THE BUSINESS brain behind one of the area’s biggest beach festivals says he was overwhelmed by the returning event’s success after a “challenging” period.
Sandfest welcomed 5,000 revellers to Sandbanks beach on Sunday, July 10, in an event headlined by Clean Bandit following performances by Jax Jones and Tom Zanetti among others.
The success of the event was hanging on a knife’s edge just one week prior to showtime with less than half of all tickets sold.
However, a massive turnaround saw the event hailed as a huge success – with organiser and co-founder Ty Temel revealing he hopes to secure Sandfest’s “biggest ever name” to headline next year.
Ty told the Echo: “On the whole, it was absolutely incredible. With every event there are challenges and putting something like this on is no easy feat. There was just an incredible atmosphere, we had people on boats watching, and it was picturesque as we were extremely lucky with the weather.
“The festival market in general has been through a very tough time.
“Four weeks ago, we weren’t even at 50 per cent of tickets sold. Then last week we were able to sell every ticket without price reduction. That just goes to show the loyalty we’ve built here locally.”
Ty cited several reasons for the late influx of ticket buyers, namely the state of the cost-of-living which he feels causes people to have a greater “consciousness of spending”.
“A lot of people are living from pay packet to pay packet at the moment, essentially waiting until they’re paid to decide whether or not they can spend money on events like this. We saw that as a real trend this year, more so than previous years.
“Between 60 to 70 per cent of people bought tickets without knowing the line-up – that’s incredible. That’s how much confidence people have in us, which I must say is pretty overwhelming.”
He expressed thanks to all who attended the festival as well as the hundreds of people who worked on the event, adding, “I’m nothing without the team”.
The provisional date for next year’s Sandfest is Sunday July 9 and Ty clued the Echo in to his confidence of landing a solo male artist who he said would be the “biggest ever name in the five years of Sandfest” if they are able to secure him.
He also said he has theorised making Sandfest a two-day event at some point in the future.
Visit sandfest.co.uk or on social media for more information.
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