No music event to replace V Festival in Staffordshire

A music festival which is set to replace the V Festival will not be held in Staffordshire this year, it has emerged.

V Festival was held annually at Weston Park, near Shifnal. But in October Virgin announced it would no longer sponsor the event after 22 years.

The new Rize Festival will replace it, but only at the festival's other site, in Hylands Park, Chelmsford.

Headliners include Liam Gallagher and Stereophonics.

The previous festival took place across both sites annually on the third weekend in August, with the first event held at Weston Park in 1999.

But while the line-up has been publicised for the event in Essex, on 17 and 18 August, there is no mention of a Staffordshire event.

The Shropshire Star reports that Weston Park is in talks for a new, major event in 2019, and has a number of other events lined up for this summer, but no festival.

Following the announcement by Sir Richard Branson in October that Virgin would no longer sponsor the event, V Festival tweeted that the festival would carry on in 2018 with a new name.

The boss of organisers Festival Republic, Melvin Benn, also told Music Week at the time there were plans to expand the event from two to three days at both sites.