5co77ie, on Sep 25 2008, 10:18 AM, said:
Just out of interest does anyone know roughly how many other largish independent festivals are run on council owned property - i couldn't think of any last night.
Hmm. Not sure my own Stoke Bay Festival qualifies as 'largish' but it was certainly run on council owned land this summer.
Looking at Guildford Borough Council's minutes it seems that when their Executive gave permission for Guilfest 2008 way back in January they also resolved to "discuss with the Guilfest organiser arrangements for the staging of Guilfest in future years, and to review all other significant events held at Stoke Park including the financial basis on which such events are permitted to take place and to submit a further report to the Executive."
A warning sign of what might follow if ever there was one!
It's no secret that the Council has been trying to squeeze more money out of Guilfest. The present hiring agreement is actually quite a fair one - Guilfest pays a percentage of any profit up to a maximum hiring fee of £20,000 but if the Festival makes a loss (as it frequently does) the Council gets no hiring fee at all.
One can understand the Council being attracted by any other Festival that offers a guaranteed hiring fee every year irrespective or profit or loss.
That said, the world is littered with people who offer lots more cash then fail to deliver the dosh.
Tony has succeeded in staging a damn good Festival over some 17 years that may only have generated modest income for the Council but has generated many hundreds of thousands of pounds every year for the local economy, quite apart from the pleasure it has given local music fans and the chance to perform it has given to hundreds of local musicians.
There is no guarantee than any other promoter could or would deliver the same.
Now that the threat to Guilfest is out in the open I hope Guildford-based musicians, traders and residents who have enjoyed and benefitted from the Festival over many years will make their support for the existing Guilfest very clear to their elected representatives.
As an elected councillor myself in Hampshire I know that a few letters, emails and phone calls from angry residents can soon make councillors think again about any proposal for another festival that could force Guilfest out of existence.
And having attended every single Guilfest since year one I know what a superb job Tony has done in building-up the event from tiny beginnings. He deserves all the support he can get to keep it going.
P.S. Guildford Councillors would do well to look at what happened this summer just 40 miles south on the A3. Portsmouth City Council gave two new promoters permission to stage big festivals on their land. Both got cancelled (one by the Council itself) and the Councillors ended-up with no income at all and a lot of egg on their faces!!!
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