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Power comments on Hop Farm return
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 7 March 2013
Vince Power has denied claims made in the Kent On Sunday newspaper last weekend that his Hop Farm festival owed nearly £5 million when it went under with parent company Music Festivals plc last year.
As previously reported, the paper said that financial documents showed that Music Festivals plc subsidiary Kent Festival Ltd, which operated the Hop Farm event, owed £4.8 million when it went under, including to unpaid talent, local service providers, and the Kent Police. The paper also reported that, despite those debts and Music Festivals plc’s demise, the Hop Farm festival would return this summer.
Confirming the latter part of the Kent On Sunday report, Power told CMU yesterday: “The Hop Farm will happen this year, this [the collapse of Music Festivals plc] is one blip in my career spanning over 30 years. All suppliers and artists are working with me and many of the suppliers have been with me for many years, through the Reading, Phoenix and Homelands days. They are being very supportive. I spent and paid artists alone approximately £350 million over the years”.
As for the Kent On Sunday’s other claims, he disputes the paper’s report, arguing that while Kent Festivals Ltd did have the reported level of debt when it closed, those debts were not all related to the Hop Farm festival, as the paper implied.
He continued: “The losses reported are inaccurate. The Hop Farm never lost £4.8 million. These losses included a group of companies in Kent Festival Ltd. I have no doubt that this year’s Hop Farm will be successful along with FIB Benicassim in Spain. This is a cheap piece of journalism from Kent On Sunday. It [Music Festivals plc] is a public company so all the info is public knowledge”.
Finally, he said: “The local rag is supposed to be for the community. The Hop Farm Festival is loved by the people of Kent and there is no value in spreading inaccurate reports and doubt with regards to The Hop Farm Music Festival. In the words of Winston Churchill, ‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts'”.
