Doune the Rabbit Hole boycott call could 'destroy' festival

The Doune The Rabbit Hole festival could be under threat after the Bectu union called on artists, contractors and festivalgoers to boycott the event.

The festival still owes hundreds of thousands of pounds to performers and crews who performed and worked at last year's festival.

Director Craig Murray accused the union of trying to "destroy" the event.

He said the festival was doing all it could to clear its outstanding bills.

The event was held last at the Cardross Estate near Stirling last July after being cancelled the previous two years because of Covid.

The festival went into liquidation last December and is now being managed by the Festival Food Beverage and Property Services company.

The organisers faced a backlash earlier this year after asking volunteers to pay a deposit to work at the event in order to "show your commitment".

Mr Murray said the debt from last year's festival was about £800,000.

He said the event paid more than £380,000 to artists and musicians, £700,000 to suppliers and almost £200,000 to crew members.

He said: "We just ran out of money, because essentially the accumulated debt from Covid we just couldn't cover unfortunately."

Mr Murray said he had not taken "one single penny" from the festival and that he was "devastated" over what had happened.

He said: "We are committed to paying back the debt. If we cancelled the festival these people would never get paid."

He said that the festival had been taking about £25,000 a week in ticket sales, which would keep the event on target financially.

He added: "Since Bectu called for the boycott and launched this massive media and social media campaign, ticket sales have fallen to about £5,000 a week.

"So it seems this attempt to destroy the festival may be successful, and we can't understand it."

The Bectu union represents contractors, including stage crews and technicians, who work behind the scenes at musical festivals.

Its negotiations officer for Scotland, Paul McManus, said the union made the decision to call for a boycott following discussions with the event organisers.

He said: "We explained to them the strength of feeling among the people who were owed the money by them.

"We agreed a number of measures with them that we felt would allow us to support the music festival going forward.

"Sadly they fell down on those commitments, to the extent that we're no longer in a position to support the festival."

He said the agreed measures included monthly reassurance that ticket sale targets were being met.

Mr McManus added: "They also agreed with us that anybody we're using for this year would receive 100% of the fee in advance of the festival.

"We're now getting reports that that's not happening either."

Singer songwriter Iona Fyfe is regional board member of the Musicians' Union, which is not calling for a boycott.

She said: "I personally believe that if you haven't paid your workers for last year, how on earth do you ensure that you can pay the musicians for this year?

"What we're saying is to please have an open-ended discussion with the Musicians' Union before you get involved with the festival and to make sure you have that contract in place."