Wide Awake festival have announced a reduced ticket scheme just hours before the event kicks off tonight (May 23), due to recent legal issues and “all the Kneecap hyperbole”.
The Brockwell Park event confirmed earlier this week that the festival would still take place, despite losing a legal battle over incorrect planning permission.
You can check out the mxdwn coverage here, where the legal case and the reasons behind it are covered in thorough detail. It all centred around the argument that the park is out-of-use for 37 days a year due to events, which exceeds the legal limit of 28.
Many thought this would spell the end of the Brockwell Park festivals due for the summer, which include Mighty Hoopla, Field Day and of course Wide Awake. This was not the case though, as each festival declared that the show would go on and that they “look forward to opening the gates and welcoming festival goers later this week.”
Wide Awake have found themselves in a unique position compared to the other festivals though, with headliners Kneecap being marred in controversy, and even legal battles, themselves.
Stemming from their politically-charged performance at Coachella this year – where the band reiterated their strong support for Palestine – the Irish rap trio have been the target of politicians, the media and now even the Metropolitan police.
In news which couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Wide Awake team, Kneecap member Mo Chara has been charged with a “terror offence” for displaying a flag “in support of Hezbollah, a proscribed organisation.”
All of this negative publicity surrounding the festival and their main headliners prove that “not all publicity is good publicity”, as Wide Awake co-founder Keith Miller wrote in an open letter to ticket buyers.
Speaking in the open letter, Miller admitted that they have suffered from “2 stagnant weeks where our ticket sales flatlined when they normally fly.”
This will be Wide Awake’s fifth year running the festival, with Miller revealing that in that period costs have doubled, as well as “some pretty tasty legal costs to fork out as of late”.
To help the rising costs for the independently-run festival, they have released a new ‘Tell Your Friends’ scheme. Here, friends of ticket holders will have the opportunity to buy a ticket for £34.
Miller added that if one in four ticket holders successfully manage to persuade a friend to take up the offer, they’ll “be well on our way to where we need to be to stabilise the event so we can look at things in the summer and not have to be named after a bitcoin next year or just wrap the whole thing up.”
Wide Awake takes place tonight, with Kneecap being joined by CMAT, English Teacher, Daniel Avery, Mannequin Pussy and many more. See the full line-up above.
If you know someone with a ticket, be sure to drop them a message and get involved in the ‘Tell Your Friends’ scheme. As the Wide Awake team said: “We know Kneecap’s headline show is going to be one for the ages.”
