Joe GallopOrganisers of Field Maneuvers festival (cap. 1,500) have launched a crowdfunding campaign after an unexpectedly tough year has put the event’s future in doubt.
The electronic music festival’s team, led by Henry Morris, Leon Cole and Ele Beattie, issued a statement in which they said they are at risk of being in a crippling amount of debt if they do not win financial support. They have set a target of £40,000, which they hope to raise across the next four weeks.
In a statement they said, “Field Maneuvers started eight years ago when five of us put £50 in a pot, bought an incorrectly spelt domain name, and hoped for the best. Each year we’ve grown incrementally, releasing a few more tickets, improving the sound systems, booking bigger acts, always trying to throw the best party available within our means, never paying ourselves much more than expenses and stupidly or not, not taking any sponsorship. FM2022 was our biggest party to date. But it has also ended up being the hardest.
“We always knew our first event after a three-year break for Covid was going to be tough, but it ended up more challenging than we ever could have imagined. The bottom line is we’ve lost a lot of money, and without your help we could end up in a crippling amount of debt.”
The event’s organisers said that after selling most of the 2022 event’s tickets in 2019, they racked up three years of day-to-day costs including licensing, storage, ongoing business administration and accountancy.
They cited the cost-of-living crisis, Brexit, the war in Ukraine and inflation which have seen its contractor prices soar by at least 30%: “From diesel to marquees to plant hire to hay bales – everything cost more this year, so we found ourselves trying to make 2019 ticket prices match our 2022 costs.”
The event’s organisers explained that despite 1,500 tickets having been sold for this year’s event, only 1,000 people turned up: “500 less punters buying drinks meant our bar projections were out and our take was down 35%. A devastating amount for a tiny, independent party.
“To reiterate, we’re festival promoters by accident. We have our own full-time jobs, responsibilities, and children, despite which, we still focus almost entirely on this event for three months of the year, and beyond a few drink tokens and meal vouchers, we rarely pay ourselves.
“In probably the first sensible move we’ve ever made, we’re drawing the line at financially crippling ourselves to keep going.”