Hop Farm ‘Cursed Ground’

At the beginning of the summer there was confusion when two Hop Farms were scheduled for the UK county of Kent, but chances are neither will return next year.

Vince Power, who ran a Hop Farm at Paddock Wood for five years but canceled 2013 due to poor ticket sales, also pulled this year’s event.

Neil Butkeraitis, who in 2014 used the Hop Farm name and the Paddock Wood site as Power’s event moved a few miles away to Tunbridge Wells, has put his Hop Farm Music Festival Ltd. into liquidation.

“Even though everyone locally enjoyed the festival and we had some big acts lined-up for next year, now three of my companies look like they will go into liquidation,” Butkeraitis told the Kent Messenger. “In 10 years in the industry this has never happened to me. The event was delivered under our £3 million budget – what didn’t stick up was ticket sales but the festival was part of a three-year plan for the site.

“I’m absolutely gutted. The festival will not continue. It is cursed ground,” he said.

At the moment, Power isn’t running any festivals in the UK, since PRS For Music got an injunction to stop the former Mean Fiddler chief staging live music events. PRS says he’s been running events without the proper music licenses.