At a Guildford Borough Council press conference at 2.30pm this afternoon, Cllr Matt Furniss announced that one of the two original applications to host a music festival on Stoke Park this summer had been rescinded. The Stoke Park festival had been a talking point over the last few months as the hotly contested summer spot could only be awarded to one of either Tony Scott’s Guilfest or Live Nation’s Magic Summer Live.
Guilfest had been an ever present and popular music festival in Guildford since first staging an event in 1992, right up until its last appearance two years ago in 2012. Unfortunately though, a combination of bad weather conditions and the London Olympics in that summer, meant that Guildfest 2012 had a 20% decrease in ticket sales compared to the previous year. This meant that Scotty Events Ltd had no option but to go into liquidation and in its wake, left approximately £60,000 worth of unpaid debt.
Up-stepped Magic FM’s Live Nation to bridge the void in 2013 and make sure that Guildford would still host an annual music festival, however, its popularity was dented for several reasons such as the lack of local business it stimulated for the area due to the no re-admission policy, it’s refusal to interact with local media and the ‘family’ and ‘community’ credentials of the festival. For these reasons, the Council urged Tony Scott to apply for the 2014 festival after a petition to bring back Guilfest was handed to them in October 2013.
The closing date for applications had been 31 December 2013 and at this point, there were two options in the running. However, it was announced today that Magic Live had pulled out of the race recently as they were unsure if they could fulfil and commit to some of the Council’s demands on hosting such an event. Therefore, Guifest, under the new holding company Trowfest Ltd was instated as the successful application for this summer’s festival, but only with some stringent conditions in place to protect the tax payers’ money and the Stoke Park area itself.
Lead Councillor for the Environment, Cllr Matt Furniss announced, “Before we could make a decision on the application, we took steps to protect local council tax payers and public assets from potential event costs or damage. We put conditions in place for Guilfest 2014 following the previous financial difficulties experienced by the event operators. If Trowfest Ltd does not meet these conditions, the event will not go ahead.”
So, in black and white terms, Trowfest Ltd must meet a number of conditions in regards to finance, licensing and event management over the coming months for the event to go ahead. Only if these conditions are all met will the event proceed in the summer of 2014.
The conditions are as follows:
- The payment of a financial bond (which was an added term of compliance, late in 2013) to cover any damage or reinstatement costs must be paid in full by the end of April 2014
- The sale of tickets is solely the responsibility of Trowfest Ltd
- The payment of the fee for the hire of Stoke Park must be made, in agreed payments, in February, March and May 2014
- The proposals and Event Management Plan produced by Trowfest Ltd must meet the requirements of the Safety Advisory Group (Surrey Police, Surrey Fire and Rescue, NHS, the Council’s Licensing and Building Control teams and the event organiser) and Licensing conditions.
The contract set up will only be for a one year deal in 2014, but the Councillor went on to express his joy at the event returning (subject to fulfilling the above terms) to Guildford, “We recognise that Guilfest is a popular family event. It supports local musicians and attracts thousands of visitors to the town. We are pleased to accept the proposal for Guilfest 2014 and continue our support for live music in the borough.”
James Martin
