MTV PREPARES TO 'CRASH' THE RICOH ARENA

HEADLINE ACTS TO SHOWCASE ACROSS MTV’S NETWORK OF UK MUSIC TV CHANNELS

MTV has today announced plans to ‘crash’ Coventry’s Ricoh Arena and stage its first MTV Crashes live music event of the year on 27-28 May.

MTV Crashes Coventry will be staged over the late May bank holiday weekend as part of a three-year agreement between MTV UK and the Ricoh Arena.

It will be the first time an MTV Crashes event has been staged in an arena and will feature a selection of stand-out performances from acts to be announced soon. MTV Crashes Coventry will be followed on the consecutive day with a Club MTV event in the same venue. Thousands of heavily subsidized tickets for both nights will be released for sale on 2 February on www.ricoharena.com and a registration of interest for tickets is available via the website today.

The Crashes event will be broadcast across MTV’s flagship UK music TV channels, MTV MUSIC and MTV LIVE HD, and subsequently across its portfolio of music channels. It will be further supported with on air spots, promotional pushes on the ground and across MTV’s social media platforms.

“Live music in the UK is on a high right now and as the number one music television network we’re fervent about giving audiences up close and personal access to it, with immersive on-the-ground brand experiences that translate into great on-air content” Commented Jill Offman, MD, MTV UK, “Our Crashes events are always a highlight of the year and consistently generate high levels of digital and social engagement so we can’t wait to get to work on this one and give the people of Coventry a weekend to remember!”

Andy Gibb, Managing Director of the Ricoh Arena, said, “We are hugely excited to welcome MTV to the Ricoh Arena in May for what will be sure to be a fantastic arena festival. This is great news for Coventry and for music fans across the Midlands, and stadium concerts form the core element of our music and entertainment strategy.”

David Armstrong, Chief Executive, Wasps Group, said “This is another big step in the development of Wasps’ strategy for the Ricoh Arena, and part of our commitment when we acquired the venue. We are delighted that we are able to bring new and innovative music to the region through the MTV brand.”

Cllr Ann Lucas, Leader of Coventry City Council said: “The news that MTV want to bring their global event to Coventry is a real tribute to the team at the Ricoh Arena and the Council support that will help make this one of the best music events of the year.

“We’ve got a great track record here of delivering high quality events and this is going to be a great weekend for MTV, the Ricoh Arena and Coventry. We’ll give everyone a really warm welcome and make it a very special weekend for everyone who’s involved.”

MTV UK has a history of working with city partners & local authorities to stage major live music events, with the overall value of the industry in the UK forecast to have grown by almost 50% in the period 2010-15.

Last year MTV’s brand new franchise MTV Live Lockdown headed to Glasgow, meanwhile Club MTV, established in 2013 to reconnect MTV with 16-24s at ground level, is in the process of being rolled out globally.

MTV Crashes Coventry is one of two confirmed MTV Crashes events to be staged this year and will be followed later in the year by Plymouth which is heading into its 3rd year. According to Plymouth’s local council last year MTV Crashes Plymouth added £3.5m to the city's economy and was seen across 40 countries globally. Other previous Crashes destinations include Londonderry, Cork, Glasgow, Belfast and Manchester.

Further live music events already confirmed for the year include MTV Brand New for 2016 which kicks off with two showcases at the end of January, whilst in June Isle of MTV will return to Malta for its tenth anniversary and in November MTV’s most prestigious live music event, the EMAs, is being hosted by Rotterdam.

Further details of MTV Crashes Coventry, including artists confirmed to perform, ticketing and event specifics announcements will follow.

A dedicated MTV Crashes Coventry microsite will be housed on www.mtv.co.uk and tickets will be available on www.ricoharena.com.