Yahoo News Justin Timberlake and Olly Murs headlining new Essex music festival at Chelmsford City Racecourse
Pop superstars Justin Timberlake and Olly Murs have been confirmed to be headlining a brand new festival in Essex next year. Chelmsford City Live 2025 will see Chelmsford City Racecourse welcome up to 30,000 people each day in July 2025. American megastar Justin Timberlake will headline on Friday, July 4, while Essex boy Olly Murs will headline his biggest homecoming show there on Sunday, July 6. According to the organisers, more huge headliner announcements are to come.
The festival will host up to four standalone headline concerts, giving music fans the option to attend for a single day or to buy a multi-day pass. All concerts will take place on non-race days. Chelmsford City Live is a partnership between Chelmsford City Racecourse and Live Nation promoters Cuffe and Taylor.
Cuffe and Taylor present more than 100 outdoor shows across the summer and up to a thousand nights of theatre annually. They specialise in "taking music to the people" and work with multiple outdoor venues across the UK. Cuffe and Taylor promoter Ben Hatton, who is also from Essex, said: “We are delighted to be announcing a whole new festival for Essex for 2025 and beyond. The venue essentially provides us with a blank canvas that will enable us to attract some of the biggest names in the world of live music today, and that means our options are endless.
Read more: The stunning Essex area with sprawling fields the perfect blend of rustic charm and modernity
“We hope this is the start of a very long relationship with the team at Chelmsford City Racecourse and we look forward to welcoming global artists to this most beautiful part of the world. It is also particularly special to me as I’m Essex born and bred so to be presenting huge scale concerts on my home turf is something I’m very excited about. We already have two amazing headliners for Chelmsford City Live with Justin Timberlake and Olly Murs and we’ll be announcing two more in the coming weeks.”
The new festival is set to be the biggest live music event Chelmsford City Racecourse has ever held, and said it was a "fantastic opportunity". Head of Events Anthony Coleridge said “We’re over the moon to be launching this amazing new music festival for the South-East. Working with Live Nation and Cuffe and Taylor is a fantastic opportunity for the venue and by forming this partnership we now have the opportunity to attract some of the world’s most celebrated stars of music for Chelmsford City Live. 2025 is the start of what we hope is a long and exciting relationship which will ultimately bring the best of live music to the people of Essex and beyond.”
