Huddstock takes a hit with wet weather

Jun 8 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

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ORGANISERS have been left to pick up the tab after bad weather put paid to the chances of a big crowd at Huddersfield’s premier music festival.

Only about 1,000 people turned out to enjoy Huddstock on Saturday in conditions more akin to January than June.

The numbers were two thirds down on those achieved at the South Crosland festival last year – and 50% lower than its first year in 2007.

The projected takings will fall some way short of the £40,000 cost of staging the event.

Organisers Lucie Keeton and Hannah and Paul Bamforth say they will now have to cover the deficit out of their own pockets.

Lucie said the weather – and temperatures that struggled to top 12°C – were to blame.

She said: “The numbers were still respectable for an event like this. They weren’t like we have had before, but we think that is down to the weather.

“It poured down on Friday and people probably thought it was going to be really boggy, which actually it wasn’t.

“The people who did come gave us some amazing feedback.”

Saturday’s event, off Arborary Lane, featured 80 acts on six stages. Huddersfield indie band Red Star, who released an album called Law And Order in February, headlined the main stage

Tickets were £15 before the event and £20 on the gate.

Organisers were only given the green light for the festival by Kirklees Council last Tuesday after a complaint by one South Crosland resident meant they had to put their case to the council’s licensing panel.