Festival loses £200K, but it’s not all over
Monday 5th May 2008, 9:30AM BST.
What it may have lacked in crowd numbers Guernsey Live made up for in atmosphere. (Picture by Dan Guerin, 0574294)
GUERNSEY’S biggest ever music festival thrilled audiences at the weekend, but left organisers almost £200,000 out of pocket.
Ticket sales peaked on the Sunday at more than 3,500 and the crowds were taken aback by the quality of the event, but its organisers at Positiv Productions lost out heavily. That has not put off company director Warren Holt, who said the feedback he had received from festival-goers and performers had been outstanding.
And despite the loss, which was four times what he had expected, he did not rule out the possibility of a Guernsey Live 2009.
‘We certainly didn’t break even, but you can call it a loss or call it an investment, depending on what happens after this. I’ve been so positive for weeks and then on Saturday lunchtime I thought it’s now up to the Guernsey people,’ he said yesterday.
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I am annoyed at people who say there is never anything to do in guernsey, then when something happens they moan at that too! and wander why nothing happens! i went to the festival and it was awesome and say there should be a 2009 guernsey live and for the moaners of guernsey to actually support something good for once!
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Not all that surprising given that the event was held mid-term and totally missed the university student market!
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I find the level of media negativity surrounding Guernsey Live totally disgusting.
It was almost as if the people of this island wanted the event to fail, but I’m sure you can see from the pictures, the outcome was far from what had been anticipated.
I attended both days of the festival, and I think it’s safe to say, that people were more than impressed with the quality of the whole production.
It’s a shame that the media, and general public can’t seem to grasp how good this event could be for the island’s economy, if it becomes a yearly occasion. There’s massive potential for growth, and it could well give our flailing tourist industry a much required annual boost.
If the festival goes ahead next year, I’d really like to see it getting more ‘positiv’ support from the media, local businesses, and the general public.
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Not only missed the student market but they held iit on the same weekend as the Siam cup, murrati and the horse racing. Brain dead.
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I thought the weekend was absolutely fantastic!! Congratulations to Warren Holt and everyone at Positiv for putting on such an amazing event!!! I hope all those who didn’t go because “it’s too expensive” or “I don’t really know any of the bands” look at the footage and realise how great it really was and will think about attending next year (If there is one, which I very much hope there will be)!!!
Well done again, great job!!!
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is there any more photos ??
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As a 40 somthing music fan i was so impressed with the Line up and organisation of the event.Yes i’m getting on a bit but the bands on the line up were fantastic for a first time event. Got to be worth the money without question.Bring on 2009!!!! Worth it just to see the Blue man dancing for 2 days solid.
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You need to tell more about it! I would have come – IF I had known!
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Over From jersey to Watch GL 08, and it was class!! Needs to be a GL 09!!!
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More photos are up – check the link in the story above.
And you can view watermarked pictures that are available to buy if you follow the ‘order photos’ link.
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It was always doubtful that Guernsey Live was going to draw a huge crowd. They made the fatal error in organising it during University term time.
If it is to run again, which I hope it does. Guernsey Live needs to target their key demographic audience; and schedule it at a more conveniant date.
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Really sorry to hear the Guernsey Live was a loss. I was there all day Saturday and nothing about the organisation of it could be faulted and there wasn’t a band that didn’t give 100%.
What I don’t understand is people saying the bands were not well known:
Editors – Million selling albums, nominated for Mercury music prize & Brit awards
Reverend & the Makers – Lots of exposure in the press & radio, appeared on Jonathan Ross and several other mainstream tv shows
Future heads, The Enemy & Guillemots – regularly played on radio 1 & 2
Robots in Disguise – appear on the mighty boosh. Need I go on?
Coldcut / Utah Saints – Been around for years
My Last Victory and Teaspoonroverneck were some of the highlights for me and made me realise what talent there is on the island.
Someone I spoke to said they would have gone had some big name like Girls Aloud been playing! But they played in Guernsey a few years ago and doubtlessly at that time the same person would have said ‘never heard of them.’
Sure you won’t get the likes of Robbie Williams etc but it would cost several hundred pounds to go to Glastonbury from Guernsey so consider yourself lucky someone has stuck their neck out and brought some bands over!
Its easy to put things down than give support. Do something about it Guernsey!
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Good event shame it was ruined for me by heavy handed security trying to kick me out because i was younger than the person arguing with me, i was cnstantly having to run. Ah well, better luck next time.
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I am from Jersey and paid full price for my ticket and equivalent amount for my flights but still I was looking forward to the weekend and the event.
If I hadn’t been, there is no way I would have paid so much to attend. However, on arrival to the event, I was hugely disappointed and ended up returning home on the Monday wishing I hadn’t wasted my money.
Don’t get me wrong, the event was awesome and the bands were amazing just like they are at Jersey Live. However, the thing that disappointed me the most was the Guernsey people as the attendance was pretty poor.
A large proportion of people there I recognised from Jersey and there were also a large number of UK residents and European tourists. I find it a shame that the Island was given an opportunity to create and establish such a great event, just like J live has accomplished but the residents of Guernsey turned it down.
My girlfriend grew up in Guernsey and most of her friends moan that there is nothing to do in the Island and to my surprise, none of them went to this event because apparently it would be rubbish and not worth going to.
The bands could be the best in the world but with no atmosphere, the event was never going to be a great as it could be. Fair play to the people who did attend though because they really got into it but it was a shame that fellow islanders didn’t feel it was worth the effort!!
It is also a shame that the people who made the most out of the event may lose out next year due to the lack of effort from their fellow islanders.
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Hopefully there will be a Guernsey Live next year as I’m sure it will be successful if the organisers learn from their mistakes i.e. Placing it on at the same weekend as the Siam and the Muratti. Also during Uni term-time. Uni students obviously would have been the most popular ticket purchasers!
Definitely the best thing to have done would have been to offer tickets on sale earlier instead of leaving it so last minute, people aren’t just going to fork out ‘X’ amount of money for a festival in it’s first year when it’s only a month or two away and the media and half of Guernsey are slating it before its even started!
Another point would be to convince local transportation companies to offer discounted rates for acquiring more “festival-would be’s” from Jersey, mainland and abroad; I.e. Aurigny, Blue Islands
If the organisers can pick up on these vital mistakes and give the local media (who surely should promote everything Guernsey!?) a “talking to” then hopefully Guernsey Live will return next year and it will be a great success.
Fingers crossed! :)
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OMG the line up for GL2008 was so much better than JL2008 but that was amazing, Guernsey, i am ashamed at you!tut tut,
Bring on GL 2009!
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