THE WALL OF ROCK music festival 2015 could be the largest and most successful youth event of its kind yet – or it may not happen at all!
That is the warning being sounded by organisers of a festival that has showcased the finest young music talent the region has to offer for several years.
With 31 acts set to perform on two stages set up at Lossiemouth’s Station Park over two days from Friday, September 4, organisers are struggling to put together the funding required to ensure all health and safety measures and essential backup is in place – and without that, there will be no Wall of Rock.
“Over the last few years we have been very lucky with sourcing funding to pay for The Wall of Rock, although it’s never been very easy,” chairperson Hannah Rossiter explained, adding: “Sadly this year we haven’t had as much good fortune on our side and at this stage we have had a few of our grant applications declined.
“This is largely due to the fact that other projects around the country are being given a higher priority for funding – so we’ve had to get our thinking caps on and start getting creative.”
While the line-up for the festival has been announced, unless the £3000 funding requirement is found then it is highly unlikely they will be able to play at Lossiemouth. A last hope of the Wall of Rock is an appeal to the public through the crowdfunding platform “Kickstarter”.
Hannah said: “Some of the committee had remembered hearing about the crowd funding website Kickstarter, where members of the public can donate money for something we create back in return.”
Wall of Rock stage manager Laura Smith is no stranger to the constant struggle to raise funding for the event, having been working on most of the grant applications made by the festival committee this year.
She said: “Kickstarter is a wonderful online platform where we are aiming to raise £3000 to help pay for a large chunk of cash for what we need to make the Wall of Rock succeed.
“During the festival we will be making multitrack audio recordings of all the bands and artists performing throughout the weekend. All of the original material made by the bands in the form of exclusive MP3 downloads will be made available to anyone that pledges £10.
“For anyone that makes a pledge of £20 they will receive all the MP3 downloads and a copy of ‘The Wall of Rock 2015 Movie’ – and finally pledges of £25 will receive all that plus all the video footage of all the full live performances.”
Laura drew just short of saying that Kickstarter was a last hope – but insisted that a threat to the event existed if the fundraising appeal did not manage to reach the £3000 target: “If we are even a penny short of our goal we won’t receive anything.
“We really need the community of Moray to back our Kickstarter project and by heading to our website and our Facebook page people can simply donate by using their own debit or credit cards.
“Reading over everything on our Kickstarter page will give everyone a full flavour of how their money will be used to make the festival happen this year.”
Anyone donating through the appeal will be able to download audio from the festival by November, with video footage expected to be ready for distribution to qualifying backers by January.
For more information and to make a donation visit the Wall of Rock Kickstarter Campaign.