Wireless Festival is an annual rap and hip-hop music festival that takes place in London, England. It is owned and managed by Live Nation. While it started as primarily a rock and pop festival, since the early 2010s, it has focused on hip-hop and other genres of music.[1][2]
From its inception in 2005 until 2008, the festival was sponsored by telecommunications company O2, and was called the O2 Wireless Festival. From 2009 to 2012, the main sponsor was Barclaycard and the festival renamed to Barclaycard Wireless Festival. For 2013, the sponsor changed to Yahoo!, and was renamed to Yahoo! Wireless. In 2015, the sponsor became the fashion retailer New Look. Sponsorship then changed to delivery company Gopuff in 2021, and has remained the same for the 2022 and 2023 editions of the festival.[citation needed]
The capacity of the 2023 event is 49,999.[3] Adjacent festivals were held in Leeds in 2006 and 2007, as well as Birmingham in 2014. In 2017, Live Nation also established Wireless Germany, in Frankfurt, as well as Wireless Middle East in Abu Dhabi.[4]
History
2005
M.I.A. performing on the XFM stage in 2005
The first festival took place in June 2005 and was in Hyde Park only. Tickets were £35 a day. Some of the acts on the line-up were (headline acts in bold):[5]
Tickets for both venues went on sale on 16 March 2007 and the festival took place between 14 and 17 June in Hyde Park, and 15–17 June at Harewood House. Tickets were £40 for one day, £75 for two, £105 for three or £135 for four days.
The acts for both Hyde Park and Harewood House were:[8]
For the first time, the Leeds festival offered camping facilities at the festival. Campers were allowed to stay on Lord Harewood's land for £25 for as many festival days as they wished. There were 3 stages this year, and the O2 Blueroom where only O2 customers were allowed to enter.
2008
The 2008 O2 Wireless Festival spanned 4 days in Hyde Park, and was the last to carry the O2 sponsorship. An attempt to hold a parallel festival in Leeds similar to the Reading and Leeds Festivals arrangement was unsuccessful, and instead a variety of club nights featuring billed artists were held. Tickets were £45 per day.
The 2009 festival was sponsored by Barclaycard and was cut from four to two days in Hyde Park. Tickets were £45 for one day or £80 for both. The line-up was as follows:[10]
The 2010 Wireless Festival was increased to three days and took place from 2 July to 4 July 2010. Tickets were £47.50 for one day, £85 for two and £110 for three days. The line-up was as follows:[11]
The Sunday date sold out in record time, three weeks before the festival.[12]
2011
The Black Eyed Peas headline the 2011 festivalExample on the FridayKaty B on the Saturday
The 2011 Wireless Festival was held from Friday 1 July to Sunday 3 July 2011. Tickets were £48.50 (Saturday/Sunday) or £49.50 (Friday) for one day, £92 for two and £130 for three days. The Black Eyed Peas headlined the Friday, The Chemical Brothers on the Saturday, and Pulp reformed after ten years to play the Sunday and other festivals in 2011. The Black Eyed Peas date had sold out by the end of June, while tickets for the other two days remained on sale until the festival.
The 2012 Wireless Festival was held from Friday, 6 July to Sunday, 8 July. Tickets went on general sale on 18 November 2011, priced at £49.50 (Friday/Saturday) and £52.50 (Sunday), plus booking fee.[13] All tickets for the Rihanna day sold out by the end of March, a new record for the festival.[14]
The 2013 event was moved to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford after Live Nation pulled out of the tender for Hyde Park due to curfew issues.[15] The festival was held from Friday, 12 July to Sunday, 14 July 2013, and tickets were priced at £57.50 for day tickets and £110 for two days, plus booking fees. The event was sponsored by Yahoo!.
In February 2014 it was confirmed that Wireless Festival 2014 would be held at Finsbury Park, London and Perry Park, Birmingham. The event was held over the weekend of 4–6 July 2014, on three stages. London day tickets were priced at £71.50 while Birmingham day tickets were priced at £68.75.[17] Weekend tickets for London went on sale at £210 while Birmingham weekend tickets were set at £172. On 3 July, the day before the first day of the festival, it was widely reported that Drake had pulled out due to illness, (making it the second time he had pulled out of a Wireless Festival). This was confirmed on the festival's social media sites and organisers announced that Kanye West would play instead of Drake in London, and Rudimental (who had been the support for Drake) would headline the Saturday in Birmingham with a special extended set featuring very special guests. The organisers also offered those attending on Saturday in Birmingham £20 of "Wireless Credit" which was redeemable against any concessions, merchandise stands and funfair attractions at the event.
On 31 January 2015, it was confirmed that the festival would be held in Finsbury Park between 3 and 5 July. The lineup was confirmed via the festival's Twitter page, with confirmation that Drake would return to the festival following his cancellation in 2014. It was also revealed that David Guetta and Nicki Minaj would perform as co-headliners on the Sunday, and that Avicii and Kendrick Lamar would be co-headlining on Saturday. As it was the festival's tenth birthday, there was a special 'birthday' event on Sunday, 28 June.
Following the announcement of the lineup, several artists cancelled their appearance. In early June, Big Sean removed the Wireless appearance from his tour's website and he no longer appeared on the Wireless website's lineup. Around the same time, Boy Better Know were added to the Wireless 10 event. On 14 June, Stromae cancelled his Wireless appearance amongst other summer dates, after suffering a reaction to anti-malaria drugs whilst on his tour of Sub-Saharan Africa. Someome tweeted a day later to say she would also be cancelling a number of summer dates, including Wireless, due to having to undergo vocal chord surgery.
The Friday sold out by the end of April, whilst the other three dates remained on sale until the festival.[citation needed]
Wireless Festival 2017 was held on the weekend of 7–9 July at Finsbury Park. The lineup was announced on 23 February, with Chance The Rapper to headline on Friday, Skepta headlining on Saturday and The Weeknd headlining on Sunday. On 28 March, Fetty Wap and Geko were announced for Friday, Travis Scott was announced for Saturday, and Bugzy Malone and Kojo Funds were announced for Sunday. On the same day, Cadet was moved from Sunday to Saturday. On 30 June, AJ Tracey was announced for Friday. Lil Uzi Vert was also part of the lineup, but pulled out, due to continued exhaustion. He was replaced by Pusha T. Wiley was also part of the lineup but also pulled out, due to delays with his travel plan. He was replaced by Lethal Bizzle.
Wireless festival was held on 6–8 July at Finsbury Park. The lineup was announced on 22 January, with J. Cole to headline on Friday, Stormzy on Saturday, and DJ Khaled with others on Sunday. The Festival was fully sold out within a day. On 9 April Cardi B announced her pregnancy, and therefore she pulled out. Three days later, Raye, Russ, Suspect, Big Shaq, Sneakbo, Davido, Ms Banks, Majid Jordan and Last Night In Paris were added to the lineup. On 14 May, AJ x Deno, EO, M Huncho, Just Banco, Big Heath, Romzy and Yung Fume were added to the lineup. On 3 July, J Hus pulled out, due to legal issues. Fredo also pulled out due to unforeseen circumstances. On the same day, Krept & Konan, Chip, Avelino, D-Block Europe and Ambush were added to the lineup. On 5 July, MoStack was moved from Saturday to Friday. On the same day Trippie Redd pulled out, due to unforeseen circumstances. On the day that DJ Khaled was meant to be headlining, it was announced that he had pulled out due to travel issues. He was replaced by a surprise guest, who turned out to be Drake.
The Wireless Festival was held on 5–7 July at Finsbury Park. The lineup was announced on 28 January, with Cardi B and Migos to co-headline on Friday, Travis Scott headlining on Saturday, and ASAP Rocky headlining on Sunday. On 9 February, Cadet, who was meant to be performing on Saturday, died. Wireless kept his performance set, in order to remember him. On 13 March, One Acen, Lotto Boyzz, THEY., Tiwa Savage, Lady Sanity and Lil Yachty were added to the lineup. In April, Loski pulled out due to legal issues. On 8 May, Yungen was added to the lineup. On 14 June Megan Thee Stallion was added to the lineup. On 20 June, it was announced that a number of acts would be streamed globally, live in virtual reality, by using a platform provided by MelodyVR. Streamed content would also be available via Wireless's Facebook page and MelodyVR's Android and iOS VR/360 apps.[18][19] On 1 July, Polo G was added to the lineup. Two days later, Headie One and Lil Uzi Vert pulled out for unknown reasons. Jay1 replaced One and a surprise guest, Skepta, replaced Vert. Also, ASAP Rocky pulled out, due to legal issues. On the day before he was meant to headline, J Hus was added to the lineup and it was also announced that Rae Sremmurd would be headlining Sunday. At the same time, Polo G cancelled his performance, due to the birth of his child, and was replaced by Aitch.
The sixteenth edition of Wireless Festival was due to take place on 3–5 July 2020 at Finsbury Park, London. In social media statements posted on 23 March 2021, it was announced that the festival would be moved to Crystal Palace Park and would take place on 10–12 September 2021.
In social media statements posted on 23 March 2021, it was announced that the festival would be moved to Crystal Palace Park and would take place at a later date than usual, due to Covid, on 10–12 September 2021.
It was announced that Wireless 2023 would be returning for one weekend, at Finsbury Park. The event is due to take place on 7, 8 and 9 July, with headline artists Playboi Carti, Travis Scott and D-Block Europe, and 50 Cent as a special guest, all UK festival exclusives. Saturday day tickets sold out within 60 minutes of going on sale.
It was announced that Wireless would return to Finsbury Park between 12 and 14 July 2024, with headline artists Nicki Minaj, 21 Savage, J Hus and Doja Cat.[20]
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