Features
Confusion Over Hop Fests
It seems two Hop Farm festivals will go ahead in Kent next year, which is already causing bother among music fans.
Neither of the promoters claiming to run the events are making comment, apart from setting out their stalls on social network sites.
No sooner had Neil Butkeraitis, who runs Nottingham’s Flashback Festival, Tweeted that he was “looking forward to a full festival season next year, exciting times ahead with Flashback, Hop Farm and Chelmsford festivals,” than Vince Power — who’s promoted the Kent festival for five years – hit back on Facebook.
“Vince Power’s Hop Farm Music Festival is set to return to Kent in 2014, at a new site in Tunbridge Wells,” says a post on the Hop Farm Music Festival page.
“Having used the Hop Farm Family Park to stage five Hop Farm Festivals, Vince Power has secured a new site in Tunbridge Wells for the 2014 event. Details will be announced in the near future,” it explains.
Fan postings on the same Hop Farm page describe the situation as “confusing” and “complicated and messy.”
“Can’t decide whether to go to The Hop Farm Festival or The Hop Farm Festival,” said another.
Hop Farm 2013, which was promoted by Vince Power’s Music Festivals PLC at Paddock Wood, was canceled due to poor ticket sales. A couple of months later, Music Festivals PLC went into administration with debts of £4.8 million (then $7.27 million).