V Festival to stay at Weston Park but will have a new name after Virgin backs out
V Festival will return to Weston Park next year and could expand to three days – but it will have a new name after Virgin pulled out.
Organiser Live Nation confirmed that Virgin’s 22 years of backing for the event had now come to an end.
But organisers ended speculation the event would be cancelled, insisting it would remain in Staffordshire for 2018.
Live Nation managing director Melvin Benn was reported as saying the twinned event, which is also staged at Hylands Park, Chelmsford, was likely to expand from two days to three days next year, with the focus staying on pop and dance music.
A Tweet from the official V Festival feed said: “Thanks for being a great sponsor @Virgin. The name of the new festival that continues on the same weekend in 2018 will be announced soon.”
Virgin mogul Richard Branson also confirmed the company had ended its support. He said: “V Festival has always been a special weekend for everyone at Virgin. We’ve been proud to sponsor V Festival for the past two decades and there have been some incredible performances on the stage. Now, after 22 very enjoyable and successful years, 2017 was Virgin’s last V Festival.”
Sharing his particular favourite memories Branson added: “Being part of V Festival has been an honour and there are some amazing moments that will stay with me forever – including introducing Paul Weller and welcoming V2 Records’ first signing The Stereophonics to a massive audience. Working on V Festival has been a brilliant journey filled with great people, fun times and exceptional music.
“I have so many memories to cherish – from the mind-blowing performances to spending quality time at the festival with both Holly and Sam, who it’s no surprise are both music lovers after spending so much time dancing at V.”
V Festival arrived at the park in1999, three years after its launch, when Leeds Festival took over its original northern site at Temple Newsam. It attracts around 70,000 people each day, bringing a big boost to the West Midlands economy but traffic chaos to roads between Wolverhampton and the venue at Weston-under-Lizard, near Shifnal. It was hailed as a celebration of Britpop in its early years but many have claimed it has moved away from that in more recent times no more so than this summer when rapper Jay-Z and Pink were the headline attractions.
Weston Park today declined to comment, but said it was working with organisers.