Running a pageant shouldn’t be for the faint-hearted. The record of potential weekend-derailers is dauntingly lengthy – licensing points, awol bands, freak climate occasions to call however just a few – and one misstep may show disastrous, significantly for these smaller non-conglomerate festivals the place each final penny and punter counts. Thirty six UK festivals have been cancelled to this point in 2026 – and if a pageant is cancelled one 12 months, it makes returning for the subsequent one vastly tougher.
The heartening information is that’s the bottom annual determine for cancelled fests since Covid (although admittedly with nonetheless among the season to run), and fewer than half the variety of festivals that had been cancelled in 2024. All issues thought of, the UK and Eire’s impartial pageant scene is – like its able-to-survive-in-a-tent-for-four-days-without-a-shower-or-sleep attenders – remarkably hardy. There are success tales in all places, from Sea Energy’s Krankenhaus occasion in Cumbria, to the mighty Finish of the Highway pageant in Wiltshire, which celebrates its twentieth instalment this month.
Pageant promoter James Scarlett is behind two different pageant success tales: rock, punk and emo fest 2000 Bushes, which loved its nineteenth outing final month, and the steel, prog and post-rock-tinged ArcTanGent, whose totally bought out twelfth version takes place subsequent week. As a result of he doesn’t have sufficient on, James additionally, together with fellow pageant promoter Gavin McInally, hosts Two Promoters One Pod, a podcast entertainingly sharing the challenges of placing on huge nice musical shindigs.
Final 12 months, to get a way of these challenges, we requested James to do some pageant firefighting and clear up some main theoretical doomsday eventualities, and we loved it a lot we’ve booked him once more this 12 months for an encore set. He’s already ticked off one potential nightmare this 12 months, with 2000 Bushes touchdown in the course of our unending summer time heatwave (the forecast for ArcTanGent is trying fortunately cooler, contact wooden), however listed below are 5 others:
Pageant catastrophe #1 | Your pricey Friday evening headlining band, an enormous draw for punters, comes as much as you quarter-hour earlier than they’re because of go onstage, and say that their payment is inadequate, they usually need one other 10% on high. What do you do?
I believe you attempt to discuss to them about the way you’re impartial and mainly a bunch of family and friends working a pageant and pulling this type of factor isn’t going to look good. I do know a pageant that this occurred to, which I can’t identify: they actually bought their banking app out and confirmed the band how a lot cash the pageant needed to its identify. And the band are like, “Oh, OK, we’ll play.” In any other case, it’s a shitty factor within the excessive to ask that.
Pageant catastrophe #2 | Norovirus sweeps via the location, inflicting mass nausea, vomiting and different unpleasantness. What do you do? [NB. this actually happened at German electronic festival Whole earlier this summer]
How can we cease it spreading? Schooling! To be trustworthy, I’d in all probability actually be Googling “how do you keep away from transmitting norovirus?” These types of issues, the place you’ve by no means had them occur earlier than, you type of wing it. We’ve bought an onsite app, so can put up notifications, in addition to on social media and put indicators up about hand-washing and private contact. Don’t contact anybody! And we’d ensure hand-washing amenities are updated. We’d be making an attempt to determine the supply, the place the outbreak has come from. Is it from contained in the pageant? The individuals who you actually can’t let get unwell are the bands, so possibly quarantining a few of them can be wanted too.
Pageant catastrophe #3 | Two days into your four-day pageant, your provider runs out of beer. What do you do?
You normally know in the event you’re going to expire half a day earlier than. At that time you’re on the cellphone to the brewery they usually’re hopefully bringing extra beer to you. However as a result of we wish to work with impartial companies, as a substitute of huge corporates, there’s a restrict to how a lot beer they’ve bought. In case your brewery runs out, you’ve bought a really troublesome determination to make as as to whether you attempt to supply another beer. I imply, you possibly can actually drive to a money and carry, and purchase some cans of Carling. However we have now a deal in place with our brewery, so we’ve by no means completed that. Final 12 months at 2000 Bushes we ran out on Saturday night, which was actually irritating since you’re leaving cash in folks’s pockets, with out eager to sound like a company beast! However equally you’re like, “nicely we’ve bought all the things so we should have had an excellent 12 months!”
Pageant catastrophe #4 | An activist group start a mass sit-in in entrance your fundamental stage and refuse to depart till the pageant is completed. What do you do?
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My unofficial reply is that I’d be down there with my mates making an attempt to get these folks out of the best way as a result of on the finish of the day, you’ve bought 15,000 folks there for a pageant. I’m all about the fitting to protest however in the event you’re disrupting my means to place meals on the desk for my household and pay my mortgage, I begin to really feel a bit completely different about issues. We’ve had one thing like this occur at 2000 Bushes, once we booked Drag Queen Story Hour. Some far-right zealots should have search phrases arrange, so when the phrases “drag queen” come up on Fb they get alerted and go and protest it. They began sending us a great deal of hate messages, saying that they had been going to return in buses, and blockade the highway. However these individuals are cowards. They’re simply 45-year-old males sat behind the pc of their mum’s spare room. They’ve bought a variety of hate, however nothing to again it up. So it by no means went anyplace – and we placed on Drag Queen Story Hour the next 12 months too.
Pageant catastrophe #5 | An enormous storm on the primary evening of the pageant causes main disruption, with standing water in a lot of the campsite and on a number of of the levels. What do you do?
We’ve sucked puddles out earlier than. I imply, how a lot water you possibly can suck out, is debateable, however don’t neglect, you’ve bought a rest room contractor on web site who’s sucking waste out of bathrooms all weekend. So that they have suckers! It will rely how a lot water there was. Water creates a drowning danger and doesn’t go nicely with electrical energy. You need to ensure there’s no energy anyplace close to it. I believe it’s necessary to get a web site with good drainage. Right here at ArcTanGent, the location’s on limestone cliffs. So truly, the water does have someplace to go, as a result of limestone is porous. However on different websites the water doesn’t have anyplace to go. I bear in mind seeing a video of Creamfields one 12 months. And it was like a flash flood within the campsite and there was a raging river going via the campsite. I imply, that’s a life and demise factor. You’ve bought to be actually cautious.
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