Duran Duran join Justin Timberlake and Olly Murs as headliners at three-day Chelmsford City Live festival in July 2025
Duran Duran, who emerged from the New Romantic scene at the start of the 1980s to become global music icons for more than 40 years, are heading to Essex’s newest live music festival for one of only two UK headline shows in 2025.
It has already been revealed that Justin Timberlake will headline Chelmsford City Live on Friday July 4 and Olly Murs has his biggest homecoming show there on Sunday July 6 with support from Blue, Lemar and a DJ set by Mark Wright.
In between, multi-award-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Duran Duran will headline the festival on Saturday July 5, joined by special guests disco legends Nile Rodgers & CHIC, with whom they collaborated on UK No 1 The Reflex, alongside a myriad of other tracks.
Tickets for Duran Duran go on sale to the general public at 9am on Friday (December 6) from chelmsfordcitylive.com. Tickets for Justin Timberlake and Olly Murs are on sale now.
Chelmsford City Live takes place at Chelmsford City Racecourse with a capacity of up to 30,000 people each day.
Duran Duran have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, achieved 21 UK top 20 tunes and scored 18 American hit singles, cementing them as one of the most successful and influential bands of all time.
Formed in Birmingham in 1978, the band – singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor – continue to play to huge concert audiences around the world.
Fusing fashion, art, technology and a signature sense of style with their unique brand of music, the band have proven themselves timeless, always innovating and reinventing.
2021’s Future Past saw the group earn widespread acclaim, while last year saw the iconic UK quartet unearth bright melodies from darkness as they threaded together new tunes, covers and alternate versions of their own classics on their 16th studio album, Danse Macabre.
The two-time GRAMMY, BRIT Award and Ivor Novello winners will play only two UK headline shows in 2025: Chelmsford City Live and Powderham Castle in Exeter.
Audiences can expect the band to combine such classics as Girls on Film, The Wild Boys, Ordinary World, Come Undone, (Reach Up For The) Sunrise and Rio with new songs from Danse Macabre.
Meanwhile, iconic music pioneer Nile Rodgers will bring the ultimate party atmosphere to Chelmsford City Live as he performs hit after hit with CHIC.
Rodgers is an inductee of both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame, and a multiple Grammy Award-winning songwriter, composer, producer, arranger and guitarist.
In 2023 he became the first person to be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy for his legacy in the same year as winning a Grammy for his new work with Beyoncé on smash hit Cuff It.
As the co-founder of CHIC, Nile pioneered a musical language that generated chart-topping hits like Le Freak, the biggest-selling single in the history of Atlantic Records, and sparked the advent of hip-hop with Good Times and Rapper’s Delight.
His work in The CHIC Organisation, including We Are Family for Sister Sledge and I’m Coming Out for Diana Ross, and his productions for artists such as David Bowie (Let’s Dance), Madonna (Like A Virgin) and Duran Duran (The Reflex), has generated more than 500 million albums and 100 million singles worldwide, while his innovative, trendsetting collaborations with Daft Punk, Daddy Yankee, LE SSERAFIM and Beyoncé reflect the vanguard of contemporary hits.
Chelmsford City Live is a partnership between Chelmsford City Racecourse and Live Nation promoters Cuffe and Taylor.
Ben Hatton, of Cuffe and Taylor, said: “Duran Duran are global icons, so we’re delighted to be adding them to the bill for the first ever Chelmsford City Live.
“Their music crosses generations, and it is quite the coup to be able to welcome them to Essex for one of only two shows they are headlining in the UK next summer.
“Having Duran Duran and their special guests Nile Rodgers & CHIC join our already announced headliners Justin Timberlake and Olly Murs will put Chelmsford City Live well and truly on the map as Essex’s largest live music festival.”
Chelmsford City Racecourse next year celebrates its 10th anniversary. It hosts more than 40 horseracing fixtures a year.
Its open-air concert grounds have played host to a diverse range of acts, drawing hundreds of thousands of fans to watch performances from Madness, Simply Red, UB40, Rick Astley, Boyzone, Roger Sanchez, Beverley Knight and Armand Van Helden among many more.
