The Virgin-curated V Festival last made an appearance in Australia in 2009, but Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson says he’s willing to consider bringing the festival back down under in the near future.
In a recent interview with triple j‘s Tom Tilley, Branson was quizzed about the current state of Australia’s music festival scene, which has seen the Big Day Out cancelled and Soundwave pull out of Perth in recent years.
“Well I think the future of a big music festival should be good because people love live music and I hadn’t realised that Australia had such a setback,” Branson said.
“Where there’s setbacks in a country, that’s where Virgin loves to tread, so maybe we should try to get the team at the V Festival to have another look at Australia.”
After being asked whether his words meant that V Festival was making a return to Australia, Branson said, “Well, why not? We’ll have a look at it and if we do, you can take full credit for it.”
V Festival’s 2009 Australian jaunt made its way through Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and the Gold Coast, and featured sets from big noughties act such as The Killers, Snow Patrol, Kaiser Chiefs, The Temper Trap and M83. The festival also took place in Australia in 2008 and 2007.
V Festival Australia was hung up to dry in 2010 when promoters Michael Coppel Presents discontinued their partnership with the Virgin Group. Rumours of the festival’s possible revival surfaced as early as 2011, but Branson’s words are the best sign yet of a possible return to Australia.
Hack‘s full interview with Sir Richard Branson will go to air at 5:30pm AEDT today.
