Doune the Rabbit Hole music festival to return after boycott

Doune the Rabbit Hole music festival is to be revived next year, after previously being cancelled due to a union boycott over unpaid wages.

The organisers of the Stirlingshire event say they are a new management team, with no connection to the festival's previous directors.

The festival owed £800,000 to performers and crews in 2022, before the 2023 event was cancelled after the Bectu union called for a boycott.

Businessman Brian Harkin, a former musician, said his new team would resurrect the "much loved" festival at Cardross Estate near Stirling in August next year.

Music booking agency Rock Artist Management, who look after acts such as Hue & Cry and the Boomtown Rats, are part of the new management team.

In a statement, organisers said the festival would "reclaim its rightful place on the UK’s music festival calendar".

Doune the Rabbit Hole was a popular fixture on Scotland's music scene for nearly 15 years, with acts like Belle & Sebastian, Sister Sledge and Levellers among the performers.

It ran into financial difficulty after the Covid pandemic forced cancellations in 2020 and 2021.

Organisers planned a bigger edition of the festival in 2022 to make up for two years of lost revenue.

But it fell into further financial trouble when only 6,000 tickets were sold instead of the hoped for 12,000.

A number of acts went public about not having been paid by organisers, with some even launching crowdfunding campaigns.

The firm behind the festival was liquidated and the event taken over by the Festival Food Beverage and Property Services company, which had previously run the event in 2018 and 2019.

Former festival director Craig Murray said debt from the previous festival was about £800,000, but that running the event in 2023 would help recoup costs.

This plan collapsed after entertainment union Bectu announced members should boycott working there.

Mr Murray claimed there had been a smear campaign against the festival.

New director Mr Harkin said the event would return "with a refreshed vision and a commitment to delivering the best festival experience yet".