Hopes for 'blockbuster' last event at Towersey Festival in Bucks
The festival announced this year would be the last due to financial pressures
Last updated 2nd Jun 2024
Organisers of Buckinghamshire-based Towersey Music Festival have announced that this year's event will be their last due to rising financial pressures.
The festival has been going for 60 years, and was founded by Denis Manners MBE, five years before Glastonbury.
However due to recent financial pressures of the cost-of-living crisis and the COVID pandemic, organisers have struggled to keep the festival going and announced earlier this week this one will be the last.
Joe Heap, organiser and founder Denis Manners' grandson, said: "It's been really, really tough since COVID, and two years of cancelled festivals wiped out all of our reserve, which is something that any kind of festival our size needs."
"And since then and due to various factors, the costs of running it have just absolutely gone through the roof to the point where ticket sales just can't match how much it costs to run the festival at the scale that we are."
"So we're really hoping that we can make this year's festival an absolute blockbuster and everybody comes and celebrates with us and marks 60 years and can say that they were at the oldest festival in the country for its final year."
The festival was first held in the village of Towersey, but moved to nearby Thame in Oxfordshire in 2015, and finally settled at the Claydon Estate in Buckinghamshire in 2020.
Reminiscing on years of success, Mr Heap told Greatest Hits Radio he grew up within the festival:
"I've been involved all my life, as you might imagine, alongside my my siblings and and my mum and dad and family and everybody."
"One of the sort of ethos of our families is that you get stuck in from the grass roots up, which kind of mirrors how the festival feels, it's all about real authenticity in grassroots."
"It's very much focused on community and on the people that come, that's what make Towersey so special and what's given us 60 years of festivals now."
"It's a massively eclectic mix of music, art, culture, lots of hands on experiences, and people get very involved."
In a statement released on the festival's social media accounts earlier this week, organisers said they're 'truly grateful' for the support over the past 60 years from customers, supports, suppliers and funding.
They added that their thoughts go out to the 35+ festivals who have already cancelled this year and said they hope to find a way to come back stronger in the future.