Funding a free festival

The Committee is very proud of the Upton Blues Festival, the way it brings 1000’s of visitors to the town, the way many shops and pubs have their best weekend of the year, and the fun and joy it brings to our streets. But we are aware that there are many misconceptions as to how the festival is funded – and we need your help!

We’re not asking you for money! The festival is self funding and financially secure, but it does cost around £40,000 a year to put on. What we want is for all you lovely people who come to the festival to do three things;

• To camp in the official camping site or park in the official parking
• To buy a programme and maybe a wristband or a t-shirt, and
• To support the town businesses that advertise in the programme

To keep all the performances free we need everyone coming to the festival to put their support behind the facilities that fund the festival. Please don’t camp on the unofficial site (which has no facilities on site), please don’t park on the roadside to save a couple of quid, and please buy a programme and spend your money in the shops and pubs that advertise in the programme and display the ‘I’m Backing Upton Blues 2012’ sign in their window.

You know you’re going to have a great weekend and more than get your moneysworth, so make sure that what you spend over the weekend goes to support the participating organisations and not to the opportunists who don’t contribute.

This is where the money to fund the festival comes from

With all the performances (over 80 over the weekend) free to enter the festival is funded primarily by the people camping and parking on the official sites, the sale of programmes, wristbands, T-shirts etc, and some fundraising, sponsorship and advertising from some fab private individuals and local businesses, and the contribution from the stalls etc.

Each of the participating pubs pays for its own bands except The Kings Head which pays a large contribution towards the main stage bands. They all book an advert in the programme.

This is how the money gets spent

The volunteer Committee funds the two main stages. This covers all the bands, the PA and building the stages themselves. It pays for all the security in town and also the camping site, including the toilet, hot shower, security and facilities. We fund the marketing costs and all the ‘behind the scenes stuff’ that is necessary from lighting to rubbish clearance, admin to signposting.