V Festival to rebrand with new name in 2018 (Report)

V Festival has announced that it will rebrand in 2018 with a new name.

There had been previous reports that the festival’s Staffordshire edition was unlikely to take place next year, but now Festival Republic promoter Melvin Benn has told Music Week that both the Staffordshire and Chelmsford legs will continue in 2018 under a different guise.

This comes as Virgin withdraws its sponsorship of the event after 22 years.”After 22 very enjoyable and successful years, 2017 was Virgin’s last V Festival,” Virgin founder Richard Branson tweeted.

Benn has told Music Week that he was “very grateful” for Virgin’s sponsorship and that the festival’s new name will be revealed next month. “The festivals will continue, we have the announcement later in November of the replacement name,” he said. “We are looking forward to the new festival now, it’s just something that we are incredibly excited about.”

Confirming that the new event will take place over the same August weekend, Benn also stated that he hopes to expand the festival from two to three days.

“It will very much continue to have a pop and dance focus,” Benn said. “We will have a complete refresh and it’s likely to go to three days. I believe the demand warrants it – the demand and the talent are out there.”

Benn also said that he was “very confident” about the 2018 headliners – to be announced. “Generally across all of the festivals, it feels very strong – it feels like music’s in a good space,” he stated.