downsmail.co.uk
News Hop farm festival ‘will go on’
THE Hop Farm insists it is confi- dent its music festival will go ahead next summer after an at- tempt was made to strike off the company that organises the event. A spokesman for promoter UK
Events Production Limited told the Downs Mail after this year’s July event at the Paddock Wood attrac- tion that it was “already talking about next year”. However, an application has been
made to strike off the company, whose sole shareholder is Neil Butk- eraitis. He has also resigned from another company, Hop Farm Music Festival Ltd, along with its three other directors. MrButkeraitis is quoted as saying
that the festival will no longer go ahead, but the Hop Farm’s head of marketing, Miguel Fenton, told the Downs Mail: “It is not for Mr Butk- eraitis to speak on behalf of theHop Farm. I amvery confident it will go ahead next July.” MrFenton said the festival, which
was cancelled in 2013 due to poor ticket sales, had been an “absolute success” this year and feedback had been favourable. However, he agreed the event had lost money. He added: “This was not the de-
sired outcome and we have plans for the next few festivals, which ad- dress the niggles and areas that we can improve, such as layout. “We appointed Mr Butkeraitis,
but if a third party can’t make it a success then this will have to be re- viewed also.” Hesaid theHopFarm would con-
sider managing the event in-house, if necessary. Mr Fenton added: “This is the only family-orientated music festi-
val in the South East, if not the UK. It’s not just about music andwe are determined to keep it running.” He said early discussions with
artists were taking place as well as talks about possible changes to the line-up in future to encourage more home-grown talent. “We are looking at creating more
of a balance between big names and a bigger focus on local music, which we had hoped to do this year, but it did not happen.However, there will
always remain a need for strong names as a draw,” he said. MrFenton said that given the size
of the event, a decision about who would run the festival would be taken by the spring. The festival began six years ago
and has attracted names such as Prince, Bob Dylan and the Eagles. This year’s event starred James Blunt, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Ray Davies, Billy Ocean, 10cc and come- dian Jo Brand.
Comedian Joe joins fundraising night
TV COMEDIAN Joe Wilkinson headlined a comedy night at Cornwallis Academy, organised by year 11 pupils rais- ing funds for a trip to Borneo. Joe has appeared on Mock theWeek, Have I Got
News For You and 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. He was joined by Mark Simmonds, George Rigden,Woody and Dave O’Flynn. More than 180 guests attended the event, which raised more than £2,150 towards the one- month expedition where the group live as part of a small island community off the coast of Borneo, working on projects to help improve living standards. Theywill also be helping to protect an orangutan habitat. Joe’s brother RobWilkinson teaches French at the
academy andwas instrumental in organising the event, along with students Oliver Holmes, Miranda Bird and Ferne Jones.
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