Festival Republic buy into The Big Chill

Festival Republic has taken ownership of The Big Chill Festival and will co-produce the event from now on, according to this news article in Music Week (here).

Festival Republic will own the majority share in the festival with their portfolio of festivals including Reading & Leeds, Latitude, Rise (with the Greater London Authority), Electric Picnic (with Reynolds), Hove Festival in Norway, and is also involved with Glastonbury Festival.

Festival Republic is co-owned by Denis Desmond's Gaiety Investments and the international promotion giant Live Nation who between them control festivals including Download, Oxegen, T in the Park, and have a major share in V Festival.

The Big Chill which celebrated its fifteenth anniversary this year is hoping to benefit from year-round support from a team with so much experience at putting on all kinds of festivals. The organisers say they have found the last few years to be an awful lot of work for too small a team, so by becoming part of a bigger team they hope to find a new lease of life for 2010's event.

The Big Chill will be co-produced by Festival Republic and the existing Big Chill team from the Festival Republic offices, with Big Chill co-founder Katrina Larkin and her team relocating at the end of this month.

The Big Chill was founded by the original team of Pete Lawrence and Katrina Larkin, were bought into by the The Cantaloupe group who own Cargo in 2002, with Pete leaving the running of the organisation a few year's ago. The Big Chill Bar, House and the new Bristol Bar will remain in the ownership of The Cantaloupe Group and Katrina.

Katrina Larkin will remain creative director of the festival. She is quoted as saying, "It's a great opportunity for The Big Chill, following arguably our best festival to date. It means support for Big Chill all year-round and allows us to concentrate on what we do best – creating amazing festivals without compromise."

Next year's festival is set to take place from Thursday 5th until Sunday 8th August at Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire.

Latest Updates