Alt-Fest

A brand new major festival is bound to raise a few eyebrows in these tough economic times.  Add to that the fact that almost everything about Alt-Fest is different and it’s inevitable that people are going to have plenty of questions.  It’s just as obvious that the festival will gain many sceptics who for one reason or another will try and insist it can’t work.  There’s only one real way to get the real facts and dispel all those false rumours on an event already causing quite a stir in the music world and that’s to talk directly to the people at the top, the people who thought up and have made Alt-fest a reality.  Those people are Dominic and Missy Void and they took some time out to answer the questions you’ve been asking most frequently and to give a little glimpse of what we can expect in the coming months leading up to the very first event..

You're well known on the alt scene for running Club AntiChrist, this is a huge step up from that though.  How did you get the idea for Alt-Fest?  Was it something that you'd been thinking about for a long while?
“Actually it’s slightly Rock and Roll and Sangria was partly to blame! Missy and I were on holiday in July of last year and we, over many Sangria's, had said how cool would it be IF…. And over the course of our holiday, and to be frank quite a few more Sangria's, we chatted at great length about the idea of an all-encompassing Alternative tribal gathering. Many notes were taken, more Sangria consumed and by the time we got back to England we were of the opinion we simply MUST do this. A week later we bought the domain name Alt-Fest.com and started building the website. The rest is as they say history.....”

Why did you choose to use crowd funding to kick things off?  Were you pleased with the results and the feedback you were getting at that point?
“In simple terms we decided from the very beginning we wanted to be ‘led’ by the crowd that they (or you) are THE one most important factor. We wanted the very people that would come to the festival to be part of it directly, to be involved and to shape its future and be able to input into ideas, band bookings and the facilities on site and have a real say. We also wanted to be inclusive not exclusive or excluding, we wanted to work with the very people that would come to Alt-Fest so from the off  it was literally the peoples festival. Also it was important to us to speak directly with and to our supporters particularly on social media sites, more important perhaps was to listen. Again as above we couldn’t quite understand why other festivals don’t speak to their customers, I wouldn’t go far as to generalise that all other festivals don’t care but it did seem fairly normal for festival goers to be very vocal amongst themselves on  Facebook (for example) but not the norm for the organisers to get involved or in most case they didn’t even reply to their customers let alone regularly solicit opinion, reply and listen”.

“We were inspired by Kickstarter particularly the independently produced film ‘Iron Sky’. We found it completely refreshing and a tad revolutionary that the producers of Iron Sky had effectively taken on the Hollywood large studios by going to the very people that would watch their film and in simple terms saying ‘hey we want to make this film and you can get involved….’ This formed the idea and the initial base for the crowd led ethos of the festival - that the very people that would come to Alt-Fest should and could get involved and have a say in all aspects of the running of the festival. Additionally most of the main stream and large festivals seemed to be completely removed, almost uninterested in gaining any input from their fans and we thought this too must change… “.

“The results speak for themselves we literally thrashed our Kickstarter target  attaining a staggering 205% overall and hitting the initial target of ÂŁ30,000 in just a few days. In total we raised ÂŁ61,762 the first festival to use crowd funding successfully in any way, there followed a media frenzy... how did we do it? Why did we do it? were we funding the entire festival this way? The short answer is we chose to use Crowd Funding not only to raise some funding to aide the booking of headline acts but mainly to unite and involve our supporters and the scene. We felt and our Alt-Festers agreed there is a certain amount of empowerment by going out to your fans and saying WE want YOU to support us. Frankly the support far exceeded our expectations and ultimately we have our supporters and backers to thank for their belief and support of Alt-Fest and helping to make the festival a reality and it continues to grow as more people find out about us”.

What makes Alt-Fest different from the other festivals out there?
“Alt-Fest is the first Alternative festival of its kind held anywhere in the world. Granted there are many festivals both large and small, indoor and outdoor that appeal to a particular genre within the broad Alt banner, there are many as examples individual Industrial, metal and Goth festivals, but no all embracing Alternative Festivals, none that gather all the varied tribes from within the vibrant and very varied Alt culture. Additionally many of the other events are purely music based Vs Alt-Fest which has many additional factors and areas represented from Art, Installations and workshops through to being the first alternative festival with a dedicated area aimed at younger festival goers. One of the primary aims being to make Alt-Fest appealing (and affordable) for families, and for those families to have something for their children to do and enjoy at Alt-Fest as well.

Alt-Fest also has multiple stages, meaning that in effect we are actually several festivals in one, with individual areas and themed zones on our festival site aimed or focusing on its primary genre. In theory as an example if metal is your thing you could come spend all your time at the metal stage, move to the main stage to watch a few of the metal main stage headliners and spend you entire weekend just watching metal bands. The same applies of Goth, Steampunk, Industrial and Electronica.”

“Alt-Fest is the worlds first fully crowd led festival. In simple terms this means we interact with our audience, we solicit, views, ideas, critique. We ask, we reply, we listen....”

“Alt-Fest is not driven by a corporation or by a board of directors who answer to their shareholders, our primary goal is not a money making vehicle as so many of the larger festivals often are. This doesn't mean to say we aren't prudent and careful financially it simply means we are not running Alt-Fest to make lots of money. Our primary and perhaps most important objective is to have an all encompassing event, a tribal gathering for the scene, by the fans for the fans, to unite and involve and to deliver high levels of customer service. A good example of this is we could charge between £5-£6 for a pint on site, as many other festivals do and make a large profit from this, but we chose to offer a massive range of good beer, real ales and charge no more than £3.50 a pint. Again this is a core ethos, being affordable and fair to our Alt-Festers, but we also asked YOU what drinks YOU wanted on site and what you think you should pay for them and then used your input and feedback as the basis for our drinks proposition and pricing.”

With a strong emphasis on this being a festival that will feature plenty of entertainment outside of the various music stages, one which will have a specific area for children as well as art and a circus it seems as though Alt-Fest is in some ways what Glastonbury was when it first started, as much a celebration of a culture as a music festival.  Do you think this is a fair assessment?
“Absolutely, we looked at the past and what festivals originally were, how they were run, before they became money orientated. That's not to be unfair or to tar every festival out there as a money grabbing affair, simply put that somehow along the way festivals as a generalisation seem to have lost their way. So yes we do see Alt-Fest in the same vein as early Glastonbury, Woodstock etc and being about a gathering of people, celebrating life, music art and enjoying themselves.”

The various genres that are represented musically could all be described as coming under the alternative subculture banner.  How did you choose them and are there any others you feel could be added to future events?
“We started with what we personally considered the core elements of Alternative genres and then took our initial ideas to the people, there are indeed more that can be added potentially with their own stage, be that Punk, 80's some of the more specialised sub genres TDM etc.... whilst some of these genres are not represented with their own area or stage the stages we have do cover an extremely wide spectrum and offer a great deal of choice and diversity.”

You look to have found a great location in Boughton Estate, how did the search and selection process work, were you not tempted to try and use somewhere that had staged something similar before?
“Sites and locations often become part of the festival and are the festival by association, so we wanted to find a new site that could become our home and one that wasn't already associated with another event. We also wanted a site that was both greenfield and offered a combination of flat dry fields with wooded areas as well as a site that offered flexibility to grow, with great travel connections etc. We chose perhaps the harder route and decided to find a brand new site and after a long search we have found possibly one of the best festival locations in the UK.”

Critics still can't understand how you can operate without a big money backer.  With just under a year to go are you where you thought you would be in terms of tickets sold and preparations?
“Critics are great and interesting and fall into several categories. Most are genuine people interested in the festival but who perhaps haven't fully understood the ethos or have concerns or questions, generally which can be simply answered and they join our ever growing Alt-Fest tribe of supporters. These then also generally become some of strongest supporters and they are particularly vocal and positive to future/new critics. We absolutely welcome critique as it encourages input, discussion and debate, we couldn't be fully crowd led if we shied away from critique, so we fully welcome it, in fact we encourage it!”

“Quite often though some of the critics, who fall into a minority are simply not fully up to speed on who we are, what we are and make assumptions. One of the most regular concerns is how can you operate without a big backer. The short answer is we do have backers, partners and sponsors. We don't and wont want to work with a corporation as whilst to a point it makes finances easier it compromises our very ethos. Two examples here, we were offered a reasonable sum of cash to sell the pouring rights for beer, this would mean we got a sum of cash but would mean we would have to sell 'their' beer at their price, so we said no thanks. Likewise a corporate based entity offered to buy a large number of shares in Alt-Fest for a considerable sum of money, again this it took the control away from the people and meant we'd answer to profit seeking shareholders, not the way we wish to proceed. Our ticketing partner Ticketlogic as one example of a backer working with us, shared our ethos and independence and offered us financial sponsorship and with this are effectively paying for some of our largest headliners appearing at Alt-Fest, Ticketlogic supported our ethos, boosted our funding and it worked, so we do have backers, partners and sponsors and simply choose VERY carefully who we want to work with to ensure our ethos remains true and is not compromised.”

“Another thing the critics have raised, which I admit does make us chuckle, is that Alt-Fest looks too good to be true, and therefore can't be true! They suggest that we haven't actually booked some/all of the bands we've announced. I can categorically state that every band so far announced has been booked properly. We have contracts with them, have paid many deposits for them...Some of the bands haven't made an announcement yet, and probably won't till early 2014 to avoid affecting sales for earlier tour dates. Alt-Fest IS going to happen, with ALL the bands announced thus far, and lots more on top!”

“Honestly, we are far ahead of where we hoped to be, everything is in place, we have a fantastic and large team working with us now from Production, The Southwest Group who do 9 stages at Glastonbury right through to a massive team of helpers involved in every aspect of Alt-Fest. We have our site management teams in place, health and safety officer, stages booked and ordered and Ticket sales have been and continue to be phenomenal and far ahead of our expectations.”

Again doubters are wondering about the lack of an announcement on headline acts and are wondering if a new festival might be putting people off playing.(No one else has announced 2014 bands yet)  What has been the response from bands and agents?  Has the 'booking process' been as expected or tougher?
“There is a detailed article on the booking process HERE, in short there are of course some bands who will be booked to play other festivals, and whilst it was tough in the earlier days all of the agents are on side now and are very excited about having a new large festival to place their bands and acts. the booking process is always tough to a point, mainly my own personal frustration shared with many of you that I'd like all the bands to be booked and announced NOW! However the booking process has its own way of working requiring much patience and its more about timing or the way the industry works. Its easy for the doubters to presume or make assumptions about the lack of headline announcements in August/September but this is just the way it is and in no way is it down to us being new. All the offers are in, few have been rejected and we have the entire line-up for all the headline acts firmly pencilled in. Now the negotiations are well under way, routing is being considered by the bands management and the announcements will start all rolling out in the very near future. As you rightly point out most other festivals haven't even begun announcing any acts let alone their headliners yet, this is for the very same reasons as us, as they too are all negotiating and discussing with agents as August-September and onwards is when all the bigger acts make their decisions on what dates to tour, what events and festivals to appear at.”

What can we expect to see from Alt-Fest in the months running up to August 2014?  (announcements, magazine ads etc)
“Lots and lots! Most if not all of the announcements and band line-ups will be completed and announced before January 2014. there will be regular news updates here on the Alt-Fest site and phase two of our media campaign being run by 'We Are Full Fat', one of the largest and fastest growing independent PR agencies. We are also working on several large media/magazine partnerships, so expect Alt-Fest awareness and activity to go into warp drive!”

Is there anything you'd like to add for those people who are thinking of buying a ticket?
“Our ticketing structure is fairly unique, most other festivals offer an early-bird with only a very small reduction before they announce any bands or headliners. We though chose to reward those that buy early and really believe and support us and our ethos, currently our ticket tiers 1 and 2 have already sold out and tier 3 tickets are half price or less if you buy a joint (2 person) ticket, so you really can save by buying early. Buying your ticket not only supports Alt-Fest but continues to support the crowd led by the people ethos. Buying a ticket isn't simply just a ticket, you are buying into supporting our way of life, not supporting a profit led corporation and ensuring that you are part of Alt-Fest, join us and our family of ever growing supporters.”

WE love YOU!

Dominic and Missy Void/Alt-Fest.