`After 26 years in business I know promotion has always been risky'.

Thomas Brooman CBE, former artistic director and 26-year veteran of Womad, has teamed up with Festival Republic to found a new jointly- owned company Heavenly Planet UK Festivals, which is set to launch a new event on the site of the Reading festival. Scheduled to take place on July 10 and 11 2009 and with a ticket price of around #70, the first Heavenly Planet Festival will aim to attract 15,000 people and become an annual event. Brooman has teamed up with Festival Republic's Melvin Benn to launch what Benn describes as a "new innovative diverse and outward-looking festival". Here we ask Brooman to reveal his plans for the event.

QUICKFIRE

MW: This past year has proved a testing one for many in the festival business. Now seems something of a brave time to be launching a new festival.

TB: In this particular context, it being in Reading and in partnership with Melvin Benn who has a huge track record of experience and success, it's a courageous move but certainly not foolhardy. To try to establish a completely new festival in a completely new site in this climate would be a real task, yes it is a dangerous area of the business to be in, but after 26 years of being in the business I know that promotion has always been a risky business. All I have ever done is earned a living through promoting music and I don't really feel that it is any more risky now than it always has been.

We are trying to be very shrewd but adventurous at the same time and begin with success, and when we find our first mark of success we will continue from there.

Is it fair to say that you are aiming to replicate Womad and fill the void in Reading left by the festival's move to Wiltshire?

It is early days, and the name Heavenly Planet will turn into its own identity, but if there is a by-line to it, it is one of music and optimism. With the word Planet we are emphasising that we are all on a globe ...