text: “Isle of Wight festival and Live Nation’s existing festivals were not competing particularly closely for customers”
  Its conclusion is that “the merger will not materially strengthen Live Nation’s position in booking artists, and that a sufficient range and quality of artists will continue to be available for rival organisers of live music events.”
  A separate inquiry into Live Nation’s alleged dominance of the UK festival market was requested last month by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), although CMA has not yet signalled any intention to act on AIF’s appeal.
  AIF’s Paul Reed says it is “disappointing that CMA has not taken the opportunity to broaden the scope of the investigation into Live Nation’s overall position”, which he describes as having “tentacles across all aspects of the business”. “The question is, how many festivals do Live Nation need to acquire before CMA take this seriously and give the issues the proper scrutiny they deserve?” he asks.
  Around 42,000 people are thought to have attended Isle of Wight 2017, which was headlined by Rod Stewart, Arcade Fire and David Guetta and Run-DMC.
  
  Lazo Lazarashvili, the editor-in-chief of the Georgian newspaper Metro has sent a letter to the President of the Azerbaijan Republic requesting temporary asylum.