End of the road for B-fest
CAITHNESSIANS said goodbye to the spectacular show of B-fest on Saturday night, unbeknown to them, for the last time.
This year’s attendance was drastically down on last year, and festival organiser Ryan Cook has decided he has had enough.
The festival had seen a steady rise in the numbers of revellers over the years, with 1800 people coming in the first year, 2400 in the second and 2800 in the third. This year saw the turnout dip to below 1300.
Mr Cook said: "The day was really good and everyone enjoyed it. The atmosphere was really nice and it felt busy too, but numbers were well down on last year.
"I think it’s a combination of people worrying about what the weather was going to be like and the ticket price going up £2.
"Maybe another thing against it was the headliner was not so well known after having The Proclaimers last year.
"My suppliers tour around the other festivals and they say they’ve lost a lot of money in the events down south too.
"It just seems to be the trend, and people simply don’t have the money any more. We noticed all the money we took in was £10 notes, when in previous years it would have been £20 or £50 notes."
Mr Cook said the weather may have been a big factor too, with a torrential morning downpour.
"We had nine local bands and they were all excellent," he said. "Some of them were pulling the biggest crowds of the day.
"Scooty and the Skyhooks seemed to be the crowd favourite, and Finding Albert and Brown Bear and the Bandits were popular too."
Mr Cook said headliners, Stars from the Commitments, went down very well despite the crowd having been hit by a further heavy shower.
He is very sad to have to end the festival, but he could not continue to bankroll it because of the poor ticket sales.
"I’ve lost £4000 to £5000 which I’m going to have to fund personally," he said.
"People just won’t buy the tickets in advance. They wait to see what the weather’s going to be like.
"Companies want their money up front, and I managed to get some of them to accept the money afterwards, but I can’t operate a festival that way." Mr Cook said there was about 1200 people who are the hardcore fans and had always support the festival well.
He said: "It’s been really great fun and I’ve had a great group of people and bands to work with.
"The numbers were going up and it was growing nicely, but I know if that rain had continued on Saturday I could have lost £16,000. I can’t risk it any more.
"Because I’m a private individual doing it for profit, companies aren’t keen to help. They think I’m just going to line my pockets with the profit, but I’m always just trying to break even."
Mr Cook said if the festival had made a profit, it would have been split between different charities.
"The council gave us £6000 last year and people thought I’d taken money from hospitals and schools," he said. "It was from the discretionary fund, though, which is for things like the arts.
"It’s hard to get that point across, but I had quite a few comments from people about that and we did get a bit of a backlash."
Local companies, including Mey Selections and Dounreay, were supporters of the festival and gave B-fest free stock.
"That all helped us to almost break even," said Mr Cook. "All these things helped to sustain it over the years, but these companies don’t have the same money to spend on advertising any more."
Mr Cook said there was a lot of work involved in preparing the festival and it would be nice not to have it for a while.
"I started in November of last year and I’ve got to run the hotel and have another job, so I’ve been getting up at 5am every day and working until midnight," he said.
"It was mostly done by myself up until the last week when friends and family all joined in to help.
"It’s a shame as it was my thing and I’ve really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, reality has struck that one of these years I’m going to lose a fortune and I simply don’t have it to lose."
Mr Cook has a backup plan though, via his new company called Caithness Gigs with Ally Gray, managing director and co-founder of EmuBands, as well as a board member of the Scottish Music Industry Association.
Mr Cook said: "We’re going to have some gigs going on around Caithness with the Wick band Maginot Bands who have just signed a big management deal.
"We’re going to have them in the Blackstairs Lounge, Thurso and Inverness, and we’re working with Them Beatles too."
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) said: "It’s obviously disappointing the organisers have decided not to repeat B-fest after four years of supporting up and coming talent and bringing more established acts to the area.
"It is extremely difficult for any relatively new independent festival to survive or grow in the current climate.
"The HIE-sponsored music trade network and GoNORTH have had a partnership with the festival, including a GoNORTH stage at the event, in the past.
"The trade network is currently in dialogue with organisers and local promoters about the future and delivering more music trade network activity in Caithness."
t B-fest review and picture special. Pages 4–5