Vibration Festival organisers welcome £26,000 Scottish Government grant for Falkirk event

Fusion Concerts Ltd, which runs the Callendar Park-based event, has been awarded £26,000 from a Culture Organisations and Venue Recovery Fund as part of a £11.75 million support package for organisations threatened with insolvency by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 200 firms involved in comedy, festivals, music, nightclubs, performing arts, publishing and visual arts have been boosted by the fund.

Davie Ure, who launched Vibration Festival in 2019 with his brother Andy, believes the grant is testament to the success of the inaugural event.

With organisers forced to scrap May’s festival due to Covid-19, a plan is now in place to reward all those who have retained their tickets by throwing a two-day version in September 2021.

David said: “We believed we had an award-winning model in the Falkirk area we hoped we could continue with.

“To get the backing is a huge pat on the back for us and a massive help for the event.

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“To give that to a reasonably new but very well-reviewed event is massive for Falkirk. It’s not often events outside of the creative hubs of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen get that nod.

“For Falkirk district to get it is amazing.

"The money will be used for securing the bands. It’s a bridge to get us to a point where the world opens back up again.

“We’ve started on a great number of sales this year that people have decided to retain and roll over to next year. We’ve also got this cash award to keep us going because we just don’t know how long it’ll be until the live events world opens back up.

“We’ve got huge costs to put an event of this scale on, and that allows us to pay for deposits and see us through over the next four or five months.”

Fusion Concerts is not the only Falkirk-based company to benefit from the fund, as City Nightclub has been handed £140,000 to help it cope with its extended closure.

With the night-time economy and live music industry toiling, Mr Ure is hopeful the region will have events to look forward to next summer.

He continued: “We hope to come back to the table for an end of summer party that Falkirk can enjoy because it looks like things will probably continue until spring next year.

“We hope we can bring in a price that reflects our strategy of getting as many people in as possible. We want to build on it every year.

“We’ll have the same four music areas – the main stage, the break-through stage and the two tents.

“We want to make sure we continue to bring in high-quality bands and local bands. We’re going to double up on local artists so there’s be double the entertainment for the same price.

“Hopefully we can come back to the table with prices that allow others to buy into it. We can give back to the people who have supported us and give the people of Falkirk something to shout about next summer.”

Vibration Festival has confirmed Strathcarron Hospice as its charity partner for 2021.

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