Melvin Benn

More than half a million fans attend the festivals we own and co-produce each year. They do so because they share our passion for festivals. Festivals are in our blood and we are proud to provide the heartbeat of the summer. Festival Republic is the UK’s leading festival and event promoter, and is extremely proud to be the team behind festivals including the greatest live show on the planet, Reading & Leeds Festivals; Latitude, the critically acclaimed multi-arts festival; and overseas events Electric Picnic, Berlin Festival and Lollapalooza Berlin. Formed in 1982 under the name Mean Fiddler, the company largely created the modern music festival market in the UK, taking shared ownership of Reading Festival in 1989 and producing numerous other events including the Fleadh and Phoenix festivals, Creamfields and Homelands. From 2001 until June 2012 Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic, also held the licence and operational control of Glastonbury Festival. In 2007 the Mean Fiddler name and venues were sold, with the full festival portfolio remaining under the new name of Festival Republic. Since then the company has gone from strength to strength, producing an impressive portfolio of live events in the UK and overseas, and opening an office in Dublin in 2013.