Features
High Flying Benicassim
Vince Power hopes to cash in on Glastonbury Festival’s year off by tempting fans to visit the UK’s resurrected Phoenix Festival or take a trip to Spain for Benicassim.
The Spanish festival, which last year bounced back after a disappointing 2010, has just confirmed Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
In November, Benicassim, which is July 12-15, announced
The festival on Spain’s northeastern coast last sold out its 50,000 capacity in 2009, but the signs are that Power – whose Music Festivals Plc. now has full ownership of the event – is planning for a bumper year.
“People tend to use it as a holiday, the campsite is open for around nine days, and you can guarantee sun and great music,” he told the Daily Mail.
Power floated Music Festivals on the Alternative Investment Market last year to raise £6.5 million toward buying Irish promoter Denis Desmond’s share of Benicassim and the smaller holdings of a consortium of Irish businessmen.
The cash was also used to buy such largely Power-owned UK festivals as Hop Farm in Kent and London’s Irish-themed Feis Festival.
In the programme notes for last year’s Hop Farm Festival, Power announced his intention that Phoenix Festival would rise from the ashes.
“For those of you who remember the Phoenix Festival, it’s my intention to resurrect this festival next year as Glastonbury is taking a break,” he said.
Phoenix – owned by Power’s Mean Fiddler Group – was held at Long Marston Airfield near Stratford-upon-Avon between 1993 and 1997, but struggled to establish itself. The ’98 gathering was scrapped because of poor ticket sales.
Other acts already confirmed for this year’s Benicassim include