A number of artists have hit out on the organisers of Doune The Rabbit Gap – a multi-day music competition 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 competition drew in additional than 10,000 punters. Chatting with STV Information, although, an unnamed rep for Belle And Sebastian claimed that the band had solely been paid a portion of their agreed-upon charge.
“The occasion owes the band considerably extra,” they stated, opining that “the occasion should have no 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. Thus far, she’s raised £350 of her £5,000 aim – you may add to that right here.
In a press release shared on-line final week, the competition’s authentic group (Doune The Rabbit Gap Competition Ltd) introduced that this 12 months’s version could be their final, completely shifting administration duties to a different firm (Competition Beverage And Property Providers Ltd, which ran the competition in 2018 and 2019) after struggling a “large monetary issue” with the newest occasion.
They pegged the basis of their points on “the pandemic, double roll-over, elevated prices, and client confidence combin[ed] with the rising price of residing to have an effect on ticket gross sales”, and continued: “The director has exhausted his personal assets in attempting to repay suppliers however after taking skilled recommendation, this firm has gone into liquidation.
“Despite this example, your suggestions concerning the occasion informed us it was a cultural and in style success worthy of sustaining.”
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Posted by Doune The Rabbit Gap on Tuesday, December 13, 2022
In that assertion, it’s stated that the competition’s new administration have “pledge[d] to attempt to repay artists, crew and suppliers from the occasion in 2022 as quickly as potential”. They stated: “While within the technique of restructuring, we’re dedicated to preserving the environment and essence of a well-loved, impartial competition for future years.
“We’ll use your suggestions to make Doune The Rabbit Gap 2023 one of the best and smoothest but. We stay up for seeing you again within the area in July.”
In a press release shared with STV Information, Honeyblood stated she has “good religion” that the brand new group will honour the charges promised to this 12 months’s performers. “Artists need to 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 likely to be. I actually hope they’re capable of type it out. It might be a disgrace to lose one other music competition in Scotland. I’m rooting for them.”
In the meantime, the Musicians’ Union informed The Herald that they hadn’t “seen something like the dimensions of the problems [they] have seen with Doune The Rabbit Gap”. The union’s regional officer, Caroline Sewell, stated the scenario was “massively regarding”, particularly because the competition had acquired “vital quantities of public funding via Inventive Scotland and Occasion Scotland”.
In keeping with the paper, the competition’s authentic group had been handed £60,000 in Might, whereas the brand new one – famous to be spearheaded by the daddy of the previous one’s chief – took £90,000 from the Tradition Organisations And Venues Restoration Fund in 2020 and 2021.
It’s reported that the competition 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 courtroom after he was discovered to have printed materials able to figuring out 4 of the ladies who accused Alex Salmond of sexual assault”. Jamie, too, is claimed to be the “Senior Undertaking Supervisor” at Competition Beverage And Property Providers Ltd.
Sewell continued in her assertion: “The competition is now working below a brand new firm – however in the end 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.
