After a few days of rumours, the cancellation of Alt-Fest was confirmed through an official statement of the organisation.
The full official statement here below :
It is with a heavy heart that we must confirm we have had to cancel Alt-Fest. We tried to put on a ground-breaking event for you & the alternative scene, and it was your support that was helping to make it happen. From our early days on Kickstarter through to all of you who have purchased tickets we thank you. We the organisers of Alt-Fest have done everything we can to save it, but this week we ran out of time to raise all the required funds that was needed upfront of the festival.
We also wish to apologise for the delay in releasing a formal statement cancelling the festival. We realise this has severely damaged our personal and professional reputations, we can only sincerely apologise for any additional stress and upset this has caused, we were honestly looking to act in your best interests.
We are very sorry to tell you that we have been advised to not reply to any individual comments or emails regarding the festival and instead make a comprehensive statement. It’s not how we like to do things, it feels wrong to walk off and let your questions, thoughts and opinions go unanswered. So we’ll try to answer them all briefly here.
We were doing very well for a first year festival. We sold over 7.5 thousand weekend tickets, and as you were aware we had a great line up with plenty going on. This however meant we had to pay for over half of all the band’s fees, with the remainder due just before & at the festival itself. Securing bands was not the only cost. The festival was going to cost £1,703,000 in total to put on, including artists, riders, travel, accommodation, production: power, staging, sound, lighting, track way, fencing, water, waste, the venue fee, security, medical assistance, traffic management, health & safety, marketing and much more. We ourselves and all of the Alt-Fest team have put in huge amounts of effort and time over the past two years and done everything within our power to make this work.
If we were to sell a minimum of another 1,000 tickets between now and the festival, we’d have suffered a significant loss that we couldn’t carry. This recently came to light based on a costing error explained below & inevitably down to the fact that the investor unfortunately pulled out last minute. We were expecting to sell more tickets based on our line-up, and if we had sold just 3000 tickets more then we would have been over the breakeven line, or if we could have deferred a percentage of our contractor’s payment, which they sadly were not prepared to do.
We thought our logic was sound and this was also backed by other promoters and people we respect in the music industry in general – Marilyn Manson can easily sell out a 5000 capacity venue, as can The Cult, Arch Enemy or Cradle of Filth. Then there’s the rest of the line-up plus the circus, steampunk, traders and art installations. Perhaps the people who would go to see them at a gig wouldn’t go to a 3 day festival, but they could still have bought day tickets and seen some of the 60-odd bands on that day as well as the headliners, and bring their kids along for free too – we are still trying to understand why we haven’t sold more tickets despite the offering & energy that has gone into it.
We’ve also been contending with a costing error made and ultimately poor advice in the early stages by a company who were supposed to help us work out what the festival would cost to put on. Coupled with the fact that in order for us to compete against the larger festivals then we had to put in very strong offers to be listened to by the agents & hence secure the talent. Additionally during the latter planning stages we were forced to move our main arena, through no fault of our own. This caused many extra costs that further increased the budget upfront of the event.
We have held continuous meetings and tried for months to secure investment & had genuine interest to cover this shortfall from individuals, investment firms and equity funding companies. Whilst there was every likelihood of this happening due to the positive feedback we were receiving, it was this week that our last option had run out. This was mainly because they didn’t understand the festival market or the alternative scene. We even tried, as a last resort to save the festival for you all, going to the corporations that dominate the music and festival industry to offer an ownership over the event to ensure it’s facilitated for our customers, but to no avail. We had exhausted all options but please know that we did everything within our power to make this happen.
We even looked at how we could make it to the festival and then recover this year’s loss from next year’s sales to get back on track. Unfortunately, we can’t manage that either because of the way the festival industry and its operators are prone to work. We would have to pay all the contractors before they even come on site to build the festival – they all want the full fee upfront due to the state of the market. We also had the remainder of band deposits to make up before and at the event. We just could not raise all the money needed upfront to continue, nor offset it against any revenue coming after the event – bar, car parking revenue as examples.
We are so, so deeply sorry, it’s awful to think of all the people who bought a ticket in good faith, who booked travel, some from the other side of the world. We massively appreciate the support you have shown, especially all the people who championed and defended us.
We do want you to know though, that it was never a scam or a con. We tried to do something new and different for you and the alternative scene, which was not easy. We have not gone on any exotic holidays or feathered our own nest, in fact exactly the opposite. We did not embezzle the money, or spend it recklessly, we used it to secure some of those great bands we had in the line-up, who required considerable deposits, and other aspects of the event as previously mentioned. We intended to make it an exciting event that would be enjoyed by every single one of you who supported us, so that we could grow even more in future years. Those of you who know us, we work tirelessly to put on excellent events. We never expected it to turn out this way and tried desperately to stop it from happening. However we could have done with better costing advice at the start and stronger ticket sales in this final period to get us through to the event.
We feel we have let the alternative community down, this saddens us immensely & the process we are about to go through is going to bankrupt us, which as I’m sure you can imagine adds huge strain on us as people & as a family.
It is just simply awful and we can only thank those of you who have shown us kindness and endless support, especially now in our most testing hour.
To claim a refund on your tickets, please look carefully at the following list, and at your email confirmation, to ensure you claim a refund from the correct retailer.
Festival Tickets via Amazon = Amazon Local are contacting their customers direct and processing refunds now.
Festival tickets, Dismembership and addons (car parking etc) purchased through our website via clubtickets.com = by email at helpdesk@clubtickets.com
Festival Tickets via Festickets = direct with them festicket.com
Dismembership purchased through our webshop (with glamping/merch in) = contact Paypal to a raise a dispute.
Glamping purchased through our webshop (with merch etc in, NOT the same as the ticket page)= contact Paypal to raise a dispute
Viewing platform = contact Paypal to raise a dispute
Tangerine Fields = direct with them http://www.tangerinefields.co.uk/
Big Green Coach are contacting all of their customers directly with advice on refunds. Refunds will be issued automatically.
Now that we have had to cancel the festival we need to take steps to place the Company into Liquidation and we want to express our deepest regrets to the artists and to thank all our staff, suppliers and contractors who worked so hard with us.
Our deepest & sincerest apologies go out to you.
Missy and Dom
Castlefest is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Those who can't make it to the festival itself can still enjoy the bands during the live streaming. Today Scrum & Rosa Crux will still perform. On saturday Asynje, Corvus Corax & Faun will perform on the main stage & on sunday Rastaban, Rapalje & Omnia will close the festival on that same stage.
Ofcourse there are many stages & many bands. If you still have the time, get over quickly ! And else, enjoy the streaming !
Just Walden’s debut album, High Street Barton Blues (10-21-14) is a soul-searching experience that musically falls somewhere between Suuns and Future Islands.
The fact that young spearhead, Danny Ferraro, left his job at Goldman Sachs to pursue this music may also say something about the spiritual power of this quartet, not?
The band wants to share their newest single with Peek-A-Boo. Gracias! Readers, click here!
Stockholm-based VALHALL is the creative outlet for two secretive electronic musicians who prefer to leave their identities unrevealed. The duo composes haunting, epic pieces with broad brush-strokes, influenced by witch house, neofolk, and industrial. Formed in 2012, the project was quickly tapped by Finland's Kuudes Aisti festival, where VALHALL shared the bill with The Haxan Cloak, Lydia Lunch, Light Asylum and many others, before taking the stage at 3 AM to a stunned crowd.
The debut CD for Artoffact Records, Leaning on Shadows, takes the project to new places. It is at once haunting and ominous, but also shines with an unexpected whiteness. It is in fact, a thing of beauty.
The limited fan version available exclusively from Storming the Base comes with a bonus cassette, entitled simply Shadows. The cassette contains two long semi-ambient pieces which rework elements of the album, as well as lyrics, poetry, and conversations related to the music on Leaning on Shadows. It is in many way a musical Shadow of the more complete work.
Series 4 of Downton Abbey consisted of eight episodes and a Christmas Special with the opening and closing episodes again being feature length. Series four continued the story of the Crawley family and their servants in the early 1920s and premiered on the 22nd September, 2013 on ITV in the UK and on the 5th January, 2014 on PBS in the US. The story is set nearly six months after the end of the 2012 Christmas Special, and covers February 1922 into the spring/summer of 1923
It is nearly six months after the death of Matthew Crawley and Mary is adjusting to her new life and attempting to move on without the man she loved and raise her son, George. She has two new suitors: Anthony, Lord Gillingham - who has known her since childhood but hasn't seen her since - and aristocrat Charles Blake.Tom Branson is taking on a larger role within the family, having become Robert's right-hand-man. He also meets a new friend in schoolteacher, Sarah Bunting. Tom and Mary spend more time together and their friendship continues to develop as Mary begins to get involved in the running of the estate. There is some excitement in the nursery involving Nanny West. Edith's relationship with Michael Gregson flourishes. John and Anna Bates' relationship continues as strong as ever, but not without some ups and downs. Cora's new maid Baxter has a past with Thomas Barrow who has some sort of power over her.
Release Blu-ray: 14/05/2014
Release DVD complete season: 17/09/2014
Distributor: Universal Pictures Benelux
Length: 350′
Extra’s:
Making of
Downton Diaries
Meet the New Cast
DUTCH VERSION
Het vierde seizoen van Downton Abbey speelt zich af in 1922, zes maanden na de tragische dood van Matthew. Zijn verlies heeft diepe sporen nagelaten bij onze vertrouwde en geliefde personages: de Crawleys én het personeel waarmee ze zo nauw verbonden zijn. Daarnaast zijn er ook tal van nieuwe uitdagingen. Mary kijkt de toekomst somber tegemoet als alleenstaande moeder en wordt door de familie aangemoedigd om de scherven van haar gebroken leven te lijmen. Ze aanvaardt een nieuwe functie op het somptueuze landgoed en moet, als weduwe, een stoet huwelijkskandidaten de revue laten passeren. Buiten de beschermde cocon van Downton zijn de roaring twenties intussen volop losgebroken. Rose voelt zich onweerstaanbaar aangetrokken tot het bruisende Londense nachtleven en dat voorspelt niet veel goeds voor de Crawleys. De ontluikende relatie tussen Edith en Gregson wordt bedreigd door gebeurtenissen die ze niet zelf in de hand heeft. Intussen laaien ook beneden de passies hoog op. Er zullen jonge harten gebroken worden…
Release Blu-ray: 14/05/2014
Release DVD volledig seizoen: 17/09/2014
Distributeur: Universal Pictures Benelux
Studio: Universal Television
Downton Abbey S4 – BLU-RAY
Speelduur: 350′
3 BRD
8 afleveringen + Kerstspecial 2013
Engels Dolby Digital 2.0
Ondertiteling: Engels voor doven en slechthorenden, Nederlands
Extra’s:
Making of
Downton Diaries
Meet the New Cast
