Fresh Ayr Folk festival 2024 to be 'truly special' after 'disappointing' 2023 postponement
Organisers behind the Fresh Ayr Folk Festival say that they will be putting together something ‘truly special’ for 2024, after making the ‘disappointing’ decision to postpone this year’s event.
The festival’s directors say that low ticket sales were the reason for next month’s cancellation, and that’s despite a last-ditch effort to increase purchases.
More than 30 acts including some of the biggest names in folk music were set to rock the stage at Rozzelle Park on the weekend of August 11-13 but will now have to wait another 12 months.
On Friday bosses put out a public appeal to say unless several hundreds of tickets were sold by Sunday midnight, the festival could no longer go ahead in 2023.
One of the co-directors Jamie Mason is telling Greatest Hits Radio that despite the support seen in ticket sales since the announcement, the decision had to be made to ensure a successful event could still go ahead at some point.
'A reluctant decision'
He said: “It’s very disappointing, and it’s with a very heavy heart that we’ve reluctantly taken this decision.
“We have struggled to get enough ticket sales to ensure we can fulfil our obligations to the artists and production staff, and to make sure we have a successful event where all costs are covered.
“We fully understand the rise in living costs for everyone during this time and there are always risks putting on a new event. Advance tickets sales have never been more important than they are currently, especially with the growing tendency to book last minute for events.
“Despite our efforts, unfortunately the day ticket sales weren’t at what we projected to have at this stage in order to put the festival on in August 2023. But we received a tremendous amount of support anyway and look forward to August 2024.
“We have had a great response from all of the artists and our sponsors too, and we’ll be making a real push for next year.
“We may need to re-structure a little. We had a very ambitious project to pull together in the allotted time. We knew the structure of what we wanted to have, and for the most part that remains. I still have faith that we can put together a truly special musical & family friendly event for August 2024.”
Those who have bought tickets to the 2023 festival are now entitled to full refunds, but there will also be the option to roll the tickets over to next year’s event.