Reading & Leeds boss tells us about “groundbreaking” new stage The Chevron

nme.com:

Reading & Leeds have unveiled details of a huge and “groundbreaking” new stage, with The Chevron debuting at the festival this summer.

Check out video above, with photos and an exclusive interview with festival boss Melvin Benn below.Speaking to NME last year, Festival Republic boss Benn teased that “stage changes” were on the way – potentially seeing an end to the two main stage format of recent years.

Now, after sparking speculation on the recent line-up poster, details of The Chevron have been announced.The Chevron will boast the world’s first outdoor floating LED video sky canopy, and has been created especially to host dance music, pop and hip-hop acts – with the stage this year being headlined by The Prodigy, Sonny Fodera and Skrillex, as well as seeing performances from the likes of Nia Archives, Denzel Curry, Barry Can’t Swim and Kenny Beats.

The world’s biggest silent disco will also return to R&L, but in its new home of The Chevron.The 40,000-capacity open-air venue’s video canopy will be made up of hundreds of thousands of programmable LED lights, “turning the sky into a dazzling, reactive display” and boasted as “a feat of engineering, as the LEDs will appear to be hovering in the air”.A press release revealed: “The canopy will bathe the audience with dynamic light and the mesh is 90 per cent transparent, so fans can dance under the open sky into the early hours.”Festival boss Melvin Benn described the new stage as a “testament to Reading & Leeds’ continued commitment to innovation and industry leadership”.“I felt that I could still accommodate the six headliners on what would essentially be Main Stage East,” Benn exclusively told NME.