Annual One Love Festival not to be held in 2011

Click for big version

Radio Active 89FM today announced that the annual One Love music festival would not be held in 2011 but return in 2012.

It is the first time in 13 years that the popular Waitangi Day event has not happened. It had grown from a free event held at the Wellington Botanic Garden to a ticketed festival held at Hataitai Velodrome drawing an estimated 20,000 people at its peak.

Instead, Radio Active has teamed up with a local promoter to present the One Love Special, featuring international superstars Nas and Damian Marley (son of Bob Marley), which will be held Wednesday February 16 at Wellington’s TSB Bank Arena.

The Wellington-based station’s manager Dave Gibbons cited the cost of rebranding to a new frequency imposed by the government as the reason behind the postponement of the popular event.

“While we’re not the only station forced to move frequency – and we support the intent of the re-alignment – it is much harder to for a community station like ours to absorb the costs associated with the move,” said Mr Gibbons.

“We’re normally confident of a return on our investment in One Love, but it’s too much of a gamble in current economic conditions to spend a lot of money on the festival without a guarantee it’ll pay off.

“We must put our broadcast viability first so we’ve reluctantly had to let One Love go for 2011 but we’ll be back with One Love in 2012,” he said.

As part of the rebranding project, Radio Active will be promoting its new frequency of 88.6FM and also focus heavily on its online presence through its website www.radioactive.fm

Reflecting this, Radio Active 89FM will now be known as RadioActive.fm

ENDS

© Scoop Media