FFA were delighted to speak to Andy Cooper, one of the organisers of Off The Tracks, a true FFA favourite festival over many years. Situated near Donington Park in Derbyshire, the festival is a real delight and a rare find. Held amongst a permanent camping site and converted farm buildings, which include a real pub and diner with the main stage occupying the farmyard; it really does offer a festival with a difference. Not only that – they spoil you with TWO events a year!

Take a read of what our reviewer thought of the 2012’s bashes to get just a flavour of the magical times these guys have to offer – Spring / Summer

FFA - It’s proving to be a difficult year for many festivals – what do you think the future holds for the festival scene in the UK – is it a worrying time?

It’s definitely a worrying time. I think there will be a contraction in the number of festivals. In the 25 years we’ve been doing it we’ve seen festivals come and go – with each one having their own individual reasons for coming and going. When we started off there were very few festivals. I’d run festivals prior to Off The Tracks (OTT) and lost a lot of money! You can book all the bands you like – and anyone will take your money (laughs) but it does not necessary mean that each booking will sell you any more tickets. It’s a personal view of course but these days there are a lot of university courses doing event management and the like and people come out of college and think what shall we do? … so let’s do our own festival!... They get a little bit carried away and they are all mates and have a couple of low-key years. Then they book a bigger band, then another band and they end up spending 40-50 thousand pounds or whatever. They think because those bands are worth that money that they will each attract a lot of ticket sales…. And then they realise that it’s the same audience that go to see both bands – so they’ve paid double the money for the same audience. I’m saying that because that’s how I lost my money all those years ago!

Another reason is that until recently a lot of events were council or whatever funded… Now that money has stopped…. In a commercial world, new investors looked at them and the books just did not stack up. They may have been getting say £80,000 in funding. Personally, for me, that distorts the market… You’d look at their line-up and think ‘how are they doing that?’ Then when the external funding stops – they stop! Then you realise why… Independents like us just couldn’t compete. More of these festivals will go under as funding reduces… and remember many of these festivals also got matched Arts Council funding too… which again is drying up.

FFA - OTT is an established independent with 25 years sound commercial experience and is further protected somewhat as the site has a permanent infrastructure which helps control your costs. Is that a fair assessment?

We wouldn’t be here if we were on a green field site! There are obviously certain aspects of the festival that we do have to bring in, and I just see the prices that are attached to all that and think if we had to do all that on a green field site we would just not be viable. The markets being squeezed… you just can’t put more money on your tickets because people would go somewhere else. It’s a major thing. A few years ago we were going to expand to go to a bigger festival. Then we looked at it and it just wasn’t viable. Why would we want to go outside those permanent buildings to let’s say double our audience …. All we would be doing is doubling our audience simply to pay for that extra infrastructure! We’ve been here for 25 years and the only reason we’ve done that is by being stoic, tight fisted (laughs), and really looking at what we are doing… I get some of the bigger bands coming to me really complaining about the fees when I’ve knocked them down… I say ‘to be honest if you want to come back here in say 4 years’ time the only way I can do that is being quite ruthless about how we go about this now’.  I could give every band exactly what they want and I’d be out of business next year – it’s as simple as that. You have to try your best, from a promoters point of view, to get the very best out of everything we do so we can still be here next year…. and there aren’t that many festivals who have been around 25 years!

FFA - OTT offers two festivals a year – what was the thinking there?

Initially, when we were wondering about getting bigger, there weren’t that many festivals around and I said ‘let’s think laterally’ - this gets back to infrastructure costs – ‘let’s do it twice instead!’ – and that’s what we did. Now I don’t think that either of them chuck any particular problems at us really.

FFA - You are always tweaking the events to keep them fresh – can we expect anything new for the Spring event in May?

Well, for a start there is no Cabbage nights this year … we’ve got another great outfit called Cloudbase. It’s a gang of guys who do a similar think to Cabbage – but they are different – so the vibe is going to be different. ‘Club Nights’ are all down to the people that put them up … so in itself that will be a different vibe. Friday is a Barry Ashworth Dub Pistols DJ set! (exclusive interview HERE). I think the overall programming of this May and this September is doing what we don’t normally do – and that’s look back. So in May, for me, the ‘fresh’ comes from Salsa Celtica and Blair Dunlop, whereas, say Alabama 3 played a few years ago; The Selecter played a couple of years ago, and The Popes …. So we’ve tried to say, well look - let’s celebrate 25 years of being here, let’s nod to what’s gone before but at the same time lets offer something fresh that our audience hasn’t come across – and I know that the likes of Blair Dunlop are absolutely fantastic. He’s a real addition. (exclusive interview HERE). I see him in about 5 years’ time as the new Seth Lakeman. Remember that when Seth played OTT he was doing pub and club gigs… and look at him now. So there’s a good time we’re trying to give whilst introducing some new music.

FFA – Any particular favourites at the OTT Spring event in May?

Apart from the likes of Blair Dunlop we have Nordic Giants – they’ve a new AV show which is excellent apparently. Kris Dollimore is a blues player who’s very good. Scott Mckeon is destined for big things. We’ll also have Merry Hell banging out their new album too! (exclusive interview HERE).

FFA - 2013 is your 25th anniversary ….. What can we expect over both events?

For The Summer event we’ve already announced Dreadzone and Ozric Tentacles, plus Leveller Simon Friend and his solo project Seismic Survey…  It’s nearly programmed! There is a lot there – but I can’t give any clues just yet … (Booo hissed FFA)

For the May event I’m just looking forwards to it really. I think we’ve got a great line-up – we are going to have a really good party – and we are going to really enjoy doing this year.

FFA …and you’ll be gracing the stage again Andy!

Well yeah… this time it’s with Neverland in May and then Simon Friend’s Seismic Survey in September. I don’t know how I get into this you know (laughs) – I can’t handle playing and helping running the show! I play in a number of bands throughout the year, but the unique thing with Neverland is that you’ve got both me AND Boz (Andy "Boz" Borys, fellow OTT organiser) … so we might run aground whilst both the Captains are up on stage! (laughs loud!)

Check out either the Spring event or the Summer event for a truly splendid time, or, go with flow and take in both … the majority of their audience do!

Off The Tracks Spring Festival 2013 at Donington Park Farmhouse, Melbourne Road, Isley Walton , Castle Donington , Derbyshire , DE74 2RN

Fri 24th to Sun 26th May 2013 - Adult camping tickets from £75

Full Details HERE.

 

Article by Barrie Dimond