The charity behind Kirriemuir’s Bonfest says rocketing costs have put the three-day AC/DC celebration on a knife edge for the future.
In April, almost 10,000 folk rocked the Angus town in an event which injected an estimated £750,000 into the local economy.
Kirrie has become a mecca for fans of the band from around the world since the first event honouring AC/DC frontman Bon Scott was staged in 2006.
The baker’s son emigrated from Angus to Australia with his family as a young boy before finding global fame with the rock band.
He’s honoured in a Kirriemuir statue unveiled in 2016 after AC/DC fans supported a £50,000 fundraising campaign.
Six-figure bill to stage Bonfest
Bonfest cost organisers DD8 Music around £220,000 to stage this year.
And the award-winning community music charity saw just £27k profit.
It fears spiralling overheads could leave the festival facing tough questions for 2024.
But Bonfest chairman John Crawford says he has been heartened by the turnout at a call to arms on Tuesday as townsfolk and businesses offered ideas to help it remain a huge hit.
“Like many other festivals around the UK, we are pretty much on a knife edge,” said John.
“We need to look at our business model, but I think Kirrie needs Bonfest to survive.
“The reality is that the costs of staging the event have just gone through the roof.
“Covid didn’t help but in 2022 we spent £171,000 putting it on and returned £70,000 profit.
“This year the cost went up to about £220k and we had just £27,000 profit.
“Even on the Friday morning of this year’s festival we were sitting in the red.”
Kirriemuir festival a victim of its own success
The festival has a reputation for bringing the best AC/DC tribute acts from around the world to Kirrie.
Local bands also play in packed-out town pubs across the weekend.
Its origins were in the town hall, but the main arena is now a huge marquee on the edge of town.
“Everything has gone up, especially things like insurance, since Covid,” John added.
“But we just can’t simply pass on increases of 10 to 15% or more on things like tickets, drink and so on and hope people will just pay it.”
He added: “We set up the public meeting to let folk know what we are looking at and it was a really good response.
“It wasn’t just a plea for financial support, although we obviously need to look at every way we can get that.
“We want ideas of what we can to do to better generate income.
“We’ve grown with the town but we want to keep it a community-focused event.
“The main arena has been great but we need to keep the people in the town.
“There are a lot of businesses who might not be there if it wasn’t for the success of that one weekend every year.”
Crunch time for hopes of Bonfest 2024
John said: “I am waiting for the big ticket item quotes to come back and in four to six weeks we will be right on the line of deciding what we can do for 2024.
“It all hinges on that.
“If we have to go back to the Town Hall we will never get out of there because it simply won’t generate enough money.”
And he says the festival’s purpose must not be lost.
“The services DD8 Music provide are more sought after than ever after cutbacks to the likes of music in schools,” John added.
“DD8 has five paid employees so there are jobs at risk here as well as the wider work the charity does.
“We have got to look at the bigger picture.
“We just hope people will come up with support in whatever way they can.
“Bon’s family came to Kirrie this year and the family trust is 100% behind us in keeping his memory alive.
“Hopefully we could be in a position where there is some support from that, we are talking to them.
“If anyone has any ideas for sponsorship, help in kind or anything to support Bonfest we would love to hear from them.”
Anyone who can offer support to the event should contact DD8 Music manager Scott Ferguson by email at Scott@DD8Music.com
