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.
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.
The capacity of the 2023 event is 49,999. 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
History
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):
Friday, 24 June: New Order, Moby, Hard-Fi, The Bravery, Graham Coxon, The Dresden Dolls, The Dears, Rilo Kiley Saturday, 25 June: Basement Jaxx, M.I.A., LCD Soundsystem, Death In Vegas, Lady Sovereign, Killa Kela, Mylo, Roots Manuva, Stereo MCs Wednesday, 29 June: Keane, Echo & the Bunnymen, Supergrass, James Blunt, Brendan Benson, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright Thursday, 30 June: Kasabian, Editors, The Rakes, The Others, Ladytron, Soulwax, Peter Doherty, JJ72, Cut Copy
2006
In 2006, the festival played in both Hyde Park and Harewood House. Tickets were £37.51 per day.
The Hyde Park festival ran from 21 to 25 June and on the bill were: The Strokes, Belle & Sebastian, Dirty Pretty Things, Super Furry Animals, The Raconteurs, Gogol Bordello, The Like David Gray, Fun Lovin' Criminals, KT Tunstall, Violent Femmes Massive Attack, The Flaming Lips, Pharrell, Gnarls Barkley, Metric, Damian Marley James Blunt, Zero 7, Eels, Beth Orton, Paolo Nutini Depeche Mode, Goldfrapp, OK Go, The Dears, The Fratellis, Mystery Jets
The Harewood House festival ran from 24 to 25 June and tickets were £32.50 for the first day and £37.50 for the second. It featured: Massive Attack, Goldfrapp, DJ Shadow, Pharrell, Gnarls Barkley, Terry Callier, Just Jack, Sway The Who, Super Furry Animals, The Flaming Lips, The Zutons, Eels
2007
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: The White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age, Air, Satellite Party, The Bees, The Thrills, The Sounds, Dredg, Polytechnic, Ghosts, Connan and the Mockasins, Far From The Dance, Kissaway Trail, Pete and the Pirates, The Scare Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Klaxons, CSS, Plan B, New Young Pony Club, Calvin Harris, Simian Mobile Disco, Digitalism, Kaiser Chiefs, Editors, The Cribs, The Rakes, The Twang, The Only Ones, Kate Nash, Ripchord, The Duke Spirit, Polysics, Mumm-Ra, The Pigeon Detectives, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Los Campesinos!, and Under the Influence of Giants. Kaiser Chiefs selected the line-up for the day they were headlining (Saturday at Harewood House and Sunday in Hyde Park). The acts which performed the extra date in Hyde Park were: Faithless, Badly Drawn Boy, Kelis, Just Jack and Cat Empire.
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 line-up was as follows: