RiZE, the festival which was established as a replacement for V Festival, has been cancelled this year. According to EssesxLive, the underperformance of the Hylands Park event resulted in Chelmsford City Council loosing approximately £500,000 in expected revenue, from underwhelming ticket sales.
The inaugural festival, RiZE, was introduced last August, saw organisers pulling out all the stops to make it a success, with Liam Gallagher, Stereophonics and Rita Ora, among the headliners at the event, which was a decent set of performers given the new brand. However, the event was not as successful as its predecessor, V Festival, which has lead to festival not going ahead this year.
The predecessor of RiZE, V Festival was Virgin-owned and ran from 1996 to 2017, it was one of the main events on the calendar in terms of live music. RiZE saw a streamlining of sorts, taking place on only a Friday and Saturday instead of the usual three-day slot, with the V Festival show in Weston Park being cut entirely.
The leader of Chelmsford City Council, Roy Whitehead said: “V turned into Rize which wasn’t widely successful last year. It is a loss of considerable income. It is roughly £500,000 a year which we have to find.”
The council, which owns Hylands Park, has blamed changes by the festival organiser for RiZE’s poor performance. The council, which has also admitted that it doesn’t have any control of the content of the event and acts as a hiring venue, has also lost £38,000 on ticket sales commission.
Whitehead added, “We are raising money from other directions and increasing income in other ways to make sure we have a balanced budget. It is a huge hole in the council finances all of which we can fill with good management. We are optimistic for the year ahead.” Chelmsford City Council is considering organising its own event held in Hylands Park this year.
