Green Man: New site will support farmers and young people, boss says

The boss of Green Man Festival has said she plans to help young people into farming amid criticism of a Welsh government-backed land purchase.

Gilestone Farm in Powys was bought by the Welsh government for £4.5m, with proposals for Fiona Stewart's company to pay commercial rent.

Ms Stewart said she would employ a local farmer to manage the land.

She said: "I want farmers farming Gilestone, and we are in the process of doing that."

Ms Stewart, who runs Green Man, she would have preferred to have had a loan to buy the farm, but the Welsh government preferred to own it and charge rent.

She said the Green Man organisation had worked with the Welsh government helping to promote Wales and Welsh products for many years, and they had talked about how to "diversify the brand and create jobs".

When asked if she had approached the Welsh government for a loan to expand onto the farm rather than the government buy it, she said "they came to me," and she had not asked for financial help "because that was the model that I understood they wanted to give to me".

The model is similar to one developed by the Welsh government to support independent TV producers, Bad Wolf.

Ms Stewart said the project, which saw Bad Wolf rent studios as tenants of the Welsh government, was "massively successful".

Regarding Gilestone Farm, Ms Stewart added: "They [Welsh government] saw it as a new model because they retain the assets.

"I can see why it's commercially attractive to them [to own the farm themselves], because they get the uplift for everything, I'm creating this and it's my risk.

"Owning it would have been nice, I would have liked to have done that, and that certainly was my intention."

She said that for her business, one of the attractions was that the farm was already used for tourism and events.

She said "it seemed logical to build on that", while retaining it as a working farm.

The plans for Gilestone would not involve events in 2023, but the year after there would be one event for between 1,000 and 2,000 people, "depending on what local people thought about it".

Speaking about the criticism of the Welsh government buying the farm and of Ms Stewart herself, she said: "I've been accused of being a hippy on a number of occasions, and that I'm going to set up a hippy commune, that's not what I am about, I'm a business woman, and very proud of it."

There have also been claims that she would stop farming at Gilestone, which she dismissed.

"I have massive respect for farmers, they feed us, I've worked with farmers for 30 years, this is a farm, everywhere I have worked has been a farm, and I totally understand that there's an awful lot of pressure on farmers, and I'm very sympathetic to that."

She added: "It's not all bad, when it was first announced we got over 430 positive emails in our inbox saying we can't wait to work for you and how exciting it is, it's not all been horrid, it's actually been quite balanced."

The Welsh government said it had been in discussions with Green Man for a number of years about the potential to support the growth of the festival brand in and for Wales, including finding a permanent base, since 2019.

It added Green Man told the Welsh government in February that a suitable holding could become available, but Green Man did not have the resources to buy it.