Belle And Sebastian, Honeyblood amongst artists reportedly snubbed on cost by Scottish pageant

A number of artists have hit out on the organisers of Doune The Rabbit Gap – a multi-day music pageant held yearly within the port of Menteith, Scotland – after allegedly being owed “vital” quantities of cash.

Amongst them are Belle And Sebastian and Honeyblood, the previous of whom headlined this 12 months’s version. Held over the prolonged weekend of July 14-17, the pageant drew in additional than 10,000 punters. Talking to STV News, although, an unnamed rep for Belle And Sebastian claimed that the band had solely been paid a portion of their agreed-upon price. 

“The occasion owes the band considerably extra,” they stated, opining that “the occasion shouldn't have any tickets on sale for 2023 till 2022’s performers have been paid – which has not occurred”.

For her half, Honeyblood just lately launched a GoFundMe marketing campaign, with the cash donated getting used to compensate the artists who carried out at this 12 months’s Doune The Rabbit Gap – greater than 200 acts all up. To this point, she’s raised £350 of her £5,000 purpose – you'll be able to add to that here.

In a press release shared on-line final week, the pageant’s authentic staff (Doune The Rabbit Gap Pageant Ltd) introduced that this 12 months’s version could be their final, completely shifting administration duties to a different firm (Pageant Beverage And Property Companies Ltd, which ran the pageant in 2018 and 2019) after struggling a “large monetary issue” with the newest occasion. 

They pegged the foundation of their points on “the pandemic, double roll-over, elevated prices, and shopper confidence combin[ed] with the rising value of residing to have an effect on ticket gross sales”, and continued: “The director has exhausted his personal sources in making an attempt to repay suppliers however after taking skilled recommendation, this firm has gone into liquidation.

“Despite this case, your suggestions concerning the occasion instructed us it was a cultural and in style success worthy of sustaining.”

In that assertion, it’s stated that the pageant’s new administration have “pledge[d] to attempt to repay artists, crew and suppliers from the occasion in 2022 as quickly as doable”. They stated: “While within the means of restructuring, we're dedicated to preserving the ambiance and essence of a well-loved, unbiased pageant for future years. 

“We'll use your suggestions to make Doune The Rabbit Gap 2023 the most effective and smoothest but. We sit up for seeing you again within the discipline in July.”

In a press release shared with STV Information, Honeyblood stated she has “good religion” that the brand new staff will honour the charges promised to this 12 months’s performers. “Artists should be paid on time and in full,” she continued, “like some other enterprise for the work they do.

“I discover it fairly alarming, because it means the funds they owe will probably be paid with goodwill not from authorized obligation. We additionally haven't any timescale as when that is perhaps. I actually hope they’re capable of type it out. It could be a disgrace to lose one other music pageant in Scotland. I'm rooting for them.”

In the meantime, the Musicians’ Union instructed The Herald that they hadn’t “seen something like the size of the problems [they] have seen with Doune The Rabbit Gap”. The union’s regional officer, Caroline Sewell, stated the state of affairs was “vastly regarding”, particularly for the reason that pageant had acquired “vital quantities of public funding by Artistic Scotland and Occasion Scotland”. 

In response to the paper, the pageant’s authentic staff have been handed £60,000 in Might, whereas the brand new one – famous to be spearheaded by the daddy of the outdated one’s chief – took £90,000 from the Tradition Organisations And Venues Restoration Fund in 2020 and 2021. 

It’s reported that the pageant was initially headed up by Jamie Murray, nonetheless with the newly introduced shifting of obligations, it’ll now be run by his father, Craig Murray, who's described by The Herald as “a blogger and former diplomat who was jailed final 12 months for contempt of court docket after he was discovered to have revealed materials able to figuring out 4 of the ladies who accused Alex Salmond of sexual assault”. Jamie, too, is alleged to be the “Senior Undertaking Supervisor” at Pageant Beverage And Property Companies Ltd.

Sewell continued in her assertion: “The pageant is now working underneath a brand new firm – however finally with the identical individuals concerned – and are promoting tickets for the 2023 occasion. That is regarding to us and we might urge any musicians contemplating accepting work at Doune The Rabbit Gap 2023 to train warning and MU members ought to communicate to us first.”

On the time of writing, no artists have been introduced on the line-up for subsequent 12 months’s Doune The Rabbit Gap.