Freddy Bannister, the organiser of the Knebworth and Bath Festivals, has died aged 85.
Bannister began promoting concerts in 1959 and organised the first Bath Festival in 1969. He went on to start the first Knebworth Festival in 1974.
Bannister died on August 11, 2019, 40 years to the day after Led Zeppelin performed their second show at the 1979 Knebworth Festival.
Photo via Tony Morris/Twitter.
Read the email from his family announcing his death below:
Freddy Bannister passed away on Sunday, following a short battle with cancer. It was, poignantly, 40 years to the day since his last Knebworth festival.
We are obviously devastated. Beyond his achievements as one of the leading promoters of the ‘60s and ‘70s, he was a hugely loyal and devoted father and husband, who would have celebrated his 60th wedding anniversary to Wendy next year. We can’t currently imagine a world without him in it.
On behalf of Freddy, we want to say thanks to everyone for your support across the years – he always loved hearing about people’s experiences from the festivals and was delighted whenever anyone got in touch to say how much they enjoyed reading his book.
For those of you who have outstanding orders, we’ll be in touch directly in the next week and shall do our best to fulfill everything. Anything that can’t be fulfilled, we’ll obviously refund in full. However, we do trust you’ll bear with us at this difficult time.
Let the memories live on…
Henrietta & Wendy Bannister
Just finished reading Freddy’s book which came as part of the limited edition CD and other memorabilia he produced. Mine which I purchased was in 2005 is no 37 of 200. Besides going to Bath ‘70 aged seventeen I attended Knebworth and others at the time but was very amused to find an anecdote in it about my father the actor Anthony Steele taking an assistant of Freddy’s called Jenny to Paris for the weekend after they met in a pub. Jenny subsequently went on to marry Steve Miller who was in the line up topped by Pink Floyd that year.
Freddy and his family did a great job of putting together some highly (well other reasons not always) memorable concerts and festivals in my youth. The best to you all!
Michael Roc Thomas
I worked for freddy at festival of blues and bath festival, he also promoted the local friday nights in Bath Pavillion and other locations.etc…later went on to do some other works with him in london…to my suprise while seeking memories i found this photo of freddy with no less than my cousin tony.
Small world…