ONE MORE THING:CONCERT PROMOTER Vince Power is back in the live music business in Britain three years after selling out of the Mean Fiddler there.
The Waterford-born entrepreneur, who celebrates his 61st birthday later this month, has signed up Canadian rocker Neil Young to headline a new one-day festival on July 6th in Kent in the southeast.
Called A Day at the Hop Farm, it has been billed as a "back-to-basics" event and Power hopes to attract 30,000 fans. There will be no corporate branding and no VIP areas.
He hopes to expand the festival to a three-day format next year. Power's non-compete clause after the sale of Mean Fiddler has expired, leaving him free to get back into the festival business in Britain. Not that's he's been twiddling his thumbs.
He has a large property portfolio, owns a number of bars in the UK and has a stake in the Bencassim festival in Spain. Power, who was made a Commander of the British Empire in 2006, built Mean Fiddler from virtually nothing to a level where it comprised 30 venues and events such as Glastonbury. Mean Fiddler is now owned by Denis Desmond of MCD fame, and Live Nation, the US entertainment group that this week signed a major contract with U2 to run the band's tours and merchandising.
Times have changed somewhat since Power last ran a festival in the UK. "This year we will have paper recyclable cups that you can put in bale and send back for recycling," he told Music Week magazine recently. "I am looking at various options, including green generators." Rock on, man.
