alt fest 2014

[atomised]

Newly reformed I believe.

Also added today, Paradise Lost, MESH and a few others

[thetime]

King adora will be reforming next.

[Muppetmark]

rumor has it mansons cancelled. shame if its true

[atomised]

http://www.northampton-news-hp.co.uk/News/Northampton-News/Is-Alt-Fest-in-Kettering-cancelled-Marilyn-Manson-announces-cancellation-of-headline-slot-on-Facebook-20140729201745.htm

Looks doomed to be fair, pity really

[atomised]

And doesn't look good that plenty of bands seem to be confirming the news yet the organisers seem to be remaining silent

[eFestivals]

we've failed to get a statement about the status of the fest from the PR agency Alt Fest was using, tho they have given us a statement that they're no longer acting for the fest.

Make of that whast you will.

[PastCaring]

A shame, but I can't say that I'm all that surprised - the whole thing just seemed much too ambitious for a first venture.

[eFestivals]

A shame, but I can't say that I'm all that surprised - the whole thing just seemed much too ambitious for a first venture.

Yep, I thought that too.

And I think they've made a big mistake in thinking that facebook Arsewipe 'likes' actually means something, that those liking will follow thru with money. Chances are that a huge number of the people 'liking' don't actually have their own money, instead they rely on Bank of Mum & Dad.

At the end of the day it appears that they had more hope than they did sense.

Edited July 30, 2014 by eFestivals

[retromoz]

i would argue that failing whilst reaching for the stars is better than not reaching at all....

WE (me and the missus) were kinda thinking of going (being local) but are going somewhere else (Green Man. VERY different to Alt). It seems a missmatch of lots of styles with not a lot of focus.....but its only the first year. Im sure it would have developed to be a great metal fest for peeps who dont want the enormousness of Downisphere........plus Amen are amazing!!! shame.

[eFestivals]

i would argue that failing whilst reaching for the stars is better than not reaching at all....

And I'd argue that if you hugely over-reach you might as well have not bothered at all.

WE (me and the missus) were kinda thinking of going (being local) but are going somewhere else (Green Man. VERY different to Alt). It seems a missmatch of lots of styles with not a lot of focus.....but its only the first year. Im sure it would have developed to be a great metal fest for peeps who dont want the enormousness of Downisphere........plus Amen are amazing!!! shame.

As you say, it's a mis-match of styles. While that doesn't mean failure just by that, it certainly makes it harder.

And if those styles all-in-one-place were popular, they'd very likely already be a fest that did them.

As for it being for those "who dont want the enormousness of Downisphere", that doesn't work when Alt-fest was giving itself a capacity of 50,0000 - which is about what both of Downisphere do.

There's festivals out there with 30+ years of reputation and proper uniqueness within UK festivals that can't reach 50,000. What were they thinking?

And the answer is...? That running a festival is easy. They've just discovered that it's not.

[jump]

I'm hoping Amen will do some UK dates to make up for this but I can't say I'm surprised this happened.

Edited July 30, 2014 by jump

[eFestivals]

I've just beem reviewing what Alt-Fest was aiming at.

1. 50,000 people.

2. 7 stages

3. 150 acts

4. kids under 12 free.

5. 5 days campiong

6. "clubbing marquees, a circus big top and a variety of alternative performers from burlesque to fetish, comedy and beyond"

7. a creche for very small ones,

8. activities for children : fairground rides, a petting zoo, bouncy castles and more.

9. an adult only 'village' with a full Club AntiChrist clubbing zone and adult 'play' area.

.... and all (as far as I'm aware) being done by people who have never run a festival before.

I've paid little attention to anything about this, but if I had I'd have been laughing so much it would have never been listed by me.

A brave but very very daft attempt.

Edited July 30, 2014 by eFestivals

[smogo]

I knew practically as soon as it was announced that it would end up cancelled, or at least from the moment they started announcing big-name headliners.

Their capacity is 50,000 but those in the know say that they were only aiming for 10-15k in Year One. Which means that the sums have never added up, so I don't know what they were expecting was going to happen to make it a success.

I admit, I did cave and buy a ticket a few weeks ago, when I was offered one at early-bird price, because I thought that if they'd got this far down the line, then it probably was going to go ahead, albeit with no one getting paid and 2015 being the one that gets cancelled. (See also Brighton's Beachdown farce.)

And now, with no official announcement, it's a massive PR disaster... but I guess the organisers don't really have anything else to lose now.

[smogo]

I've paid little attention to anything about this, but if I had I'd have been laughing so much it would have never been listed by me.

I have to admit, I assumed that the fact you were listing it (as opposed to other doomed festivals in the past that you've avoided listing) meant that you'd done a little bit of digging and decided that it was legit.

Not your fault of course, you can't go around checking the financials of every new festival going, but the fact that it was listed here did give it some credibility.

[R1ch]

Sad state of affairs, hope folks get their cash back

Edited November 10, 2014 by R1ch

[Dave The Hedgehog]

Shame about this but I did think they were punching a bit above their weight. Boughton House is about 5 minutes drive from where me and my fiance live - her brother and his wife were going, 6 of our friends were going, and we seriously considered going but got an SSE bill after coming back from Glastonbury and decided not to get tickets until... well, several days before the festival.

Yesterday, in other words. We followed it on Facebook (again, not necessarily intent on going but at least showing an interest), saw all the updates, then we saw the Marilyn Manson thing along with something said by a band I know personally playing there (Enemo J) and it made our minds for us before we put money down.

Either they promised the bands too high a fee in ratio to actual ticket sales, or the amount/lack of ticket sales couldn't pay for the bands. Weird one. Again, a shame.

[atomised]

The silence from the organisers really hasn't helped matters

[Dave The Hedgehog]

The silence from the organisers really hasn't helped matters

Nah it's shite, that. Reading the comments on the Facebook page pisses me off - people from Brazil, people from Australia, loads of people mentioning non-refundable flights... just not on. To be completely silent about it. The fact as well it was a crowd-funded festival too.

Beggar's belief.

[atomised]

You can almost feel the good will slipping away with each hour that passes.

[mrtourette]

Yeah we can chuckle about their crazy dreams and admire them for aiming for the stars, but the reality is that they've cost some people a lot of money and haven't even got the decency to address the rumours.

[atomised]

I know plenty of people who subscribed to the whole kickstarter thing

[rawaudioinput]

Apparently the financial issues aren't to do with ticket sales but something which is "private"

[eFestivals]

Alt-Fest

12 hours ago

We at Alt-Fest HQ would like to sincerely apologise for our silence over the last 24 hours. Currently we are working all hours to deal with some extremely challenging & stressful issues for Alt-Fest. We will be able to provide an official statement with full information before Monday and answer any questions you may have at that time. We want you to know that we have been doing everything we can to take the right steps for you: our fans, friends & customers - we assure you we only have your best interests at heart.

Missy and Dom

https://www.facebook.com/AlternativeFest

[eFestivals]

The venue isn't listing the event (it's listing other fests), so I can't see how it's going to be going ahead without a site.

[atomised]

Such a weird holding statement which.says absolutely nothing. Think they'd have been better just saying it's off. We will give more info as soon as we can