Gwên Gwen Festival: Food traders lose 'thousands' as Kidwelly festival cancelled minutes before

A food trader who was due to work at a three-day music festival in west Wales said they have "never been so close" to bankruptcy after the festival was cancelled just minutes before it was due to begin.

The independent music festival event in Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, was due to run from Friday to Sunday.

Many festival-goers had already arrived in the area before finding out about the festival's cancellation on social media.

Organisers of Gwên Gwen Festival 2023 said the festival had to be cancelled due to "extremely challenging circumstances", saying bad weather made the site build "difficult".

The trader, who didn't want to be named, told ITV News they had arranged their staff, bought £2,000 worth of stock and travelled seven hours to the festival before finding out it was cancelled via Facebook.

Welsh music festival cancelled minutes before start time

They said: "The stock will have to go into the bin now. It's not going to survive a seven hour journey."

Some of the acts who were set to play included rapper Example, dub band Gentleman's Dub Club and Australian musician Dub FX.

Example alleged that he is yet to be paid his full fee by the festival promoters, saying on Instagram that he pulled out of the event due to the promoters breaching "a number of points in the contract".

Example's manager told ITV News: "We don’t take these decisions lightly but we were left with no alternative here."

Example was one of the acts set to perform at the festival. Credit: PA Images

Another act that was billed to play, Gentleman's Dub Club, issued a statement saying the event organiser "has breached a number of the points" on their contract and had been trying to resolve the issues with them for "over two months".

The statement continued: "We have on multiple occasions been promised payment and tech specs both of which have yet to materialise.

"Pulling out of show is not something we take lightly but it’s impossible to make this show work."

Some artists had travelled from London and even further afield to perform.

Richard James, one of the festival's organisers, told ITV News that "any artists that are performing will get their payment" and organisers will clarify further details on Monday.

Another food trader, Marc, who runs The Smokey BBQ Co., said festival organisation had been a "shambles from the start".

He estimated through lost profit, wasted food and cost to time, the event cancellation has cost his company £1,500.

He said: "We'd purchased £700 of meat and were halfway through cooking it, and it was only by the off-chance that my business partner saw the social media post."

Food stall holder Rory said they spent a full day prepping meat and only found out about the cancellation via Facebook. Credit: Smokey BBQ Co.

"We had to finish off cooking all the meat, and then we managed to source a freezer and bag it all up, but we can't sell it to the public. It's basically wasted."

Richard James, one of the festival's organisers, told ITV News: "We fully understand that there's an investment made in stock before the weekend.

"We've refunded the trader pitches for the traders that arrived on site and the ones before they left."

He added: "Any artists that are performing will get their payment. We haven't reached out to all the artists yet as to what the arrangements are. As of Monday, we will start to reach out and clarify everything with everyone."

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