Open Air Business November/December 2016

EVENTS
CASE STUDY
KingsStock
Music Festival
A deliberate ‘slow grow’ strategy has kept financial
risk at a minimum while creating a solid reputation
for a music festival that celebrates creativity
What began as a community-focused event in a garden near Cambridge is now a fully-fledged
music festival. Held in Moggerhanger Park, Bedfordshire, it is now planning for its eighth year.
Open Air Business talks to James Stevens about this not-for-profit venture.
Describe your event and how
many people it attracts?
KingsStock is a fledgling music
festival, very much in the same vein
as the hundreds of similar events
that have popped up across the UK
in recent years. We are run as a notfor-profit
venture, making our ethos
a little different to most, and hope
to gain charitable status before our
eighth edition in 2017.
We are patiently going for the
slow grow, avoiding influential
corporate sponsors, aiming at
building a reputation as a festival,
not just an event with known
performers. Although sometimes
frustrating, we believe it will build
longevity. The event started at our
home and we hope to maintain that
‘garden party’ feel.
“WHEN WE
GOT TO 200
PEOPLE
IN OUR
GARDEN,
WE KNEW
WE HAD TO
MOVE...”
What is its history?
The event originally started as a
community-focused barbecue with
a couple of musician friends. One
of those 2am conversations led to
the conception of KingsStock, which
was at the beginning 70 people in
our garden in the village of Kings
Ripton near Cambridge.
When we got to 200 people in our
garden, we knew we had to move
and took the event to a caravan
rally site called Burleigh Hill Farm.
This allowed us to grow the event to
more than 600 people, and of course
led to us having to implement some
formal structures into our planning
as we worked with Huntingdonshire
District Council. The council has
a good working relationship with
festivals due to The Secret Garden
Party, which is a substantially larger
endeavour than our own, being in
the district. In fact SGP has been
quite an inspiration for our event
and some of our team attend
annually.
Our directors are all Christians,
and the bands all have a similar
connection, although we don’t
fit into any expected pigeon hole
of Christianity and are entirely
independent. A lovely product of the
faith aspect is the lack of ego across
the festival, which creates a really
inclusive feel.
How did you apply for permission
to run the event?
Due to us being quite small as
outdoor events go, we didn’t need
to make many compromises with
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