Organizers of the Scottish Doune The Rabbit Hole festival announced that the event will not take place this year amid a boycott by trade unions and what organizers described as a cash-flow crisis.
“We are beyond devastated to announce the cancellation of Doune The Rabbit Hole 2023 and the end of the festival for the foreseeable future as a result of the call for a boycott of the event by BECTU,” organizers said in a post on the festival’s website.
According to festival organizers, the boycott, announced in June by the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union and The Musicians’ Union and Equity, was the final nail in the coffin for the event, which struggled to recover last year following the pandemic.
“The team has tried everything in our power to recover from the challenges of 2022 and to produce the event our audience deserves, while making good on our promises to pay creditors from the 2022 event. Sadly, since the start of BECTU’s call for a boycott in June, based on a campaign of misinformation, the numbers are just not stacking up and we have no choice other than to cancel the event. We’ve looked at all options to keep the event on the table, as we know how much it means to all the people and families who have bought tickets, but we just aren’t able to produce the event in the current environment. We’ve seen a number of other festivals cancelled across the country so far this year citing the cost of living crisis and increased costs as factors,” organizers said.
Along with their statement, Doune The Rabbit Hole’s team released a series of charts showing ticket sales data for the last several years, with sales from this year’s festival appearing to fall off markedly following the boycott announcement.
Additionally, the festival cautioned fans that they may not be able to obtain a refund, claiming that money from tickets went to the union who required full payment in advance for 2023.
“In terms of refunds, we must urge you to contact your bank/credit card provider directly to process a refund, explain the situation to them and they should, in most cases, be able to help recover your money. For the next few weeks someone will be checking our info@dounetherabbithole.co.uk email address, so if you have any questions about this process, please feel free to email there. Unfortunately, BECTU were among those who forced our hand in saying we would pay ALL of our bills in advance to supply chain companies (whilst simultaneously working in the media to prevent the event from going ahead), as a result we have already paid out almost every single penny of the event’s income towards those deposits,” festival organizers stated.
Following news of the festival’s financial dissolution, Bectu and The Musicians’ Union and Equity released a joint statement addressing the turn of events.
Bectu, The Musicians’ Union and Equity are of the view that it is unfortunate that the Doune the Rabbit Hole festival due to take place in Stirlingshire on the weekend of 21st – 23rd July 2023 is now cancelled.
However over the last few years this festival has amassed well over £1 million pounds in unpaid bills to both bands and staff (£800,000 in 2022 alone). Many people including the headline bands last year were paid nothing other than their deposits, in some cases bands are owed tens of thousands of pounds with no hope of getting their final payments, and this years cancellation will impact yet more bands and staff.
As trade unions we have tried to have a constructive dialogue with the organizers of the festival, but the undertakings which were offered to us were not forthcoming. The organizers said that they would share sales figures in order to reassure us that they would make enough profit this year to begin to repay the debts owed by the previous festival. They stated their intention to repay those debts over 3 years. They have not provided any such information and that undertaking to repay those debts is now in jeopardy.\
Read the full joint statement from the trade unions here: https://bectu.org.uk/news/joint-union-statement-on-doune-the-rabbit-hole-festival-cancellation
