The former Mean Fiddler supremo has bought a controlling interest in Benicassim, which is headlined this year by Depeche Mode, Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, Morrissey, The Pixies and Placebo.
In his first interview since offloading the Fiddler to MCD and Clear Channel for £38 million, Vince Power tells The Sunday Telegraph: “It was a kind of relief when it was sold, then a sadness, and then waking up on Monday and automatically ringing Mean Fiddler and then realising that I couldn’t do that anymore. I had a huge fear that I would get completely forgotten and put on some junk pile somewhere. So I had to do something!”
Under the terms of the sale, Power is prevented from owning or running festivals in the UK and Ireland until 2008.
“The festival market in the UK is saturated anyway,” he reflects. “In the summertime there are two every month.”
Having bagged Benicassim, Power is now casting his promoter’s eye over Poland and Hungary.
“I don’t really have an endgame. For me it’s doing stuff that gives me a buzz.”