Festival slapdown!

The PoD/Mean Fiddler Organisation have told Hot Press that, one way or the other, the Reading Festival will definitely be coming to Ireland next year.

Commenting on the competition between themselves and rival promoters MCD to secure a 300-acre site in Loyd near Kells, John Reynolds says, "Let's be honest. Any site Vince Power looks at, Denis Desmond looks at and vice versa. I haven't seen it myself, but the man responsible for all of the Fiddler's festival sites, Melvyn Benn, tells me it looks highly promising. Under no circumstances, though, is it the only one.

"I'm telling you now, Reading is coming!"

Responsibility for who gets to use the people's park falls to Kells Town Council.

"We've received proposals from both MCD and the Mean Fiddler Group," confirms Kells Town Clerk Bill Sweeney. "We're arranging meetings at the moment to get more details and I'd expect that we would be making a decision before Christmas. They both have different ideas as to what type of event they would run, but both proposals are for the summer of next year."

According to Bill Sweeney, there's an outside chance of both gigs being green-lighted.

"It seems that we'll end up with one promoter or the other, but it's possible we may be able to facilitate both," he resumes. " The capacity of the crowds is something that we'd have to discuss with the promoters. Mean Fiddler are keen to link it with the Reading Festival which happens around the middle of August, but MCD have not yet given us a proposal as to the exact nature of their event."