Wide Awake offers reduced ticket scheme amid rising costs: “It’s squeaky bum time”
Wide Awake has introduced a last-minute reduced ticket scheme ahead of the festival, which will take place in London’s Brockwell Park on May 23rd, to combat rising costs and secure the event’s future.
Headliners Kneecap will be joined at Wide Awake by CMAT, English Teacher, Fat Dog, Mannequin Pussy, Nadine Shah, Warmduscher, Sprints, Daniel Avery, Bdrmm, Peaches and many more.
However, in recent weeks, Wide Awake has been shrouded in uncertainty due to Brockwell Park facing licensing issues following noise complaints by local residents and Kneecap being at the centre of a police investigation, which has had a knock-on effect on ticket sales. In a public statement last week, the festival confirmed Kneecap would still perform.
In an open letter to ticket buyers, booker and co-founder Keith Miller honestly shared of the situation: “It’s been an incredibly tough month our end with the various issues melting our brains surrounding Brockwell Park, our events permit and all the Kneecap hyperbole.”
Miller continued: “The truth of the matter is not all publicity is good publicity, and we’ve had 2 stagnant weeks where our ticket sales flatlined when they normally fly due to all the uncertainty. They’re picking up some steam now, but it’s squeaky bum time, no getting away from it. As a wholly independent festival we can’t really take the risk 5 years in, that we don’t do everything we possibly can to hit our breakeven.”
He then revealed that costs have doubled within that five-year period, and they’ve also “had some pretty tasty legal costs to fork out for of late”, which has put them in a stressful financial situation.
Therefore, they have introduced a £34 ‘Tell Your Friends’ ticket which they caveated by admitting, “We understand some of you might feel short-changed by this offer. This isn’t an ideal situation and not something we would do lightly.”
Wide Awake states that if one in four ticket holders successfully manages to persuade a friend to take up the offer, they’ll “be well on our way to where we need to be to stabilise the event so we can look at things in the summer and not have to be named after a bitcoin next year or just wrap the whole thing up.”
The festival is set to take place on May 23rd in Brockwell Park.
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