CONFUSION surrounds the fate of a popular music festival in Prestwick after the organisers announced it had been cancelled.

The team behind PrestFest said on Friday, March 31 that “due to a lack of funds and resources we have taken the decision to cancel Prestfest 2023”.

The news sparked an angry response from many in the area – and within hours a post on the event’s Facebook page appeared to suggest that the 2023 event would still be going ahead on the originally scheduled dates, September 1, 2 and 3.

However, on Sunday evening a statement “from the PrestFest Committee” was sent to the Advertiser stating that the event was largely dependant on a grant from South Ayrshire Council – and that the council had not guaranteed the award of a grant for this year’s event.

That statement also said that even if a grant is awarded, the current committee “do not have the appetite to proceed with organising this year’s festival and would happily hand over to any party that is interested”.

It has been confirmed that several local pubs including Prestwick's Red Lion and Golf Inn will go ahead with the weekend's festivities even if it is not in its official capacity.

The event celebrated its 10th anniversary last September, the year after a triumphant post-Covid comeback following the cancellation of the 2020 festival.

A spokesperson said: “We regret to announce that due to a lack of funds and resources we have taken the decision to cancel Prestfest 2023.

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“We are deeply disappointed we have not received the funding to enable us to put on this year’s show.”

In the statement issued on Sunday evening, the event’s committee said: "As a result of a lot of misinformation going around, the Prestfest committee would like to clarify a few points.

"Working on a tight budget; Prestfest is organised by a small group of volunteers who give up their free time to put on the festival. It is not run by South Ayrshire Council as some people wrongly believe.

"This year the committee is even smaller than in previous years, with only five members remaining after four people stepped down from last year.

"In the last few years the festival has taken place at Boydfield Gardens and in pubs and clubs throughout the town. It has constantly been changing and evolving over the years, due to a changing committee, and new ideas always being put forward.

"The small committee this year took the decision to inform the venues that if they wanted to be involved they would each be in charge of organising and running their own events over the weekend.  

"They were asked to let us know if they wanted to pay an affiliation fee and be included in the list of official venues for 2023. This helps with the cost of marketing and publicity.

"Only two pubs, The Buf and The Golf Inn, responded and attended a meeting to discuss their involvement. To date no other venues have contacted the committee.  

"To our disappointment two venues have not paid their affiliation fees from last year despite having received several reminders. This has had an impact on our cashflow.

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"The events at Boydfield Gardens are funded through sponsorship, and in the main, a grant from South Ayrshire Council. This year we had planned to put on a Country Music day on the Saturday afternoon and tribute acts on the Sunday.

"Last year when we received the grant from SAC, they indicated that they would consider giving us an annual grant to allow us to put on the festival.

"With this in mind, we proceeded to organise events for Boydfield Gardens: booking acts, ordering the mobile stage, arranging food trucks, security etc.

"When we approached SAC this year about grant funding, they advised us that there had been a misunderstanding, and they had not made any commitment to annual funding.

"They said that we would need to apply each year and be assessed, and that the grant fund was extremely oversubscribed. They said there was no guarantee that we would get funds.

"We therefore prepared our grant application and submitted it to SAC. We received an immediate response and was advised that they were only considering applications for Coronation celebrations at the moment, and they could not consider our application.

"Faced with the uncertainty of what venues would be taking part and no grant from SAC, the committee felt they had no choice but to cancel this year’s festival.

"We then informed all the acts that had been booked and advised all the service providers for Boydfield Garden that we were not going ahead. We then posted on the Prestfest Facebook page that this year’s festival had been cancelled. This has resulted in the committee receiving some unjustified negative comments.

"Two ex-committee members who had previously said that they did want to be involved in this year’s Prestfest have now said that they want to see the festival go ahead with music in the pubs, however, they have also stated that they do not want to be involved in organising events at Boydfield Gardens.

"We now understand that as a result of all the publicity on social media SAC are now going to discuss the matter of the grant at their meeting on Monday, April 3.

"If SAC now decide to give us the grant the current committee, after all the setbacks do not have the appetite to proceed with organising this year’s festival and would happily hand over to any party that is interested."

A South Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: "A spokesperson for South Ayrshire Council said: "South Ayrshire Council provided grant funding to Prestfest in 2022.

"Each year several organisations approach us for funding for events. We are always significantly oversubscribed and cannot commit to supporting an external event every year.

"This year with the addition of the King’s Coronation the event budget is under significant pressure. We have not advised Prestfest that we cannot fund them this year.

"We have advised that until we have concluded the funding exercise for the Coronation we can’t consider wider applications at this stage."