The Godiva Festival in Coventry was voted the festival with the best value for money.

The Godiva Festival in Coventry is, according to its current director, the “best value festival of its kind” and is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

The annual event takes place from Friday to Sunday at the War Memorial Park in the city.

Last year’s festival was attended by around 69,000 people. Richard Ashcroft, Paloma Faith and Beverly Knight will headline the three-day festival this year.

Jon Hogan, the current festival director, described the annual event as the “icing on the cake” of what “goes on beneath the surface of the city.”

The Godiva Festival was “organized by the city, for the city and with the city – and that makes it unique,” ​​Mr Hogan said.

“I maintain that Godiva is the best value for money festival of its kind,” he said.

“No event organizer makes a profit from this. The council makes no profit. We cut costs as much as possible to cover the overheads and that’s pretty much it.”

Named after the famous story of Coventry’s Lady Godiva, the festival began as a free one-day event in 1997, becoming a three-day event the following year.

In addition to concerts, the family festival organized by the municipality also offers arts and crafts and sports such as archery, football and badminton, as well as a participatory circus, dance and street artists and fashion shows.

Other artists set to perform at the 25th anniversary celebrations include Sam Ryder, Lady Leshurr, The Primitives and Holy Goof.

In recent years there have been headliners such as The Enemy, Tom Grennan, Sir Bob Geldof, The Libertines and Rudimental.

Mick Emerson, a former director of the event, said the festival was “completely different to what it is today” when it was launched.

“First of all, it wasn’t this field,” he said.

“Some of it was in the boating lake, although we didn’t know it was a boating lake at the time. We didn’t find out until it rained and we had a lake in the tent.”

The festival’s first few years were “OK,” he added, before they achieved “really good numbers” in their third year.

Lee House, another former festival director, said organizers once “got into trouble” in June for “messing up the kids’ exams” because of noise pollution.

People “grew up” with Godiva, Mr Hogan said.

“There are young people in the city who are not used to not having a Godiva. It’s part of the folklore.”

“The audience is our biggest loyalty partner and supporter of the festival because, as I said, without them we would just be standing in a field making noise.”

And Mrs House said: “It was always very, very much about Coventry, it was about the people of the city and for the people of the city and it celebrated the community.”

“I don’t think this could be repeated anywhere other than Coventry.”

Rock band The Enemy, originally from the city, headlined the main stage in 2023, 15 years after their last performance surrounding the release of their number one album.

Pete Chambers, founder of the Coventry Music Museum, said his personal “best moment” of the festival was when he had a backstage pass and was “lucky enough to be there on stage” when the band performed.

“It was just wonderful. We all stood there by the amplifiers and thought, ‘Wow, this is real rock ‘n’ roll.’ They played special songs and everyone sang along, which was great for me,” he said.

Another festival highlight was huge Coventry City FC fan Tom Grennan, who headlined in 2022.

“He simply captured the hearts and minds (of the audience) and became almost an honorary son of Coventry.”

Speaking of some of the artists who had previously taken part in the event, Ms House said they had had “so much fun” and “laughed so much” because some of their requests were included in the artists’ “riders” – the documents that outline their requirements to perform.

“We’ve gone from the very weird drivers we used to have to those who are now very health conscious and they want their hummus and they want their crackers and they want the nice stuff,” she said.

And speaking of strange requests, the electronic music group 808 State wanted two Rubik’s Cubes, and Mr. Emerson said he “had to send someone to Toys R Us to get one.”

“I just thought, ‘If they want it, I’ll get it. I don’t care how stupid it is, I’ll get it for them,'” he added.