Melvin Benn
Melvin Benn is the Managing Director of Festival Republic, the leading UK event promoter behind Latitude, Reading & Leeds Festivals, Wireless and Wilderness. In 2017, Benn was instrumental in producing the One Love Manchester benefit concert, We Love Manchester which was broadcast live in over 50 countries and raised millions for the British Red Cross Emergency Fund.
With vast experience of staging the biggest festival and outdoor music shows in the world, Benn is also Director of Glastonbury Festival and was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wembley Stadium for five years from 2011. Benn sits as a representative on the Concert Promoters Association (CPA), was influential in writing the original Guide to Health and Safety at Outdoor Events (‘the Pop Code’).
Born in Hull, East Yorkshire, Benn spent ten years producing political festivals throughout the UK before opening The Festival Office Ltd in 1989, working as a partner to create festivals with the Mean Fiddler Music Group. In 1996, The Festival Office joined the Mean Fiddler Music Group, with Benn becoming Managing Director of the group. In 1999 he became CEO of the Group, turning Mean Fiddler and its associated companies into a PLC structure, and subsequently making it the first publicly quoted music company on the UK Stock Exchange. In 2005 the Mean Fiddler plc was sold to Live Nation and was subsequently renamed in 2007 as Festival Republic.
Benn was behind the Phoenix Festival, the UK’s first ever four-day music festival, and created the Irish music festival, The London ‘Fleadh’, which became a global phenomenon travelling to Ireland, Scotland and finally to four cities annually in the USA. His promotion of large-scale live music events led to him securing, despite the difficulty and opposition the then new Criminal Justice Act, securing the first ever UK licences for outdoor dance festivals including Tribal Gathering, Creamfields and Homelands, Under Benn’s directorship, the Mean Fiddler portfolio also included large scale New Year’s Eve Parties and dozens of one day outdoor shows in London parks, with acts as diverse as Madness, Pulp, Jamiroquai and Oasis. He also produced the annual St Patrick’s Day Festival on behalf of the GLA, and numerous events for trade unions, fundraising bodies and brands including Holsten Pils and Nescafe.
Benn has produced Reading Festival since 1989, and in 1999 created sister event Leeds Festival, which brought the three-day event to the North of England over the same August bank holiday weekend. Today Reading & Leeds have become the largest dual festival in the world with a combined audience of 250,000 ticket holders annually, and features performances from over 200 artists from a range of genres including rock, indie, dance and hip hop. Recent headliners have included Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters, Metallica and Billie Eilish, and the festivals’ stages have been graced by every band worth talking about in music history.
Benn is a director of Glastonbury festival having become the licensee in 2002 and was instrumental in turning around the fortunes of Britain’s biggest outdoor festival.
In 2006, Benn realised his vision for a new kind of festival offering the very best in music, comedy, theatre, cabaret, dance, poetry, literature, art and film with Latitude, set in the idyllic grounds of Suffolk’s Henham Park Estate each July. Celebrating its 18th edition in this year, the pioneering and award-winning festival continues to boast stunning performance spaces dedicated to each of the arts, with an ethos of inspiration, innovation and cultural adventure that sets it apart from its contemporaries.
In 2004 Benn and two partners created Ireland’s Electric Picnic, Irelands version of Glastonbury and has since opened an office in Dublin and produced several live events in Ireland including Longitude and the Marlay Park concerts. Further overseas events in Festival Republic’s impressive portfolio have included Berlin Festival, Lollapalooza Berlin and the Hove Festival in Norway as well as Orlando Calling in the USA.
In 2015, Benn’s role at Festival Republic extended into overseeing Live Nation events which now include: Download and Wireless. The company also saw the introduction of new festivals, Community, in Finsbury Park in 2017 and the Gunnersbury and Crystal Palace Concert series in 2019. He promotes and produces outdoor music festivals and shows for circa 2 million attendee days a year.
During the global pandemic, Benn was instrumental in the return of Live Events, being in close contact with the government throughout. In May 2021, Benn held the first pilot events at Sefton Park in Liverpool with immense success, which was followed by an incredible successful festival season with test events in cooperation with the government and regular festivals.
Summer 2022 saw Festivals return in full force, with over 35 festivals and shows including Glastonbury Festival. This momentum continued into 2023, with 38 festivals & shows, Festival Republic’s busiest year to date.
Festival Republic is committed to supporting a large number of charities and community organisations, including Child.org, Action Aid, Julie’s Bicycle, Oxfam and NSPCC.