Dave Ritchie is the man behind Scotland’s Wildfire (neé Les-fest) Festival which takes place a little bit south of Glasgow each year. We’ll be having a chat with him in the next few days about how he goes about this monumental task, but wanted to give you a flavour of the kind of things he goes through so that other people can tramp around a field, drink beer, make friends and listen to awesome music for a long weekend.
Dave posted the following on his facebook feed today and, with his permission, I’ve pasted it below in full! Thankfully, we’ll catch him before the annual meltdown period of April-June when he spends most of his waking hours saying he’s never doing all this again…
Okay need to get this off my chest as it is almost March. As a truly independent promoter and the main organiser of Wildfire Festival, I get no funding nor any financial help. It has always been that way. You wonderful people buy the tickets and then year on year I have to make up the quite considerable shortfall – thanks for the party Dave.
As I move into March, the guys that supply the marquees, the camping fields, the lights, the power, the massive PA system, the toilets, the showers and the venue themselves all ask, quite rightly, for considerable deposits. If you buy your tickets now, I can handle that comfortably and have also always stated if I get beyond a break even point in advance any extra money will go straight into improving the event before June. If you don’t buy your tickets early, I have to live like a hermit, because everyone else needs my money. So when you wonder why I am not at HRH or other gigs, it is because I have put everything I own into Wildfire. Your help over the next couple of weeks can improve my health, well being and bank balance and if you do it soon I will get you a beer in the Summer. I thank you.
There’s a message there and it’s this: if you plan to go to Wildfire then grab your tickets now! Not only are you more likely to get one of the new “pods” before they go, but you’ll be helping Dave actually get the darn thing going and potentially, if costs are covered, make the event even bigger and better.
Tickets are on sale from the Wildfire website. It’s bloody cheap and kids go free!
More from Dave in a few days…
