The organiser of Northern Kin Festival, which has faced a barrage of criticism over queues, mud and broken toilets, has again apologised and admits he felt 'broken' at one point as he struggled to keep the popular music event on track.
Alex Hutchinson - who is expecting the weekend camping festival, now in its fourth year, to make a whopping £200,000 loss - responded to the complaints after the three days of music, headlined by Jethro Tull, Levellers and Hawkwind, came to a close in the grounds of Ushaw Country House in County Durham. The festival was dogged by problems at the off when worse-than-forecast weather resulted in queues just to get in and so much mud that tractors and recovery trucks had to drag vehicles free.
There were reports of people in wheelchairs bogged down by mud and some music fans left early, missing their favourite bands, but there were others who embraced the 'mud fest' experience over its Friday to Sunday run, made up for by the packed music line-up. Alex - who was full of praise for festival staff, some of whom he says were spat at as anger rose - says: "We think we salvaged a festival against everything the weather threw at us" and added: "Just be aware that even if you thought it was terrible, my colleagues and I did everything we could, we really tried everything. We gave it our all."
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In a statement, which has been praised on social media for its "open and honest appraisal", he explained the decisions that had been made, admitting elements of the festival were 'not good enough' and he is particularly 'gutted' by access problems which meant some disabled people could not stay. He is now having to decide on its future.
"There are 100% a large number of areas where if I run Northern Kin again, in a similar format, I will improve," he said and recalled how, after having been on-site for 40 solid hours by Saturday night, making decisions - some of which caused unintended extra knock-on difficulties - and having no sleep, he "broke down in tears backstage while the Levellers played". He said: "I was broken and didn’t think I could keep it up." But the festival team and the "superb" shows themselves lifted his spirits.
Reflecting on the festival after a total nine days on site, he said the team tried everything to solve the issues at the time but accepts "There were areas of the event that simply weren’t up to scratch, largely as a knock-on effect of our efforts to manage the adverse weather conditions."
While the team regularly work festivals in "much worse weather and much worse mud", they were caught out by the state of the ground, despite assessments at multiple meetings, with various bodies, that the field would hold up. There were contingency plans in place too.
"We had no idea that the field would deteriorate quite as far as it did," he said. "In reality, while the overall level of mud reached a level we’re used at festivals, it did so at a speed that neither we, the landowners or our groundwork contractor saw coming, or even close."
That resulted in it taking longer to get vehicles on site, large queues of traffic and - with staff having to be redeployed to help out - a knock-on effect of being behind in handing out festival wristbands. An extra 48 extra toilets were brought in to add to the 106 in place - above the required number he says - but there were delays with toilet emptying. Luxury loos in the VIP camping section were out of order on Friday - "not good enough" he says.
With mud a huge problem, he said "the nature of the land and its permanent use" meant they could not put down gravel or hardcore and he made a "wrong call" in allocating the contingency spare stock of trackway tocampsites instead of ensuring a hardstanding path for wheelchair users in the arena. "Disabled customers had a really difficult time on the terrain, I know this," he says.
"That was a f*ck up and I’m sorry. As someone whose own brother is severely disabled and who spends their own time actively working with disabled people, I’m absolutely gutted that some disabled customers simply couldn’t stay to enjoy the festival."
He says there have been accusations of the festival profiteering but the reality is that the event, already forecast lose £172,000, is expected now to see losses of of £200,000 due to putting in place contingency plans and extra site clearance.
He says ticket money covers only 60% of all costs, with losses being sustained through financial support from his own security and stewarding company but it's "a festival that I truly love and whose future I believe in". While on-site efforts of his security staff were appreciated by "99.99%" of festival-goers, he says some were were "spat at, assaulted and abused".
While there are lessons learned and improvements needed in the likes of communication, lighting, water supplies and hardstanding wheelchair routes, his hope is to bring back the festival better than ever" but, following all the negative comments, he needs to assess whether that is realistic, saying: "I’ll be heartbroken if I can’t but it would be unfair to put my team through it again."
He is grateful for positive support on social media and to everyone who made the festival happen "when cancelling and walking away would have been the easy option". And he says the show itself was amazing. "The bands, the sound, the light, the performances were every bit as superb as I expected them to be."
He added: "I’m going to take some time to reflect on the event, as it’s currently unclear how its future lies at this point. The large number of people who’ve slated everything the festival has to offer means I have to assume that next year’s event would run at an even greater loss than this year and there’s a level that I and partners just can’t afford to prop up, regardless of my love for the festival and my belief that in the long run there’s a real need for an experiential, grown-up, non-commercial festival with a great, unintimidated, family and dog friendly vibe in the North East."
Responses on the festival's Facebook page include one comment from a 70-year-old who said Northern Kin was her first festival and wrote: "It was amazing. Yes there was mud, problems with toilets and water but the music far outweighed any of the issues. I'm still buzzing and I will be back. The lads and girls around the field were superb, good humoured and tried their best to make the festival experience as positive as possible under unforeseen circumstances."
Another told how they had laughed and made friends in the mud while one comment included: “We came, we saw, we got wet, we got muddy and we had a hell of a time. Would we go again next year “YES” and I’d buy the tickets tomorrow if they went on sale." And one wrote: "I'm one of many who were chuffed it went ahead", adding: "On Friday I thought "never again", by Monday I was wondering on which dates the 2024 festival would fall."
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