Vince Power to float festivals business

Vince Power, the man who set up the Mean Fiddler in the 1980s, is to push ahead with a plan to take his new music festival venture public by the end of the month.

It emerged that Music Festivals was to list on the Alternative Investment Market earlier this year, but the process was slowed down by the choppy market conditions.

This week, Mr Power finally filed the application for Music Festival's admission to Aim, which will raise £6.5m. The company runs the Hop Farm Music Festival and Benicassim festival in Spain. It is understood that the decision to float the company was prompted in part by a sell-out concert at Hop by the popstar Prince, which led to the festival being extended by an extra day.

The company's operations will expand with the first Feis Festival in London this weekend and the company said it has already targeted other businesses that own or operate music festivals for expansion.