Chelmsford City Council has confirmed it is in negotiations with festival organisers and hopes a music festival will return to Hylands Park for 2020.

This year will be the first time a festival has not been held in Chelmsford since the first V Festival was held in 1996, with headliners including Pulp, Paul Weller and Supergrass.

RiZE, which was a replacement for V Festival, was held in Hylands Park for the first time last year, headlined by Liam Gallagher, Stereophonics and Rita Ora.

But the line-up failed to spark interest and after disappointing ticket sales the organisers of RiZE decided to walk away after just one attempt.

It is believed that the council’s income budget for 2019/20 has been reduced by £762,000 because of the loss in revenue caused by the departure of RiZE.

New leader of Chelmsford City Council, Stephen Robinson, said: “We are in negotiations and hope to announce something before too long.

“We are hoping to be able to run anther music festival in 2020.
“It’s up to the promoter to decide the running order and who is on the bill.

“When we (the Lib Dems) ran the council before we brought V to Chelmsford in the first place – w created V festival 20 odd years ago.

“And the associated Chelmsford spectacular the following weekend which was a much more family oriented event using the same infrastructure.

“It’s always been our desire to show we have accessible events.”