds Festival takes place at Bramham Park, Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Pre-sale tickets for next year's Reading and Leeds are no longer on sale and were priced at £197.50, the date for the next wave of ticket sales has not yet been announced. eFestivals will bring you links to buy them once they become available.

Latest Updates