PILE UP FESTIVAL / STATEMENT
Pile Up Festival have today learned that their much needed external funding will not be made available until late March, leaving the project timeline too short to operate on the proposed dates of April 12/13/14. The festival was heavily reliant on external funding for 2019 and without it they have had to make the difficult decision to cancel the April event. All purchased tickets can be refunded via the ticket agent they were purchased through. With the news of the cancellation, the festival has also announced that founder Adam Ruane is to step down from his role as managing director, leaving room for a new face to take over within the existing management team. With April’s cancellation the new team will sit down and try to plan a new future for Pile Up Festival, although details are still very much in early development.
Speaking on behalf of Pile Up Festival, Adam Ruane said: “Pile Up Festival was always an ambitious project that we desperately wanted to grow into the event we knew it could be. We’ve had enormous bands on board from day one and extensive backing from press and music fans; the only issue has always been the external funding help which we needed to launch into year one. We wanted to create an event built for musicians to grow and have an opportunity to perform without the usual pay-to-play or share-this-post-to-win-a-slot set up. We had over 500 bands apply and are still receiving applications to this day, and we listened to each one to pick the bands we felt fit strongly with the line-up. It’s a shame that the event will now no longer happen and I can only apologise to all those who were excited to perform and be a part of what could have been an amazing event. The decision to cancel was not taken lightly but to spare any more wasted time we decided it was the best option. Hopefully something can come out of the cancellation, and I wish the new team all the best as they head into whichever direction they decide to take next”.
