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Wicked Hathern Fest loses £30k
The unseasonal weather this year really took its toll on the annual festival - now in its 8th year - with the organisers forced to cancel the camping element and then push back the opening times on the Saturday by 5 hours due to the forecast high winds.
The festival is organised and run by Hathern Village Association - a volunteer group led by Chairman Ben Hardy. He said “it’s been absolutely devastating to the group. People don’t realise that the festival costs us £97,000 to run and the only way of us raising that money is by people buying tickets and spending at the bar. This year, because we had to refund camping and with losing out on gate sales and bar sale revenue we’ve made a loss of £32,000.”
“As the group is made up entirely of volunteers, if there is any shortfall after bonfire night then we have to put our hands in our own pockets to settle our debts. We’re going to be working hard over the next few months to raise funds and other ways too - including crowdfunding”
“Our event in November will help us set the balance to zero but if we want to carry on into the future and organise more festivals and fireworks events we’re going to need to fundraise and that’s where we need the public’s help. We don’t want 2019 to be the end of Wicked Hathern Fest and Hathern Village Association.”
Wicked Hathern Fireworks & Bonfire will go ahead as planned on November 2nd. If you’d like to help the association out, you can follow it on Facebook for more updates.
The unseasonal weather this year really took its toll on the annual festival - now in its 8th year - with the organisers forced to cancel the camping element and then push back the opening times on the Saturday by 5 hours due to the forecast high winds.
The festival is organised and run by Hathern Village Association - a volunteer group led by Chairman Ben Hardy. He said “it’s been absolutely devastating to the group. People don’t realise that the festival costs us £97,000 to run and the only way of us raising that money is by people buying tickets and spending at the bar. This year, because we had to refund camping and with losing out on gate sales and bar sale revenue we’ve made a loss of £32,000.”
“As the group is made up entirely of volunteers, if there is any shortfall after bonfire night then we have to put our hands in our own pockets to settle our debts. We’re going to be working hard over the next few months to raise funds and other ways too - including crowdfunding”
“Our event in November will help us set the balance to zero but if we want to carry on into the future and organise more festivals and fireworks events we’re going to need to fundraise and that’s where we need the public’s help. We don’t want 2019 to be the end of Wicked Hathern Fest and Hathern Village Association.”
Wicked Hathern Fireworks & Bonfire will go ahead as planned on November 2nd. If you’d like to help the association out, you can follow it on Facebook for more updates.
Co-organizers (4)
Martin Clayton
Organizer
England
Benjamin Hardy
Co-organizer
Lewis Fuller
Co-organizer
Richard Bye
Co-organizer