It is with great regret that we announce the Electric Garden Progressive Rock Festival will not be taking place in May this year. As some of our mailing list will know, we were attempting to get a suitable venue for most of last year. When it looked as though a venue would not be found we put forward the idea of a live internet streaming gig which was in place for mid-May with bands arranged and most of the details in place.
At the eleventh hour a suitable venue came forward and we attempted to revert to the 2011 format of a regular festival plus streaming.
Unfortunately the date had to move forwards by a week and the band contracted for the original streaming gig could no longer perform on the new date.
We contacted several other bands and realised that it was going to be difficult to break even on our costs even if we sold out the festival. The increased fees demanded by bands plus the usual overheads, coupled with the reduced time to market the festival has made the event untenable in its current form.
I mentioned on the blog surrounding the Nearfest cancellation that to run a festival of this kind required compromise from all parties. When you have 8-12 artists and 1 ticket, it is not a massive calculation to realise that for each band to receive some remuneration, then a reduction in fee has to be considered to make everything work.
During January we actively sought sponsorship to be able to run the festival and remunerate the artists. Sadly we were unable to secure any sponsorship but we did have dialogue with several organisations who were looking for a longer marketing period.
We are keen to keep the festival alive and we are looking at different options to run some kind of event later in the year.
Sorry to all the people who have contacted us with their support, and also to the bands who offered to play for expenses only.
Cheers
Ken
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