Ashton Court - Sunday cancelled!

[JTG]

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I'm not a poster there, but I have found it an occasionally handy source of local music info over the years.

I fear I'm probably not really sufficiently 'dancey' enough to actually post there though.

I rarely post 'cos the sum contribution to some threads seems to be of the 'this gonna be a sick nite!!!!1111' type.

It's a very useful resource to find out what's going on, especially if you're a complete sucker for dnb/breakcore/hardcore nights

 

[Geri]

They completely 100% worked their arses off to get the festival going this year, and stopped taking a salary to ensure it could go ahead.

Stopped taking a salary?! When did they start taking a salary, and how much was it?

 

[ziconess]

I don't go to Ashton Court to see the bands, I go to meet up with friends, look at the stalls and just enjoy the general feel of the place.

Just about sums it up for me, used to love seeing old friends & getting mashed in the park. Mind you last time I went I lost my only car key, my house keys, all my drugs, my t-shirt, all the drugs I bought to replace the ones I lost earlier and my shoes, not a good bit that but apart from that year it was great.

Apart from two years before when I fucked my motor on the way up & then drank a bottle of whisky far to early on the poor excuse it was my birthday, that wasn't good either.

Or the year before when I, also very drunk, persuaded a very old friend, against her better judgement, to buy me a water pipe for my birthday and then proceed, to my eternal embarrassment, to smash it to smithereens after dropping it around 20 seconds after my first toke. That wasn't good either

I was gonna say Ashton Court, for me, has joined a list already to long by being a fond memory rather than something to look forward too but as I look back I think that's probably for the best.

 

[Gerry1time]

Stopped taking a salary?! When did they start taking a salary, and how much was it?

Don't know and don't know I'm afraid, but they were working full time on the festival, and could have gone and earned money but instead decided to earn nothing to keep it going. To my mind, for any perceived faults, that actually says a hell of a lot.

 

[butchersapron]

It says that they were pros whoi didn't want to blot their record for future work -and that they'd made enough already to be able to do that from past work. That's what is says to me. They shouldn;t have had a salray tt start with. Step one in alienating the festival from its rightful owners.

 

[Isambard]

They publish their accounts surely and reveal how many paid staff they have so you can do a bit of maths?

I've nothing against people getting paid money for working - apart from the whole concept of wage labour of course . There are thousands and thousands of people though who put a LOT of time into running stuff that get the odd free drink or the odd free ticket. They don't set themselves up as martyrs.

It's not the Ashton Court Committee who have lost something.
It's the people of Bristol and neighbour communities.

 

[Sunspots]

It's official...

Bristol Community Festival today made the following statement:

Bristol Community Festival, the not-for-profit company which organises the annual Ashton Court Festival has today announced that it has started the process of winding up the company. The directors have been in dicussions with insolvency practitioners with a view to appointing them to liquidate the company.

Heavy rain over the weekend of the 2007 event forced the cancellation of the second day's entertainment resulting in financial losses which the organisation cannot sustain.

The directors met on the 19th July and concluded that there was no realistic prospect of continuing and reluctantly took the decision to fold the company. "It's a real tragedy that after 33 years we've been beaten by events beyond our control" said festival chariman Kevin Rooney. "After last year's difficulties we moved heaven and earth to save the festival and by Saturday night it looked like we'd succeeded. Being dealt this severe blow at the last minute is absolutely devastating.

http://www.ashtoncourtfestival.com/

 

[editor]

That's terrible news.

 

[xenon]

So the last band I saw there was Simple Minds.

 

[Sunspots]

So the last band I saw there was Simple Minds.

That is, indeed, terrible news.

 

[djbombscare]

I cant really resist any longer. But Although its a shame I cnat help but feel that they sold out and got what they deserve.

And when I drove past and saw that they shut the Ashton underpass just so that they could fill a roundabout with police cars and vans. The roundabout being. . might I add 150 yards from a police station where they have a HUGE CAR PARK There was os many of em I thought that they had got corporate sponsorship from the local Hedlu

Nope its all over the top bollox and now ruined by the organisers, council, and old bill. Fuck em all.

Free parties are best anyway

A couple of transits. . . a generator, and a rig ?

I make that rave o'clock





And none of this juggling unicycle multi coloured trumpet blowing rave tricyle stuff either.

Proper lost somwhere, off yer tits on Rhubarbs, following the sound of the bass, and some sort of searchlight looking thing on the horizon

It could be a rave or might be a lighthouse with a fog horn

Needless to say either would be more fun than an orange spacehopper










Dya think it was "who wants an Avon Somerset Gloucestershire Wiltshire and S Wales constabulary Hedlu, not spaced up on drugs "just say no" and providing its done in a prohibited and safe area. . bouncy thing ?? "

 

[Geri]

I feel sad but not really surprised. It says a lot when they manage to piss off regulars who have been going for 15 or 20 years.

 

[djbombscare]

Fizzer was a regular since she was a kid, going every year. This year is the first year she hasn't been. She used to love it.

She was so pissed at what they had done to it, that it made her not want to go. There was no way no matter who was playing that she would have gone. Even if it was a £1.

Its a pity cos they ruined something that was for the community by not catering or listening to the community. Much the same as the govt then innit.

All this "not for profit" bollox thing as well, I can start a not for profit orgainsation today and still pay myself 100k a year from it. Plus a share of any profits made equally divided amongst the appointed trustees.

AFAIK it only has to be one representative from the community and all they would have to recieve is a £1 from the profits for it to be NFP community based.

Does anyone have any info as to what they put back into the community ?

 

[Isambard]

There was os many of em I thought that they had got corporate sponsorship from the local Hedlu

Whoop! Whoop! It's the sound of the heddlu!
Whoop! Whoop! I'm munted, gotta chew.

Whoop! Whoop! It's the sound of the heddlu!
Whoop! Whoop! God I hate these portaloos.

 

[Iam]

Free parties are best anyway

A couple of transits. . . a generator, and a rig ?

I make that rave o'clock

 

[JTG]

That's terrible news.

they fucked it up a few years ago, or started to do so. I find it hard to be upset at the final rites being administered now. they killed my festival a while back.

 

[Jografer]

they fucked it up a few years ago, or started to do so. I find it hard to be upset at the final rites being administered now. they killed my festival a while back.

then start up one yourself....

 

[butchersapron]

What a stupid post, get back to Russia nazi!

 

[Crispy]

then start up one yourself....

I imagine there'll be something, but the licensing situation makes it much more difficult than it used to be to do this sort of thing on the straight and level.

 

[JTG]

then start up one yourself....

that is the single most stupid comment posted on the whole saga.

it's even more stupid than the argument which says the people criticising the organisers don't care about the festival and are responsible for its demise.

well done, have a biscuit.

 

[Hollis]

http://www.ashtoncourtfestival.com/ABOUT_US/

Breakdown of expenses if it'd worked out.. £600k now, £42k 15 years ago.. hmm.

 

[Isambard]

1200% in costs but a what 1000+% (can someone do the maths) in ticket costs, PLUS of course the commerical sponsorship monies that were coming in.

 

[Hollis]

Yes - but if your basic costs are rising, what are they meant to do? Its noticable that there's a total lack of grants in their funding..

Even Kingston Green Fair, which is far smaller than Ashton Court, charges these days.

 

[tarannau]

Scary and quite depressing financials there. 50k on the site clean up fees alone!

I actually feel pretty bad for the organisers - 30+ years of putting that event on and they'd little option to but to pay out those ever escalating fees and jump more licensing hoops, cross their fingers and hoped it worked out, knowing that every extra regulation pissed off more of the festival crowd. It must have seemed a long step away from when they wanted to set up a free festival and rely on more informal arrangements.

Short of a hugely generous sponsor, with all the commercial compromises that'd involve, there seems little way they could have made money. They still needed a hugely optimistic 50% of revenue to come from entrance fees - which is way beyond 1 out of 3 punters dumping a couple of squid in donation buckets on the way out. Which I'm sad to say is all I did on the times I went - the punters always assume the cost is covered.

The organisers were always on a hiding to nothing imo. A pretty thankless task all round.

 

[Isambard]

The costs are rising and that's a general problem with commericalisation and "safety culture" and the police and the liscensing etc etc.

But the ticket prices have been rising, the rent they make off the stalls has been rising and Orange came along with sponsorship.

What just about everyone I know wanted from the festival and the way it was going drifted in different directions. The organisers tried to square a circle with appeals to our sense of community whilst at the same time getting shafted by North Somerset Council and the police.

No BYOB to make it more "family friendly", my arse.
Haven't seen such patent lying in a long time.

If it was a thankless task Tarannau, maybe they should have cancelled and walked away in January?

 

[tarannau]

No, but it's worth noting that the council tried that restriction on us in Lambeth as well, the implication being being that you couldn't trust a festival crowd not to bring in so much cheap booze that they'd inevitably get pissed and rowdy, necessitating a more expensive police presence. Crap of course, but faced with financial meltdown I can't blame the organisers for taking the easiest route

How would you have made it work Isambard? I'm looking at those figures and thinking I'd rather fold than even attempt to make it work. Perhaps that's the gameplan in some ways - faced with a jobsworth council, impossible costs and a growing sense of dissatisfaction, perhaps the only way to bring the problems to wider attention was to let the whole thing break down. If they'd have walked away and let the thing fold nothing would have been achieved, no statement made.

 

[Crispy]

I'd throw a massive rave, declare bankruptcy and go down in a blaze of glory/court hearings.

 

[tarannau]

I think, in essence, that's pretty much what they did. I suspect that the ticket fees just about paid the advanced licensing fees to allow the event to go ahead .... and then the weather ripped away any chance they had of throwing a mighty party.

 

[Isambard]

No, but it's worth noting that the council tried that restriction on us in Lambeth as well, the implication being being that you couldn't trust a festival crowd not to bring in so much cheap booze that they'd inevitably get pissed and rowdy


How would you have made it work Isambard?

There were already restrictions previously on what you could bring in, no more than 8 containers, no container larger than 1 litre IIRC.
And YES, there were searches at the gates.

This year's NO drink was therefore NOT about cutting down drunken behaviour but about extracting more money.

What would I have done? I'd have liked to have thought I would have the conviction to walk away. There are plenty of people who are a LOT more qualified to speak than me (waves to a lovely booted lady in South Bristol ) but to be honest after last year I kind of gave up on it anyway.

 

[Hollis]

I wouldn't really blame the management committee.. in the end they tried to keep something going that was a no-go, due to lack of support from elsewhere.

In the end it failed to be a free community festival, while not sticking up fees enough to ensure its survival as just another paying festival.. it fell between 2stools possibly.

The real fault imo, rests with the council etc. and whoever should have been funding/underwriting the thing.