• Accompany End of the Road, Bestival, Camp Bestival, Kendal Calling, Creamfields and Secret Garden Party

A band that needs no introduction – Radiohead – have decided that fan club tickets for their forthcoming UK tour will be fully exchangeabe by via the Ticket Trust ethical fan to fan ticket exchange. 

Once the UK tour is announced and goes on sale, any tickets sold via Radiohead’s w.a.s.t.e. fanclub will be exchangeable for face value via the Ticket Trust if a fan can no longer go. The Ticket Trust service will be flagged up to fans in their confirmation email on purchase.

The move is a bid to enable more Radiohead fans to see the band via tickets bought at face value, rather than at inflated prices from the secondary ticket sites, whose inner workings were recently revealed on Channel 4’s Dispatches programme. It accompanies a tightening up of terms to reduce touting, with fans limited to purchasing two tickets via the fanclub, with names registered and photo ID required for entry.

Joining Radiohead are The Eden Sessions, the summer series of concerts at the Eden Project, Cornwall.  The Eden Sessions have already listed their July Blink 182 show with the Ticket Trust, and further sessions will be listed with the Ticket Trust as they sell out, enabling fans to exchange tickets at face value.  The Eden Sessions will promoting the Ticket Trust site via their web site, social media and local press.

Meanwhile Secret Garden Party has just listed with The Ticket Trust and Kendal Calling, Bestival and Camp Bestival are in the process of registering their 2012 events.  In 2011, tickets were ethically exchanged for End of the Road, Bestival, Camp Bestival, Kendal Calling, Creamfields and Secret Garden Party.

Said Chris Hufford & Bryce Edge, Courtyard Management “Radiohead are fortunate enough to have a loyal and passionate fan base cultivated over many years. Their live shows are well anticipated and rightly create a tangible sense of excitement through innovative staging. In recent years however, the band’s enjoyment of their own shows has been marred by the knowledge that a great many of their fans have been obliged to pay well over face value for their tickets.

“Secondary ticketing is wrong on so many levels and as management, with ultimate responsibility for the welfare of the band, we must ensure that their fans are treated fairly. This is why we are happy to work with The Ticket Trust”

Commented John Empson, The Eden Sessions “The Dispatches documentary on secondary ticketing further establishes the vital role of the Ticket Trust in establishing a fair market place for the public .

“The Eden Sessions fully supports the Ticket Trust and we will be encouraging our ticket holders to trade unwanted tickets there and not at sites that charge prohibitively high premiums. We respect our customers and giving them the chance to resell unwanted tickets at a fair price further endorses that.”

Ben Turner, AIF co-founder, stated: “The Ticket Trust was created by AIF with Sandbag, who work closely with Radiohead, and we’re delighted to now confirm that the band will use our face-value ticket exchange on forthcoming tour dates. There can be no greater response to the recent media spotlight on the secondary ticketing market than this development. AIF welcomes other bands and managers to join the Ticket Trust as the music industry finally starts to look within to put its house in order.” 

Added Sofia Hagberg, Director, End of the Road Festival “Watching Dispatches about the secondary ticketing market raises important questions and it made me feel even more proud to know that we are one of the independent promoters that are doing what we can to combat this problem by making sure that any of our tickets that are being re-sold by our fans are only done so via Ticket Trust – the ethical ticket exchange site.”

Said Toki Allison, Festival Coordinator, Nozstock “It’s always been a major concern of ours that there appeared to be such a compromise of fairness and value for money with secondary ticketing sites charging such high fees, and we were shocked to discover the amounts of money being swindled from fans across the country.

“It’s something we’re conscientious about here at Nozstock The Hidden Valley, selling the vast majority of our tickets directly from our own site with a minimal booking fee. We are fully in support of the AIF’s new initiative the Ticket Trust and stand full square behind legitimate, morally ethical and genuine fan-based swap sites such as this.”

About TheTicketTrust

The exchange, at www.thetickettrust.com, will enable festival and gig goers to  safely, securely and ethically sell and purchase tickets to listed events at face value, without the fear of fraud.

Ticket holders who need to legitimately return unwanted tickets will register them onto the site, and then send the tickets to The Ticket Trust for verification before they are made available for sale by The Ticket Trust.

The tickets will be sold on at the normal ticket price, plus a handling fee, capped at a maximum of 10%, payable by the buyer.  On purchase, the tickets will then be either dispatched securely or held at the event box office for the buyer, with the seller being credited the full ticket price to their bank account.

Only authentic tickets will be used by the service and counterfeit tickets will be intercepted and confiscated, helping to protect against fraud.

The Ticket Trust has been created by the Association of Independent Festivals in partnership with leading ethical merchandise and e-commerce specialists Sandbag Ltd

About AIF

The Association of Independent Festivals is a not for profit body set up in 2008 to represent independent music festivals in the UK and Ireland.

Conceived by Bestival promoter Rob da Bank and Graphite’s Ben Turner, the association’s founder members included Bestival, Cornbury Festival, Creamfields, Evolution Festival, Field Day/Underage, Secret Garden Party, Summer Sundae Weekender and WOMAD.

With 31 members ranging from Bromley’s Leefest to the 55,000 capacity Bestival in the Isle of Wight, AIF enables the promoters of some of the UK & Ireland’s most innovative and successful festivals to speak with one voice when addressing the wider music business and government.

AIF aims to establish best practice for festivals in a variety of areas such as security, the environment and beyond, providing a knowledge base for festival promoters, as well as creating collective purchasing and marketing opportunities for its members.

AIF operates as an autonomous division of the Association of Independent Music.

www.aiforg.com

• AIF to host monthly ‘Festival Social’ event, every first Tuesday
• Debut to Feature Ryan Keen, Anothers Blood and Rob da Bank

23 February 2012, London:- The Association of Independent Festivals is establishing a monthly night of networking and live music dubbed ‘The Festival Social’ on the first Tuesday of each month.  Aiming to create a forum for informal dialogue among the festival business, AIF will invite the movers and shakers of the sector to join them once a month for some musical merry-making, festival-related launches and a bit of headliner gossip.
The first event will be held on March 6th, 2012 at The Social (5 Little Portland Street , London W1W 7JD) off Great Titchfield Street. Performing will be singer songwriter Ryan Keen freshly returned from his tour with Ed Sheeran, indie talent Anothers Blood led by Richard Frenneaux of Red Light Company fame and Radio 1 DJ Rob da Bank. It will kick-off at 7pm, with the first band performing at 8pm.
The event will open conversation between like-minded independent entrepreneurs and therefore will not be exclusive to AIF promoters or members, but an invitation to the festival sector to get together and unwind: agents, promoters, artist managers, production companies and all the many businesses that benefit or help create a modern-day music festival.

Produced by Lee Denny promoter of LeeFest, Festival Social is looking to become a monthly feature of the festival industry calendar – although is likely to be in hiatus over the Summer festival season as those involved are expected to be knee high in mud and music. Festival Social will be free for the first hour and £2 after 8pm.
Please email social@aiforg.com to join the guestlist for guaranteed entry.
Ben Turner, co-founder of AIF states: “We believe a regular networking meet can help unite a sometimes fractured industry. Festival Social is a great opportunity to put faces to names, for agents to connect with promoters, for international visitors in the festival world to network with UK counterparts, somewhere to come together, unwind and enjoy great chat over even better music, in the spirit of AIF.”

Event Details

Title:                                   Festival Social

Date:                                    March 6th 2012

Time:                                  7pm – 12am

Venue:                                The Social, 5 Little Portland Street  London W1W 7JD

Cost:                                    7pm – 8pm free/ 8pm – 12pm  £2 entry

 About AIF

The Association of Independent Festivals is a not for profit body set up in 2008 to represent independent music festivals in the UK and Ireland.

Conceived by Bestival promoter Rob da Bank and Graphite’s Ben Turner, the association’s founder members included Bestival, Cornbury Festival, Creamfields, Evolution Festival, Field Day/Underage, Secret Garden Party, Summer Sundae Weekender and WOMAD.

With 31 members ranging from Bromley’s Leefest to the 55,000 capacity Bestival in the Isle of Wight, AIF enables the promoters of some of the UK & Ireland’s most innovative and successful festivals to speak with one voice when addressing the wider music business and government.

AIF aims to establish best practice for festivals in a variety of areas such as security, the environment and beyond, providing a knowledge base for festival promoters, as well as creating collective purchasing and marketing opportunities for its members.

AIF operates as an autonomous division of the Association of Independent Music.

For press enquiries please contact:

Hugo Mintz/ hugo@namepr.co.uk   020 835 77305

• Audience Research Shows Festival Goers Undeterred by Recession
• AIF Festivals generate £222m for UK economy
• The Ticket Trust enjoyed successful first season exchanging £55,770 of tickets
• Social Media drastically increased as a festival information source

10^th November 2011, London:- The huge value and contribution of UK festivals to the British economy has been quantified in an overreaching survey of over 2,400 festival goers undertaken by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF).

The 31 AIF member festivals alone, which include Bestival, Womad and End of the Road Festival, attracted around 480,000 people this summer. Spending an average £461 per person on festival costs (travel, accommodation, food and drink and entertainment), they contributed a staggering £222 million into the UK economy and £17m to local businesses. With over 400 festivals having taken place in the UK this summer, the total amount of revenue generated across the whole festival landscape is projected to hugely exceed that.

In fact the £461 average spend per capita is part of an overall trend of increased spending as festivals weather the recessional storm with a durability that other entertainment forms can only envy. Compared with the overall audience spend of £408 in 2008 or £438.24 last year, the festival market looks to grow whilst other sectors such as nightclubs contract. In a direct comparison of festival vs other entertainment spending, festivals have only been moderately hit by the downturn as 54.9% of the polled audience claimed to have their festival-spend hit by the recession as opposed to 71.9% who reduced spending on other forms of entertainment.

Interest in ethical ticket exchange has increased since last year up to 68% from65% in 2010. In response to the issue of rising ticket prices through secondary ticketing sites and touts AIF launched The Ticket Trust, an ethical ticket exchange site, on the 11^th July this year. The Ticket Trust has enjoyed a successful first season trading 365 tickets to Bestival, End of the Road Festival, Creamfield, Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival and Secret Garden Party amounting to £55, 770 worth of tickets being resold with no mark up fees.

Social media has officially overtaken word of mouth as a major source of festival information and climbed dramatically since 2008. 57.7% claim social media to be a major source from 34% in 2008 although still not beating out the festival’s official website whom the majority of 68.7% claim is a source of information.  52.9% currently use word of mouth and 43.7% of those surveyed use communal festival websites.

Claire O’Neill, co-founder of A Greener Festival and AIF general manager said “In the face of what has been a challenging few years for many, we are very happy to see these positive trends for the continued steady growth of the Independent Festival market. Year on year from our audience surveys the impact to the UK economy and cultural significance of these events is confirmed. By no means is delivering a successful festival an easy task, and the amazing accomplishments of our members and their teams is outstanding.”

Interesting Factoids

Shambala has well over 100 different types of workshops to get involved in at the event. Some of the gems from this year included:

• Laughter yoga - The more we laugh, the happier we become. The happier we become the more we laugh.
• Pocket breasts - knit your own perfectly formed breasts! Handy to carry around for spontaneous breastfeeding demonstrations, a game of breast baseball or just a bit of comfort.
• Tspoonami - It’s not a spoon solo or spoon quintet. It’s not even a spoon orchestra. Come and get involved: It’s the Tspoonami!

At End of the Road Festival 2011, we spent 3,640 man hours, 1,728 metres of bambu/hessian screening, 300 hay bales and 48,000 LED lights (fairy lights) on the decorations of the festival site and creating that special atmosphere/vibe, we also gave a good home to over 1,000 books in our library and increased the size of our disco dance floor in the woods.  Now that’s how to prepare for a good party!

At this years Womad the world record was broken for the most people to play air guitar simultaneously. Over 2000 people took part and stole the record from the Australians which made it a double victory –  all in  in aid of charity.  Regular crew member Guy “the bandit” Thompson went on to become UK air guitar champion and represent the UK at the world air guitar finals in Norway, where he came a credible 10th.  After the record breaking success, a number of discarded guitars were handed in at Los property and auctioned for charity.

The 2011 London Green Fair – a free festival in the heart of London – seems to be attracting some major (political) party animals. This year saw John Prescott, Ken Livingstone, Lembit Opik and Jenny Jones all enjoying themselves. And they were just the ones we noticed….

The London Green Fair utilized the skills of over 150 volunteers. We reckon over
250 days were put in for free, which x 8 hours per day x £6.08 minimum wage per hour = £12,160. Which is the equivalent of one week’s salary for a CEO of an investment bank!

This year Nozstock The Hidden Valley hosted a festival debut of the edge-of-your-seat spectacle known as “Super sock-wrestling”. Hundreds of happy and surprisingly flexible party-goers young and old went about enthusiastically and artfully disrobing each other’s feet amongst bales of hay. Carefully adjudicated of course.

Also our beautiful Lady of the Lake, reclined upon a raft, sang mesmerizing opera to bewitched punters before promptly falling overboard at the end of her aria. Totally submerged, she reappeared eventually at the reedy surface with something of the Ophelia about her. That’s dedication people.

This year Summer Sundae Weekender paid homage to Francis ‘Tanky’ Smith, Leicester’s first private detective, creator of local landmark ‘Top Hat Terrace’, and possible inspiration for Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Homes. Tributes included a sand sculpture with evolving disguises, a top hat making workshop, and a talk on Tanky by local author John Harrison.

Over 50% of the Summer Sundae audience arrive by sustainable transport, with many cyclists making use of our free bike park. And as if our festivalgoers weren’t getting enough exercise, this year we also added a stage entirely powered by bikes – if the audience stopped pedaling, the entertainment stopped coming!

Summer Sundae Weekender is very proud to have been given the Greener Festival Award every year since the kite mark was introduced. In 2010 over 100 kilos of plastic bottles were recycled by our amazing team of volunteers led by the Complete Wasters. Some of them then made a return as flowers to decorate our kidzone this year.

The Summer Sundae Festival Choir returned to the EFestivals Comedy Tent this year after last year’s great success. Led by conductor and professional vocalist Hannah Brine, up to 50 local amateur singers rehearsed over the weekend and performed a handful of well-known pop songs on the Sunday.

Comments from AIF festival goers:

 “A few years ago it used to be more about the music so we’d go to ones with big headliners (e.g. V / Glasto) but now its more about the atmosphere and all the other amazing stuff festivals can offer – see the Secret Garden!!” Male, St Ives

“It’s all about the music and anything else is a bonus.” Ramsbottom Bury  Lancs, Male

“Basically if possible I’d spend every day in denim shorts, socks, wellies, vest, hat, sunglasses, drink in one hand, fist pumping the other, surrounded by all my fav friends and DJs, in the middle of a field full of cream! Happy days!” Female from Sunderland. Creamfields

“My summer would not be complete without a festival, unfortunately next year, as a result of the recession I’ll be going from 4/5 festivals to 1 – gutted“ Female from Reading. Bestival

“An escape from advertising and corporatism in many cases [I like about festivals].  Sleeping in a tent and partying at a festival reduces all people down to an equal level”Male from Belfast. Glasgowbury

“I’ve had more fun, pleasure and sheer joy at Nozstock than anywhere else ever. Festivals are a little slice of freedom” Male from Somerse. Nozstock The Hidden Valley 

About AIF

The Association of Independent Festivals is a not for profit body set up in 2008 to represent independent music festivals in the UK and Ireland.

Conceived by Bestival promoter Rob da Bank and Graphite’s Ben Turner, the association’s founder members included Bestival, Cornbury Festival, Creamfields, Evolution Festival, Field Day/Underage, Secret Garden Party, Summer Sundae Weekender and WOMAD.

With 31 members ranging from Bromley’s Leefest to the 55,000 capacity Bestival in the Isle of Wight, AIF enables the promoters of some of the UK & Ireland’s most innovative and successful festivals to speak with one voice when addressing the wider music business and government.

AIF aims to establish best practice for festivals in a variety of areas such as security, the environment and beyond, providing a knowledge base for festival promoters, as well as creating collective purchasing and marketing opportunities for its members.

AIF operates as an autonomous division of the Association of Independent Music.

• Sell-out festivals Secret Garden, Bestival, Creamfields, End of the Road, Camp Bestival to exclusively use service

11th July 2011, London:-  The Association of Independent Festivals has launched a secure ethical ticket exchange, The Ticket Trust. 

The exchange, at www.thetickettrust.com, will enable festival goers to safely, securely and ethically sell their tickets for sold out events. AIF festivals include Secret Garden Party, Bestival, Camp Bestival, Creamfields and End of the Road Festival.  It will also enable festival-goers eager to attend sold-out events to purchase a ticket at face value, without the fear of fraud.

Festival-goers who need to legitimately return unwanted tickets will register them onto the site, and then send the tickets to The Ticket Trust for verification before they are made available for sale by The Ticket Trust.  The tickets will be sold on at the normal ticket price, plus a handling fee, capped at a maximum of 10%, payable by the buyer.  On purchase, the tickets will then be either dispatched securely or held at the event box office for the buyer, with the seller being credited the full ticket price to their bank account. 

Only authentic tickets will be used by the service and counterfeit tickets will be intercepted and confiscated, helping to protect against fraud. Festivals will take action against those selling counterfeit tickets according to their own Ts and Cs, which could include informing the police and trading standards.

While The Ticket Trust is initially being used by AIF member festivals, the exchange can be used by any festival or gig promoters who wish to enable their ticket buyers to sell unwanted tickets ethically. 

Created in partnership with leading ethical merchandise and e-commerce specialists Sandbag Ltd, the service has been launched in the face of a huge secondary ticket market, which has seen tickets for the forthcoming Secret Garden Party available at almost double the price on secondary ticketing sites.  Sandbag have over the last ten years sold tickets globally direct to an artist fanbase, dedicated to doing so without excessive charges, for the likes of Radiohead, R.EM, Adele and Florence and the Machine.

The Ticket Trust’s inception comes at a time where ticket fraud cost an estimated £12million in losses in 2010, and when one in 12 ticket buyers have been caught out by scam ticket websites (OFT).  It is hoped that the new service from AIF will help reaffirm the importance of the government enforcing the Sale of Tickets Bill, which aims to regulate the selling of tickets for certain sporting and cultural events for profit.  Championed by Shadow Education Minister Sharon Hodgson, it has been brought to the forefront with recent fines announced for Olympic Ticket re-selling. 

AIF vice chair Ben Turner, the initial architect of the Ticket Trust initiative, said “AIF has pulled together its festival members to collectively make a simple message – AIF festivals DO NOT and WILL NOT play the secondary ticketing market for profiteering. AIF stands for strong principles in the festival sector and we object to the practices of many of the so-called secondary ticketing market companies. I heard Christiaan from Sandbag speak at In The City on a panel about this sector and his anger, passion and vision for change inspired me to approach him on-the-spot to partner with AIF on this project. AIF and the Sandbag board, which includes key members of the Radiohead team, have similar values and a will to help improve the situation by offering an alternative way to exchange tickets for non-profit.”

Christiaan Munro of Sandbag Limited commented: “Sandbag has been working directly with fans for almost a decade. One of the services we offer is ticketing on behalf of Artists. We secure and sell the best tickets available to the Artist’s loyal fans. We are fortunate enough to work with some amazing acts including Radiohead, REM, Adele, Florence and the Machine and Keane. In the last decade, we have seen the rise of peer-to-peer secondary ticketing initially with auction sites and now with marketplaces set up exclusively to cater to opportunist individuals. There is a finite amount of money that fans have to spend on music and entertainment and we often see tickets we have sold being sold at more than ten times the face value. The increase in ticket price, with profit siphoned away, can only be to the detriment of the music industry as a whole. Secondary ticketing for profit is not yet illegal for concert tickets, but it’s just plain wrong. Fans should not have to pay over the odds for tickets just because one of their peers with no intention of going to the show got in there first.”

Radiohead are one of the bands for whom Sandbag provide direct to consumer ticketing solutions for. Radiohead Management, Bryce Edge & Chris Hufford said “Radiohead are fortunate enough to have a loyal and passionate fan base cultivated over many years. Their live shows are well anticipated and rightly create a tangible sense of excitement through innovative staging. In recent years however, the band’s enjoyment of their own shows has been marred by the knowledge that a great many of their fans have been obliged to pay well over face value for their tickets. Secondary ticketing is wrong on so many levels and as management, with ultimate responsibility for the welfare of the band, we must ensure that their fans are treated fairly.”

Commented Freddie Fellows, director of Secret Garden Party: “I hope Ticket Trust will finally be able to provide the public with the assurance they need to make it their one-stop shop for ticket transfer. This is really the only way to ensure the public are not being made vulnerable to the mercenary and underhand tactics of the secondary ticket markets.”

Rob da Bank, promoter of Bestival added: “The whole secondary ticketing situation makes me really angry, mostly because I just don’t feel many of the people paying vastly inflated prices actually understand the mechanics behind it… and secondly because the people profiting are doing so driven by pure greed. For me music has never been about money and there’s a sharp divide between those in the music business purely for profit and those who are in it for the love of music. The festivals who say they’ve sold out while blatantly putting hundreds or thousands of tickets through a secondary seller are just plain dishonest. I hope that the Ticket Trust can be a safe and secure place for honest ticket trading to take place.”

Said Sofia Hagberg, promoter of End of the Road Festival: “Our audience isn’t the kind that would buy extra tickets to sell for a profit, however, touts do.  And since the new wave of secondary ticketing outlets that is now available online, there is even more of this happening, with extremely inflated prices.  This affects the genuine festival fans, who for one reason or another didn’t manage to buy their tickets in time. It’s not ethical, it’s not right, it’s not on!  Hence, we proudly and happily support the work of Ticket Trust as it moves away from this kind of profiteering and supports the genuine festival fans.”

Joe Gibbs, promoter of Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival: “We welcome a safe and ethical way for genuine festival-goers to exchange tickets without the distortion of speculation and profiteering and wish Ticket Trust all the very best; we will be urging our audience to use this service in 2011 now that we have sold out.”

Oliver Jones, promoter of Deer Shed Festival: “We, like many independent and small festivals, work incredibly hard to keep the price of our tickets as low as possible. Being good value for money is absolutely central to what we do and one of the main reasons we started the festival, as we wanted to offer a reasonable priced weekend for families like ourselves. It’s incredibly frustrating to see individuals using the secondary ticket market to take advantage of people’s desire to attend festivals, especially in this current economic climate. Selling on a ticket you can’t use is an ethical decision and using Ticket Trust is the right decision to make.”

Toki Allison, promoter of Nozstock Festival: “Being a proper indie grassroots festival, that has grown from friendships into the major event we are today, we were really excited to hear about the Ticket Trust proposition, and felt this was totally in keeping with the Nozstock ethic and our commitment to supporting a philosophy of fairness and community. As well as protecting the pockets of festival-goers who already face escalating prices on limited budgets, it also helps to support the reputation of festivals and ensure that we continue to bring in a mixed crowd from all walks of life and keep festivals accessible and attainable for everyone.”

Lee Denny, promoter of LeeFest: “I disagree with the very principle of charging festival goers more for exactly the same experience, but to do it in such a way that it looks like a fan to fan exchange is deceitful and completely wrong. As a small festival organiser, and an avid ticket buyer, I am really looking forward to having a platform like Ticket Trust to highlight and circumvent such bad practice.”

-ENDS-

FAQ

Who will be selling their tickets via the site? Anyone who has bought a ticket and found that they genuinely can no longer attend anymore, can sell their ticket for face value on the site.

Do ticketholders have to register and pay a fee to use the service? Ticketholders can register their ticket on the site for free.  Purchasers will have to pay a maximum of 10% handling fee.  All income will be re-invested into the Ticket Trust.

Do Ticket Trust buy back the tickets instantly so customers are ‘refunded’ or do they have to wait until someone clicks through to purchases their particular ticket?  Are users ‘lined up’ in a first come first served basis?  Ticket Trust do not buy the ticket back. The seller only gets refunded if someone buys the ticket. It will be on a first come first served basis, no waiting lists will be provided by the site.

If they are being re-sold at the same amount on Ticket Trust, is this only for sold out festivals?  Yes, only for sold out events – The Ticket Trust are not taking away the business of the promoter or their initial ticketing companies.

Will ALL AIF members be using this service?  It has the backing of all AIF members but Green Man Festival and The Beat-Herder already offer a waiting list for this year’s events and Endorse it in Dorset have a no resale whatsoever policy, so they will not be taking part.

AIF Member festivals (that are still to take place this year) which are on board with the Ticket Trust are:
Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival *
Bestival
Camp Bestival
Cornbury
Creamfields
Deer-Shed Festival
End Of The Road Festival *
Field Day
Glasgowbury
Grassroots Festival
Kendall Calling *
LeeFest
Nozstock
Secret Garden Party *
Summer Sundae Weekender
Underage
WOMAD
Y-Not Festival
* Already sold out and will be using the site on launch day for audience to sell unwanted tickets.

Participating festivals will henceforth have a clause added to their ticket T&Cs that details that the ticket can be re-sold on the Ticket Trust website and there will be a link to their website on their site once their event has sold out.

How will it combat ticket fraud in addition to ticket touting? Will there be a fine for those caught re-selling tickets?  This will be covered under each event’s own terms and conditions and disabilities policy.

Who are Sandbag and how have they assisted the project?  Sandbag is a fully servicing ethical merchandiser and e-commerce specialist. For nearly a decade Sandbag has established and maintained the very important link between artists and their fans as well as NGOs and their supporters.  Sandbag sell tickets globally direct to an artist’s fanbase. As an advocate of the fan, Sandbag strives to secure the best tickets available and sell them without excessive charges.
They have worked with the likes of R.E.M., Radiohead, Adele, Florence and the Machine, Keane, Sigur Ros, Jessie J, Blink 182 and McFly since their founding in 2001.
Working together with the AIF, Sandbag has used its knowledge and experience to establish the most user-friendly method to help exchange unwanted tickets. Sandbag has then built the Ticket Trust website to make this a reality.

Can other venues, festivals, promoters or ticketing agents use the site and service?  Yes, any promoter is able to use the Ticket Trust to enable their ticket buyers to sell unwanted tickets at face value.

When will this be? We plan to open up the service during Autumn/Winter 2011.

What is the charge for using the service?  There is no charge to sell tickets. Buyers will be charged a 10% handling fee when purchasing. 

Shouldn’t this just encourage promoters and ticketing agencies to give refunds and resell tickets themselves?  Why don’t they do that anyway to be fair to their customers?  Hopefully this initiative will indeed encourage promoters and ticket agencies to offer refunds on sold out shows. Tickets are currently sold on a “sale is final” basis which should not change, as promoters have to invest an incredible amount of money to stage events. The administration of helping to exchange tickets in an ethical manner is expensive, which may be a reason it has not been tackled before. Anything we can do to encourage music fans to change the way they think about how their peers profit from being first in line when tickets go on sale will help the music industry as a whole.

What rights do participating festivals have to implement a form a punishment on those reselling tickets on secondary ticketing sites?  AIF members’ tickets that are sold as ‘non transferable’ should not be resold without permission, but sadly this is not currently the case. The Ticket Trust purports to have no rights to intervene in unauthorised sales on secondary ticketing marketplaces.  Where a seller attempts to sell counterfeit tickets on The Ticket Trust website, appropriate action will be taken, including informing the police and trading standards.
 
About AIF
The Association of Independent Festivals is a not for profit body set up in 2008 to represent independent music festivals in the UK and Ireland.
Conceived by Bestival promoter Rob da Bank and Graphite’s Ben Turner, the association’s founder members included Bestival, Cornbury Festival, Creamfields, Evolution Festival, Field Day/Underage, Secret Garden Party, Summer Sundae Weekender and WOMAD.
With 31 members ranging from Bromley’s Leefest to the 55,000 capacity Bestival in the Isle of Wight, AIF enables the promoters of some of the UK & Ireland’s most innovative and successful festivals to speak with one voice when addressing the wider music business and government.
AIF aims to establish best practice for festivals in a variety of areas such as security, the environment and beyond, providing a knowledge base for festival promoters, as well as creating collective purchasing and marketing opportunities for its members.
AIF operates as an autonomous division of the Association of Independent Music.
www.aiforg.com
 

A Greener Festival’s third annual research analysis reveals a steep improvement in green initiatives from AIF Members

London, 11^th May 2011:- Hot on the heels of 7 AIF members winning at the Greener Festival Awards 2010, their annual analysis of environmentally friendly practices shows AIF members coming out top yet again.

As the Australian summer season comes to a close and as the UK welcomes its glorious summer of festivals, A Greener Festival’s analysis of its 2010 winners all over the world have been compared to those aggregated from the Awards Schemes in 2008 and 2009.

Greener improvements and innovations from AIF Members in 2010 included:

• Shambala Festival ran on 100% renewable energy and improved recycling rates, 7% up on the previous year, with the help of Network Recycling.
• Grassroots Eco Music Festival saw no bottled water on site. They provided drinking water taps and re-usable water bottles, in conjunction with Jersey Water, available for £1 with 100% of proceeds for which going to WaterAid. The promoters also organise a beach clean in the local area leaving the local environment better than they found it.
• Bestival had more compost toilets on their event than any other event in the UK.

AIF’s Shambala Festival, Bestival, Camp Bestival, Big Sessions, Summer Sundae Weekender, Grassroots Eco Music Festival and Standon Calling all won Greener Festival Awards and were researched for the analysis.

The results show that 100% of the participating festivals now promote public transport in an attempt to reduce audience greenhouse gas emissions, which are the largest contributor to most festival’s carbon footprint. When it came to the delicate issue of human waste, 47% now had compost toilets on site (up from 36% in 2009), with many saying these were preferred by customers.  84% of festivals have now adopted the use of at least some renewable energies on-site (up from 71% in 2009) which include solar power, wind power, hydro-electric power and bio-diesel from sustainable sources. With regard to recycling, 100% of the entrants had some form of recycling in place and all now had a dedicated environmental coordinator (up from 91% in 2009), including 93% having a written environmental policy.

The AIF members join results from festivals around the world which includes the likes of The Isle of Wight Festival, The Glastonbury Festival, The Sunrise Celebration, Croissant Neuf Summer Party, T-in-the-Park, Waveform in the UK and well as Peats Ridge and the Falls Festival in Australia, Norway’s Oya Festival, Spain’s SOS 4.8, Portugal’s Boom Festival, Switzerland’s OpenAir St Gallen and America’s Bonnaroo and Lightning in a Bottle.

Claire O’Neill, AIF’s General Manager, said: “We are very happy to see the level of commitment of the festivals participating in the Greener Festival Awards. Both large and small festivals are embracing best practice across the industry. Although time can be scarce when organising a festival, it would be great to see a greater number of events engaging in a carbon and equivalent emissions analysis of their events so that they have a benchmark for progress, not only for themselves but the industry as a whole. Monitoring the festivals power, waste and water usage is a perfect place to start.”

With data gathered throughout the year and further research and analysis gathered in 2011 by A Greener Festival assessor, Nicolas Pianet, the analysis was based on entries from 47 festivals who all won the 2010 Greener Festival Award.  Below is a breakdown of the findings:

About AIF

The Association of Independent Festivals is a not for profit body set up in 2008 to represent independent music festivals in the UK and Ireland.

Conceived by Bestival promoter Rob da Bank and Graphite’s Ben Turner, the association’s founder members included Bestival, Cornbury Festival, Creamfields, Evolution Festival, Field Day/Underage, Secret Garden Party, Summer Sundae Weekender and WOMAD.

With 31 members ranging from Bromley’s Leefest to the 55,000 capacity Bestival in the Isle of Wight, AIF enables the promoters of some of the UK & Ireland’s most innovative and successful festivals to speak with one voice when addressing the wider music business and government.

AIF aims to establish best practice for festivals in a variety of areas such as security, the environment and beyond, providing a knowledge base for festival promoters, as well as creating collective purchasing and marketing opportunities for its members.

AIF operates as an autonomous division of the Association of Independent Music.

www.aiforg.com

“We are incredibly concerned that changes to the bill will be passed with a ‘one size fits all’ approach that could be a further blow to UK festivals and music events. Festivals are one of the few places that people come together to celebrate and enjoy life in a relatively incident free environment, certainly compared with town centres on a Friday night. We urge the House of Commons Committee to reconsider those aspects of the Bill that will be detrimental to this positive social and cultural phenomenon.”
Claire O’Neill – General Manager of The Association of Independent Festivals

• A Greener Festival’s third annual research analysis reveals a step improvement in green initiatives from AIF Members

London, 11^th May 2011:- Hot on the heels of 7 AIF members winning at the Greener Festival Awards 2010, their annual analysis of environmentally friendly practices shows AIF members coming out top yet again.

As the Australian summer season comes to a close and as the UK welcomes its glorious summer of festivals, A Greener Festival’s analysis of its 2010 winners all over the world have been compared to those aggregated from the Awards Schemes in 2008 and 2009.

Noted greener improvements and innovations from AIF Members in 2010 included:

• Shambala Festival ran on 100% renewable energy and improved recycling rates, 7% up on the previous year, with the help of Network Recycling.
• Grassroots Eco Music Festival saw no bottled water on site. They provided drinking water taps and re-usable water bottles, in conjunction with Jersey Water, available for £1 with 100% of proceeds for which going to WaterAid. The promoters also organise a beach clean in the local area leaving the local environment better than they found it.
• Bestival had more compost toilets on their event than any other event in the UK.

AIF’s Shambala Festival, Bestival, Camp Bestival, Big Sessions, Summer Sundae Weekender, Grassroots Eco Music Festival and Standon Calling all won Greener Festival Awards and were researched for the analysis. Each festival must submit a detailed application covering 53 different environmental questions on topics ranging from energy conservation to recycling to environmental protection to audience travel, and must also submit to an independent environmental audit by A Greener Festival.

The results show that 100% of the participating festivals now promote public transport in an attempt to reduce audience greenhouse gas emissions, which are the largest contributor to most festival’s carbon footprint. When it came to the delicate issue of human waste, 47% now had compost toilets on site (up from 36% in 2009), with many saying these were preferred by customers.  84% of festivals have now adopted the use of at least some renewable energies on-site (up from 71% in 2009) which include solar power, wind power, hydro-electric power and bio-diesel from sustainable sources. With regard to recycling, 100% of the entrants had some form of recycling in place and all now had a dedicated environmental coordinator (up from 91% in 2009), including 93% having a written environmental policy.

The AIF members join results from festivals around the world which includes the likes of The Isle of Wight Festival, The Glastonbury Festival, The Sunrise Celebration, Croissant Neuf Summer Party, T-in-the-Park, Waveform in the UK and well as Peats Ridge and the Falls Festival in Australia, Norway’s Oya Festival, Spain’s SOS 4.8, Portugal’s Boom Festival, Switzerland’s OpenAir St Gallen and America’s Bonnaroo and Lightning in a Bottle.

Claire O’Neill, AIF’s General Manager, said: “We are very happy to see the level of commitment of the festivals participating in the Greener Festival Awards. Both large and small festivals are embracing best practice across the industry. Although time can be scarce when organising a festival, it would be great to see a greater number of events engaging in a carbon and equivalent emissions analysis of their events so that they have a benchmark for progress, not only for themselves but the industry as a whole. Monitoring the festivals power, waste and water usage is a perfect place to start.”

With data gathered throughout the year and further research and analysis gathered in 2011 by A Greener Festival assessor, Nicolas Pianet, the analysis was based on entries from 47 festivals who all won the 2010 Greener Festival Award.  Below is a breakdown of the findings:

• A Greener Festival and Buckinghamshire New University have developed a one day training and conference event in Sustainable Event Management.
• AIF joins Julies Bicycle as conference partner
• Completion of course gains certificate of attendance in Sustainable Event Management

Tuesday 5^th April 2011, London:- The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has partnered with a one day conference and training event on Sustainable Event Management.

The Green Events and Innovations conference will be held on Wednesday April 20th 2011 at Buckinghamshire New University.

The morning encompasses training sessions with presentations and workshops on sustainable events management. Leading the session on waste management will be Andy Wilcott from Network Recycling.  The morning sessions also include workshops with Helen Wright from A Greener Festival who will explain the Greener Festival Award scheme. A cross music industry initiative on climate change group Julies Bicycle will look at measuring greenhouse gas emissions – and in particular the Julies Bicycle tools for measuring CO2 emissions.

In the afternoon, newly announced panellists include Lucy Brooking Clark (Glastonbury Festival), Andy Mead (Firefly Solar), Juliet Ross Kelly from Eco Action Partnership (Isle of Wight Festival) and Danny Newby (Big Green Coach) who join Claire O’Neill (AIF and AGF) and Teresa Moore (Bucks New University) on two panels looking at sustainable power at festivals and travel solutions. There will also be a keynote speech on the role of the arts in the fight against climate change.

The afternoon will be a full conference for everyone interested in key innovations for sustainable events and greener festivals and closes with a drinks reception sponsored by Robertson Taylor insurance brokers who offer discount insurance for green events. The course is aimed at Event Managers and Organisers, Environmental Mangers working in the Events and Festival Industry and Students who wish to learn more about Sustainable Event Management. The conference fee (full day) is £75 per delegate or £50 for AIF members/students and includes a certificate of attendance in sustainable events management for full day attendees.

Claire O’Neill, General Manager of AIF and co-founder of A Greener Festival said: “We are very happy to bring together a variety of major and independent festivals, suppliers and experts to share experience and knowledge, to help educate, learn, and push forwards on greening events. The day is not only a conference but also a training event, and those completing a full day can receive a certificate of attendance in Sustainable Event Management from Buckinghamshire New University.”

KEY INFORMATION

Course Title: Sustainable Event Management

Location: Buckinghamshire New University, Alexandra Road, High Wycombe HP11 1JZ

Fee: £75 per delegate or £50 for AIF members/students

Partners: AIF and Julies Bicycle

Expert Speakers: Julies Bicycle team, Andy Wilcott (Network Recycling), Lucy Brooking Clark (Glastonbury Festival), Andy Mead (Firefly Solar), Juliet Ross Kelly from Eco Action Partnership (Isle of Wight Festival), Danny Newby (Big Green Coach), Claire O’Neill (Association of Independent Festivals and AGF) and Teresa Moore (Bucks New University)

For More Details: Please email agreenerfestival@aol.com

Register for the event: http://bit.ly/hF9Xj9

• 7 More Festivals Join Association of Independent Festivals

• 31 Festivals Now Building Collective Strength Of Sector

London, 4^th January 2011:- As the UK looks forward to the 2011 festival season, seven new festival members are welcomed into the fold at the Association of Independent Festivals.  These latest additions take membership of the two-year-old organisation up to 31.

Joining the likes of Bestival, Green Man, Glade and Creamfields are:

• North Dorset’s End of the Road Festival
• Festival Awards’ Best Small Festival 2010 Winner, Kendal Calling
• Jersey’s Grassroots Eco Music Festival
• Lancashire’s Beat-Herder Festival
• Deer Stalker Festival
• Reading’s three weekend long Outside:Inside Festival
• Derbyshire’s family music festival Bearded Theory

Working with some of the UK and Ireland’s most innovative and successful festivals, these new members will benefit from the organisation’s collective power in promoting their interests to the wider music business and government.

AIF was set up in 2008 to establish best practice for independent festivals in a variety of areas such as security, the environment and beyond. Successes include its ‘twinning’ initiative, which sees members linking up with like-minded festivals across the world for mutual promotion and exchange of information, the Security Task Force, created to tackle festival related crime, as well as a groundbreaking marketing deal with Visit Britain.

Said Claire O’Neill, AIF General Manager, “We are happy to see the continued growth of the AIF membership. It’s a positive reinforcement of the Association’s value, providing a voice that will be heard for the independents. 2010 has seen a host of industry wide issues come to light that will directly affect independent festivals. The need to join together for collective action has never been more apparent.”

-ENDS-

Notes for Editors

About AIF

The Association of Independent Festivals is a not for profit body set up in 2008 to represent independent music festivals in the UK and Ireland.

Conceived by Bestival promoter Rob da Bank and Graphite’s Ben Turner, the association’s founder members included Bestival, Cornbury Festival, Creamfields, Evolution Festival, Field Day/Underage, Secret Garden Party, Summer Sundae Weekender and WOMAD.

With 31 members ranging from Bromley’s Leefest to the 55,000 capacity Bestival in the Isle of Wight, AIF enables the promoters of some of the UK & Ireland’s most innovative and successful festivals to speak with one voice when addressing the wider music business and government.

AIF aims to establish best practice for festivals in a variety of areas such as security, the environment and beyond, providing a knowledge base for festival promoters, as well as creating collective purchasing and marketing opportunities for its members.

AIF operates as an autonomous division of the Association of Independent Music.

www.aiforg.com

Press Contact

Kayleigh Watson, Name PR

Kayleigh@namemusic.net

+44 (0) 20 8357 7305

Best Major Festival – Bestival
Best Medium-Sized Festival – Green Man Festival Best Small Festival – Kendal Calling Best Dance Event – Creamfields Best Family Festival – Camp Bestival

Well known as a crucial sector, with great quality, depth and variety, there can be no greater validation of success of the UK independent festivals.

AIF board member Jim King was also awarded for his work on Rockness, picking up Line Up Of The Year.

Ben Turner, co-founder of AIF states: “It was an incredible night for the independent festival sector, and a victory for the great British festival. It’s rewarding to see events like Green Man and Kendal Calling finally getting the respect they deserve and to see Bestival beat the biggest and most established festivals in the world – never mind the UK – is a testament to the passion festivalgoers have for the efforts, energy and love put in by independent festival promoters to make their events unique. As for Creamfields, it is without doubt the world leader in global dance music. The original and still by far the best.”

Fiona Stewart, Managing Director of Green Man Festival states: “We are delighted to win. There are a lot of clever and creative people who work very hard to make Green Man happen and this award is a testament to them. But most importantly, its thanks to the amazing people who come to Green Man every year and who voted for us.”

About AIF

The Association of Independent Festivals is a not for profit body set up in 2008 to represent independent music festivals in the UK and Ireland.
Conceived by Bestival promoter Rob da Bank and Graphite’s Ben Turner, the association’s founder members included Bestival, Cornbury Festival, Creamfields, Evolution Festival, Field Day/Underage, Secret Garden Party, Summer Sundae Weekender and WOMAD.

With 25 members ranging from Bromley’s Leefest to the 55,000 capacity Bestival in the Isle of Wight, AIF enables the promoters of some of the UK & Ireland’s most innovative and successful festivals to speak with one voice when addressing the wider music business and government.

AIF aims to establish best practice for festivals in a variety of areas such as security, the environment and beyond, providing a knowledge base for festival promoters, as well as creating collective purchasing and marketing opportunities for its members.

AIF operates as an autonomous division of the Association of Independent Music.

www.aiforg.com