Doune The Rabbit Hole: Good riddance as festival goes Doune the Swanee – Vladimir McTavish

Vladimir McTavish is unsurprised to hear complaints about people not being paid by controversial festival

The Doune The Rabbit Hole Festival, held near Stirling, has been cancelled (Picture: Ryan Buchanan)

This weekend, hundreds of thousands of music fans are descending on Glastonbury, where I was fortunate enough to perform several years ago, and it was a truly uplifting experience in a magical place. I heard earlier this week, that the plug has been pulled on a much less uplifting event, at which it was my misfortune to appear in 2014.

The Doune The Rabbit Hole festival in Stirlingshire has been cancelled after the stage managers’ and technicians’ union Bectu called for a boycott, over a payment row. According to BBC News, the festival owed hundreds of thousands of pounds to performers and crew who worked at last year’s event.

While this is scandalous enough, the organisers of Doune The Rabbit Hole have said they will not be issuing refunds to ticket holders for the event, which was due to take place next month. Seems to me that shows either jaw-dropping incompetence or something underhand or both. But none of it surprises me.

I was asked to play the comedy stage at Doune The Rabbit Hole nine years ago. I was offered a guaranteed fee and told I would be paid cash on the day. I arrived there in good time for my afternoon slot and searched in vain to find the comedy stage. This was because there was no stage.

When I eventually found one of the so-called “organisers”, he told me that I would be doing my gig in a field. Not a tent in a field with a PA system and seats for the audience. Just a field with no microphone and nowhere for the punters to sit except rocks and tree-stumps.

After my set, the “organiser” told me they were not paying cash but that I would still be paid. For the next 12 months, I received several emails promising payment and apologising for the wait. Nine years later, I’m still waiting.

I was asked to perform last year but told them where they could stick their festival. I had always thought the name Doune The Rabbit Hole was a weak pun on the festival’s location. I now realise it is a literal explanation of where the money has gone. Maybe they’ll be back next year calling themselves Doune The Toilet or Doune The Swanee.