Hop Farm organiser Vince Power ‘definitely’ intends on bringing the festival back next year despite a troubled period which ultimately led to the event’s cancellation earlier this month.
The future of Hop Farm was first thrown into doubt in September last year when Power’s parent company went into receivership. However, after securing a new deal to buy back the event, Power insisted Hop Farm would return for 2013 in a scaled back form.
The line-up which was subsequently announced for this summer – including My Bloody Valentine, The Cribs and The Horrors – wasn’t enough to end the problems though, and the cancellation of Hop Farm was confirmed by Power in a statement which read:
“We have worked very hard to try to make it work but it has proved too much of a mountain to climb and despite fighting hard, circumstances are such that based on poor ticket sales and the forecast selling rate substantial losses would be made.”
And now, while admitting that these ongoing issues have ‘lost him some credibility’, Power has told NME he will reassess the structure of Hop Farm with the intention of bringing it back to the UK festival calendar next summer.
“It became a matter of damage limitation. I had to do it sooner rather than later,” he said. “When something like this happens even though I’ve been around 30 years, you do lose a bit of credibility. So I intend to spend the next months restructuring my company and bringing more investment in. I definitely want to bring Hop Farm back.”
Hop Farm is by no means the first festival to have suffered financial difficulties in recent times, but Power has reassured fans the future of his other major summer event, Benicássim, is far more stable.
“Benicássim is still secure,” he added. “We’ve sold a lot of tickets and it’s doing well. What happened last year was that I floated a company called Music Festivals PLC, and within that company was Hop Farm, Feis festival and Benicássim. The company went into administration due to a lack of investment, and our share price crashed. This meant that Maraworld, the trading company for Benicassim, also suffered. But the festival itself actually did well last year. It was the other festivals, which put it under pressure.”
Have a read of Live4ever’s thoughts on the future of UK festivals here.