Gainsborough Fake Festival is scrapped again

Last year, over 600 music fans descended upon Roses Sports Ground to see a trio of tribute acts and a variety of local bands - but the festival has been cancelled again after organisers say that there is too much competition from other major events.

Last year, the future of the festival was first thrown into doubt after Gainsborough Town Council decided to more than treble the fee to lease out Roses Sports Ground. Festival organisers said that they failed to make any profit last year and said splitting profits as the council demanded would not be financially feasible.

They later announced that a new area of land had been found to stage the event and that it was set to go ahead, but after months without the final details being revealed, The Standard discovered that the event had been scrapped after all.

“It’s absolutely down to the Olympics and Euro 2012,” said Jez Lee, owner of Fake Festivals.

“From a business point of view there’s just no point in competing.”

Jez continued: “We’ve had to cut a number of the events around the country on our calendar - it’s just bad timing really. The amount of remaining weekends that were left for us to fill without clashing was dramatically cut.”

“It’s not just us - there are many other bigger events around the country that are having a year off too.”

He added: “However, we do hope to return to Gainsborough next year - calendar permitting.”

There will still be a Fake Festival in Retford on Saturday 7th July.

As well as some of the UK’s top tribute bands, Fake Festivals also featured local talent on the line-up - including Gainsborough rock band Stereoepic.

“I’m really disappointed,” said Stereoepic singer and guitarist Graeme Chappelow.

“We’re still going to be playing at the Retford festival so it’s great to still be involved, but it’s bad news for the town because it went so well last year.”

When asked if he thought that the Olympics and Euro 2012 would be likely to pull people away from the festival, Graeme replied: “I think that music fans will still want to come out and watch music, regardless of what’s on the TV.”

“Watching the football on telly just doesn’t compare to seeing a live band - it’s a completely different experience.”

Graeme also said he would like the council to move to put on a similar event for the residents to enjoy and to bring in visitors.

He continued: “There are lots of promoters around the town putting on gigs and events anyway - so if the council want a piece of that then they should get in touch.”

“We’ve been putting on gigs ourselves and they’ve been going really well - hundreds of people show up, the atmosphere is great and the crowds really respect one another.”

Gainsborough Town Councillor Trevor Young said that they were working towards putting on an alternative event in future years.

“It’s disappointing that things didn’t work out with the Fake Festival,” said Coun Young. “However, there was an agreement at a recent Town Council meeting to look for an alternative, so we’ll be going out to look at other things and for interested parties to come forward.”

He continued: “That event may not be this year - we’re probably looking at 2013 for that.”

“In terms of other events, our Jubilee celebrations are coming together quite nicely and that looks like it’s going to be very exciting - as does the Riverside Festival.”

Coun Young added: “There are also active discussions to improve the Christmas Market and make it bigger and better than ever, and we are looking at opportunities to put on a lot more major events in the town centre.

l For a taste of the local music scene, Stereoepic will be playing an all ages gig at the Blues Club on Saturday 28th April at 7.30pm with Violet and Goodbye Sky Harbour.

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