Over £180,000 now raised
We are pleased to announce that to date we have now raised over £180,000 for cancer charities and local good causes.
After seven fantastic years we will taking a break in 2019, but we will be back in May 2020.
On 26 May 2018, the seventh Rock against Cancer event took place in its usual location behind The Kings Arms in All Cannings.
Over the past three years the challenges of putting on an event like Concert at the Kings has become far harder – and much more expensive. It’s a charity event, but there are still huge costs involved paying for the bands, staging, power, insurance, security, cranes and the mobile infrastructure that is in place for a week. Changes to the way event tickets are sold mean that banks hold the majority of the ticket cost until after the event, so cash flow is a big problem when bands need to be paid upfront. Without the local volunteers and professionals who donate their time and energy the event certainly couldn’t happen.
We have a licence to stage the concert to a maximum of 4,999 people. This includes everyone on site – bands, support crew, volunteers, concessions and ticket holders.
This gives a limited amount of tickets we can sell. We have always tried to keep ticket prices down – only a £5 rise for an adult ticket in the last three years, but overhead costs still increase each year. The margin for breaking even gets tighter and we rely on the support of our audience to buy tickets to hit that point. And just 200 tickets short – as we were this year – makes a huge difference.
We proudly say that Concert at the Kings is a very different and special event. It really is, but perhaps not quite as unique as it was back in 2012. Over the years a huge number of single day and weekend events have popped up. Some last for a year, some make big losses and some become established. For the successful ones, that’s great for both audiences and bands. More places to play, more chances to see the bands and more live music.
With so much many events to choose from, getting audiences to All Cannings becomes more challenging. Especially when there have been two very wet years when enthusiasm may have been slightly dampened by the weather, but certainly not the performances.
This year’s line up was one of the finest we have had and over 10 months planning and work went into that fantastic sunny day with 10 bands and performers. But even with BBC coverage and support we were still down on ticket sales.
Raising funds for the charities is the top priority of the event and we want to do it again, but we will take a break for 2019 whilst planning for the best show we can possibly create in 2020.
Thank you to everyone who has been supporting us over the past seven years – and roll on 2020!