An Independent Family-Owned Newspaper Menu Local News News Bank holiday music festival ends in fiasco A leading cancer charity was one of the big
losers following the cancellation of the Celtic Rally Festival at Maker Heights on the Rame Peninsula over the bank holiday weekend. Angry performers and traders went unpaid and police, including members of the Tactical Aid Group, moved on to the site on Saturday morning in a bid to supervise the closing of the festival. They issued a nationwide appeal for anyone on their way to the four-day music and beer festival to turn round and go home. Music fans who had bought tickets for the festival are concerned that they will not get their money back. Many people, including families, were already on site when the festival was closed down and about 100 chose to remain for the weekend despite the situation. A police spokesman said later that in spite of their disappointment the revellers on site had behaved very well and his colleagues had been ‘really pleased’ by their reaction to the cancellation. Bands booked for the event included The Beat, Bad Manners and The Levellers. However, on Friday evening, shortly after the start of the festival, rumours began circulating that performers and suppliers had not been paid and that takings had disappeared, resulting in many of them leaving the site early. Police issued a statement saying that the cancellation had been due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. The police also said they were not investigating the reason for the cancellation, which was regarded as a civil legal matter. No one from the organisers, the St Austell-based Beerfest Event Company, was available to comment on the failure but the man behind the festival, 42-year-old Stuart Wright, is reported to have apologised to everyone affected by the cancellation, saying that although contractors had been paid deposits to take part they had lost confidence after rumours began circulating that they would not receive full payment at the end of the event. One of the losers from the cancellation was Macmillan Cancer Support which expected to receive a &pound5,000 donation from the organisers. Fundraising manager Alex Folkes was at pains to distance the charity from the organisation of the festival. ‘We are naturally very disappointed,’ he said. ‘We had hoped to raise a substantial donation from the event to help provide advice and support for people affected by cancer. ‘Macmillan was not involved in organising the event and only had sporadic contact with the organisers in the run-up to the festival. ‘We seek to check the background of anyone wanting to organise an event in aid of the charity. ‘We withheld a final decision on whether to be involved until after attending the pre-event briefing on Thursday last week at which police, contractors and security staff were present. ‘At that time, everyone seemed happy that the event would be a success. ‘We do not know why the event failed and have not been able to talk to the organiser since last week.’ Adverts
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