Isle Be Back pulled in face of poor ticket sales and cancellations
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Organisers behind the Isle Be Back two-day festival in May at the Black Isle Showground – postponed from last May – say they are disappointed to have cancelled the event.
Put down to "lack of ticket sales and continued cancellations", the explanation for the move, according to Liam Christie, director of North Highland Events, was: "The ticket uptake has been poor and with last-minute ticket sales, you can't predict what that will be.
"But it was a really tough decision."
Liam said "The backstory to this is my father died in 1983 when he was 53. I set out to do something that reflected the 80s and I had wanted to do something for the Highland Hospice last year, their 35th anniversary.
"My father was treated for cancer in the old Culduthel Hospital in Inverness. So it was always a pipe dream that if I was going to reach the heady heights of 53, which I did two weeks ago – it's a kind of landmark age for me – I'd wanted to bring a taste of the 80s to the Highlands and raise funds for the hospice. However it wasn't meant to be.
"We had wanted to do it as a fundraiser and if we had covered our costs we'd have been delighted. We'd have taken a small battering, but would have built it up in two or three years' time.
"But Covid came along and it slowed down the sales for the first year and it has just dropped off the face of it for this year which is disappointing.
"And I'm disappointed for the people who have stuck with us.
"One of the other promoters said to me 'If you'd done it in Inverness it would probably have done a lot better' – and I get that.
"But we'd wanted to do something a little bit different.
"We have had some comments on there 'We were going to buy tickets, I wish we had done!'. But you can't force people to do that, and we were a long way from breaking even, let alone raising funds for any particular charity.
"So for us it's about survival just now as you can imagine – and looking to the future and what's next.
"We just have to regroup and debrief on it and think 'Do we need to look at pricing and structuring it for folk?' It's just a little bit raw at this time to say what we are going to do next.
"But I can't tell you how many supportive messages we have got. It's been quite incredible, from folk who want to see something like this happen and hopefully we can do that on another day.
"If this means that people realise what it is like for a promoter, maybe it will help someone else and something positive comes out of something that has been a bit of a challenge."
Refunds to ticket holders will be completed as soon as possible.
