One of Devon’s biggest and most popular family events – Brixham Pirate Festival, which saw hundreds of people attending in pirate-themed fancy dress – has been cancelled because of a lack of funding.
Organisers have been unable to find the £32,000 needed to run the event across the May Day Bank Holiday weekend after warning for some time that their funds were running too low.
The festival, which has always been free to enter, takes over the entire town for the long weekend, featuring fancy dress, live music, pirate ‘skirmishes’ and other events.
The organisers have not abandoned ship lightly and have spent the last few months trying to raise funds via grants, sponsorship, crowdfunding and fundraising.
The festival lost funding from the port’s Chamber of Commerce, and despite the organisers’ best efforts have been unable to raise the cash needed.
“It is with a heavy heart and great regret that we announce that the 2018 Festival cannot go ahead because of a severe lack of funding” said chairman Peter Berresford. “We hoped more financial aid would be offered locally by those wanting to show support for Brixham and the festival.”
Because the festival is on public access land the organisers cannot sell tickets and so the festival has always depended on donations, sponsorship and grants.
“The final blow for us was when Brixham Chamber of Commerce told us they were not in a position to donate anything in 2018 due to poor market revenue,” said Peter.
“But festival costs do not go down, and in January and February we must have enough money to cover nearly all expenditure,” he explained. “It is extremely unlikely that we can [raise the funds] now unless somebody comes forward guaranteeing to fund this festival fully in the next two weeks.”
“My heartfelt apologies go to all our loyal supporters, who have booked to attend the festival and were looking forward to another wonderful weekend in 2018.”
