If you have been following this blog for a while you will have no doubt read my thoughts regarding the yearly Multi-Venue festivals that take place in Scotland’s capital city; EH1 Live and Haddowfest. Love them or loathe them, you have to appreciate the work that goes into the organisation of these events; co-ordination of different venues; wide-spread promotion of the event through any media outlets who give a damn and of course the one variable of the lot – making sure that the bands are organised and turn up, on stage, on time!
It’s no walk in the park and not the faint hearted. The dedication involved in delivering a stand out festival is considerable and after months of planning, you won’t know until it’s all over if it was worth it. Will the hard work pay off with all the venues well attended and the artists buzzing? Or will it crash and burn all around you?
One man who has had his fair share of success and scrutiny of multi-venue festivals is Haddowfest ring leader and co-founder, Hamish Jolly. Following a backlash from the 
media, fans and bands alike over the well documented failures that surrounded “Haddowfest 2011”, Hamish Jolly and his team regrouped, re-organised and delivered what turned out to be a hugely successful Haddowfest 2012. Mr Jolly and his team succeeded where they had not the previous year and delivered a day which had potentially their best line-up so far, including The Cribs, Kassidy, Haddouken, Anderson McGinty Webster Ward & Fisher and many, many more besides. For the team behind Haddowfest, the day was much more than just a bunch of bands playing, much more than securing the services or the aforementioned artists but a day in which the future of Haddowfest, depending on its reception, would be decided. Luckily for them the festival was a hit and restored much of the faith in the Haddowfest brand that was lost the year before.
With Haddowfest now in its fourth year, and not content with resting on their laurels the team behind Haddowfest have announced a run of monthly club nights aptly named “Haddowfest Presents…”. The Haddowfest team hope that the newly announced club night will help to bring a bit of spark back to the Edinburgh club scene by showcasing big name artists each month. The first show sees Edinburgh folktronica lads, and newly nominated SAMA award “Best Live Act” nominees Meursault, headlining the Liquid Rooms on Friday 26th April and will be hosted by the lovely Ally McRae from BBC Radio 1. The second show, which has just been confirmed, will see Haddowfest 2012 main support act The 10:04’s playing Edinburgh’s Electric Circus while will be hosted by the equally charming Jim Gellatly.
The Buzz Stop caught up with Hamish Jolly (while on his honeymoon might I add) to find out how things are shaping up so far for the greatly anticipated Haddowfest Presents…
The Buzz Stop; There has been quite a lot of buzz around the event since the
press release of “Haddowfest Presents…”. You must be pleased with the
reception so far.
Hamish Jolly; Indeed we are! It’s been a wee while in the planning but we are very excited for it to be underway.
TBS; Haddowfest 2012 was labelled by-and-large a success! Did the progression to a monthly showcase feel like a natural evolvement of what has been accomplished so far and did the success of last year’s event allow this to be realised more easily?
HJ; The monthly showcase is something we have wanted to do for a while. There’s a lot
of great Scottish bands out there and we wanted to help push local talent and do something a bit different to the normal run of the mill club night.
Running the festival for three years has definitely given us more of an idea of what we’d like to do going forward, and we’d like to make the nights as varied and interesting as possible, with a few surprises along the way of course!
TBS; In what way do you see the monthly showcase benefiting the current music scene in Edinburgh?
I think when you look at our club night we offer something a little bit different. We hope to value quality over quantity. That being said the general public no doubt will be the judge of our choices.
We are very lucky that we have Ally McCrae compering for our first Haddowfest Presents…and Jim Gellatly for the second club night in May performing the same role. Both guys are really important in pushing up-and-coming Scottish music and it’s a feature of the club night we think is really important. We’re delighted to be working with them both.
We’re keen to have as many bands from Edinburgh play Haddowfest Presents…as possible. Certainly there’s enough talent in Scotland at the moment and we’re really excited about the possibilities of working with so many great Scottish acts for these stand alone, one-off shows.
We will also be inviting non Scots acts to play one-off shows too it should be said.
TBS; The format of “Haddowfest Presents…” is a departure from the traditional “promoter books artists, artist plays” in that the headlining artist has some influence over the choice of support acts. How much say does the main act have over who supports them?
HJ; There are certain quality checks but so far there haven’t been any problems with planning for the first few nights. The supports Meursault have chosen, in particular, are immense!
The idea is to allow the headline act the opportunity to play with the acts they want to help support too though.
TBS; It could be perceived that that the headlining artists get their pals to play a big venue, like the Liquid Rooms and unless you know the headlining artist, local artists have virtually no chance of securing a support slot. What is your opinion on this line of thought?
We do check out thoroughly all the supports suggested and do make some suggestions.
The process of choosing supports is a two way process with the onus on the headline
being happy with their ‘friends’, or bands that work well alongside, playing.
With it being a monthly night hopefully there will be plenty of chances for local acts, as there will with Haddowfest itself.
TBS; With associating the Haddowfest brand name with the monthly showcase events the success of future festivals may be determined by how well “Haddowfest Presents…” is received by the public. With Edinburgh being a city that is, by tradition, difficult to attract crowds, how will you be ensuring that the monthly events are viewed as a hit?
HJ; Promotion, promotion and promotion.
We’re hoping to announce headliners for May, June and July in the next couple of weeks.
TBS; Are there any plans in the pipeline for Haddowfest 2013? If so, what can you tell us about it?
HJ; Haddowfest 2013 is well under way. We will be announcing acts throughout the year and we’re undertaking a complete website redesign at the moment so that we can help promote each band playing more thoroughly.
Can’t announce anything yet but we hope to be able to start letting people know in the next month or so. We’re very excited and hopefully we can keep building and making each Haddowfest better than the last.
TBS; When can we expect the final line-up for the inaugural “Haddowfest Presents…” event to be announced and where can tickets be purchased for the event?
Meursault have chosen their supports already, expect an announcement within the next 2-3 weeks.
Tickets can be purchased from the following :
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/36507
http://t-s.co/meurs
http://www.rippingrecords.com/tickets.php?id=1435
£10 plus booking fee.
Really looking forward to it, Meursault are an incredible band and we’re really pleased that they agreed to play our first night.
THE BUZZ STOP 