GuilFest boss reveals that festival is threatened by corporate consortium

Tony Scott the festival organiser of the independent family friendly GuilFest got rather a shock when he approached the council about the dates to hold next year's festival.

Speaking exclusively to eFestivals Mr Scott said, "We were trying to get a date out of Guildford Borough Council about when we could do GuilFest next and when I spoke to them on Monday, they said they were also looking at another festival, they had been approached by a consortium which involves AEG, and Kilimanjaro. I said "that's a bit of a shock, what?"."

The Stoke Park site can only really accommodate one festival the festival boss explained, "With all the stuff that's going on they (Guildford) will only let one festival a year happen. After seventeen years of GuilFest they are now looking at this AEG proposal. I'm not sure which way they will go, they might stick with us or they might go with them. The difference is AEG might be offering the council lots of money or promising them the earth and that is what we cannot give."

The festival boss recently struck a deal with the council that will see him pay £20,000 a year for the use of Stoke Park. However the Council could be paid a lot more money by the corporates if they have an agreement with AEG, who recently took a controlling share in Scotland's Rock Ness festival and owns the O2 Arena in London. The former Live Nation managing director Stuart Galbraith runs Kilimanjaro Live Ltd. Kilimanjaro already own stakes in various festivals including Bloodstock, Big Green Gathering, and Wakestock.

Mr Scott said that if the council sided with the new event, GuilFest would be very unlikely to continue. The local residents wouldn't have two festivals on at the same place, and with the County Show also held at Stoke Park, there just isn't space in the calendar to have two events. Mr Scott reasoned, "For somebody it would be financial disaster because both festivals would dilute each other's ticket sales, and they have a lot more money than we have. We hope the council will stay with us, we want to be there forever more, in twenty years. With the corporate giants you just don't know, if it doesn't work out for them, they might pull out in three year's time, and then there's no festival at all. There's so much competition between festivals right now."

"It's the local support that keeps GuilFest alive, that's what keeps it going, everybody's involved it. We offer a very local event, run and organised by local people, we're independent, we've won the best family festival in the past, we offer a wealth of theatre with local amateur dramatic groups, loads of local and unsigned bands and it's a very unique festival, that's evolved over 17 years. It's a bit of a shock really."

The independent festival organiser, also sees that the council might regret opting for the greater financial reward, if the new festival doesn't become a success. "We're an established festival, and anyone that puts on a new festival, it doesn't matter who they put on the line-up, they can have difficulty getting off the ground." The festival boss feels if the corporate festival fails to make money, then it would be stopped, and Guildford would be without a festival.

Mr Scott said he would be expecting to know if they will be able to continue to hold GuilFest in the next week or so, and he felt the Council might well just look at the money side of it.

GuilFest has been developed over many years and also has a wealth of entertainment on offer including the Surrey Advertiser stage, the Anderton's tent, an acoustic lounge, a comedy tent, the Unison stage, one of the best kids zones in the country and Mr Scott said, "AEG are looking at doing their thing there, and it's taken us seventeen years to develop that. A festival might never have worked there (Guildford). GuilFest has grown organically over the years into this totally enmeshed in the fabric of Guildford event. It's part of society with all kinds of ages going there. It's not like a corporate event, you can bump into your Granny at Guildford."

Whilst it is possible that the corporate festival might consider some local involvement, it is highly unlikely it would involve the local community quite as much as GuilFest currently does and the independent organisers of the current festival are likely to have no future involvement.

eFestivals will keep you informed of the Council's decision once it has been announced.

eFestivals is a sponsor of Guilfest as part of our commitment to put 10% of our turnover back into festivals.

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