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Festival Republic boss Melvin Benn has spoken about the future of the Big Chill - saying that event is 'resting' for the moment.
Earlier this year, promoters of The Big Chill have revealed that the festival won't be returning in 2014. The event was first cancelled in 2012 due to a lack of 'availability' around the time of the London Olympic Games.
Now, speaking to Gigwise, festival organiser Melvin Benn has suggested that the Big Chill may return in years to come.
When asked if there was any development on the future of the festival, Benn responded: "Not at the moment. It's never far from my thoughts and it isn't something that's gone away, but it's definitely resting."
The Herefordshire Festival will not be taking place this year, despite Festival Republic boss voicing intentions to bring back a scaled-down version.
"I'm sure something will return that will have a completely fresh take on what a festival should be," Benn told BBC Newsbeat in 2012. "The Big Chill [2012] was a clash with the Olympics but more importantly with The Big Chill it was me not being absolutely certain where I wanted to take the festival and what I was doing with the festival."
Earlier this year, the Herefordshire Times report that no one from Festival Republic will comment on the events long-term prospects, but the general manager at the Eastnor Castle said told them: "We knew the festival was not coming back.
"The first year the festival was cancelled it did have an impact on business, so we were able to budget accordingly the next time it was cancelled and just put other events on in its place.”
Janelle Monae live at The Big Chill 2011
The last Big Chill took place in 2011 with performances from The Chemical Brothers, Kanye West, Kanye West, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Empire of the Sun, Janella Monae, Jessie J, Metronomy, Warpaint and many more.
The event was founded in 1994 and used to attract 40,000 customers. It was then bought and taken over by Festival Republic in 2009 after the organisers went into volutnary liquidation.
Following the purchase, co-founder and DJ Pete Lawrence caused controversy when he said that the spirit and intimacy of the festival had been lost.
“As you get bigger, people see you as a chance to make money on every level,” he told The Guardian in 2010. “The demands of local authorities and police went up ever year, even though it was roughly the same size. In the end I thought the festival was too entrenched, often literally in the mud. The Big Chill had lost that intimacy for me.”
Below - Photos: Kanye West and the best of Big Chill 2011
