The Beyond The Pale festival has offered an explanation of what happened this weekend as festival goes ahead in Glendalough next week.
The festival was rumoured to be cancelled and then was confirmed back on in a matter of hours as reports came through news outlets reporting site activity in Wicklow.
Last night, the festival put out a “the rumours of our demise have been greatly exaggerated,” clarifying call after a day of Whatsapp meltdowns from those attending and playing the festival, along with staff.
Now, we have an explanation of what happened, according to the organisers, in an official statement, which ensures the same offering is on the cards from June 13th to 15th.
Official Statement from Beyond The Pale’s Organisers
“Thanks for bearing with us over the past two days.
We want to share more about what happened and to reassure everybody that the festival is secure and we are full throttle for next weekend and beyond.
A festival needs significant cashflow over the festival month. It’s a huge challenge for all festivals in their first few years, and this week, an essential piece of expected finance that would have helped us through the period fell through.
Whilst we had not made any announcement we were cancelling, we did have to pause the work that was happening on site.
As it happens, the online chatter led to us being approached by a very highly-regarded operator who sympathised with the struggles of putting on events as an independent operator, and offered to help.
We spent the day figuring it out together, and then put out a short public statement the moment we could.
To reassure ticket holders, artists, vendors and everyone else involved: The festival is going ahead as planned, with the same infrastructure, line-up, safety and experience that everybody expects. The next few days are going to be very busy, but we will be ready to open the campsites at 12noon and the arena at 4.30pm on Friday.
It was incredible to see so much support for the event over the day, and it was this passion – from all of you on social media, on site and beyond – that put the wheels in motion for us to get the show golden for next weekend.
So – we all did this together. Thank you all. Your support means everything to our team. Let’s have the party of a lifetime.”
There were rumours that Ireland’s largest promoter MCD were stepping in, which has proved unfounded, and the the “independent operator” in question is yet to be confirmed publicly.
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Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
