No return for Osfest music festival, says organiser

Three years on since the plug was pulled on Oswestry festival Osfest, run by Seventh Sense event management company, key organiser of the festival Carly Woodward has looked back on the five years the festival ran.

Over the years it welcomed artists such as Example, Razorlight, JLS and the Pigeon Detectives, and at one point was selling 5,000 tickets.

However as it became harder to organise and with ticket sales dropping the festival had its last year in 2014.

She believes a host of changes were down to it ultimately ending in 2014.

She said: “It was a fantastic event, and at some stages we were doing really well getting top acts there and getting up to 5,000 people through the gates.

“For a lot of people it was their first festival, aimed at 16-year-olds but I think there is a changing attitude from parents now.

“They tend to let their children go to the bigger festivals rather than go to smaller ones first which is a reason why there aren’t smaller festivals of the size of Osfest.

“We had some fantastic times with Osfest over the years but we had to make a decision and it was something we just couldn’t sustain.

“After the last year and the struggles we had we decided not to keep it going, and I think smaller festivals in this area have had their day.”

In 2015 Chester Rocks, which was held by Chester Racecourse was cancelled due to the schedule at the racecourse being too busy.

Then last year Shropshire’s largest music festival Shrewsbury Fields Forever was cancelled a month before it was due to go ahead because the firm behind it ceased trading.

It was due to welcome headliners Dizzee Rascal and the Happy Mondays, but the town council refused permission for the event to be staged, and organisers Forever Invasion Ltd said it would go into voluntary liquidation.

In September when the event was due to take place it was revealed the event had left debts of almost £500,000.

Ticket holders, ticket agents, artists and promoters were owed money to the tune of £462,621.

Despite these three big events all disappearing in recent years other smaller music events have cropped up.

This year saw the first 1980s show ‘Let’s Rock’ take place in Shrewsbury.

Billy Ocean, Tony Hadley and T’Pau were the big names on the bill with hundreds of visitors flocking to see the acts.

Mrs Woodward, who along with Seventh Sense have held other events in London, says staff are always talking about alternative events in the Oswestry area to serve the local people.

She believes something in the future could take place involving Cae Glas park but no solid talks have taken place.

She said: “We loved putting on Osfest it was fantastic but as I said became too hard.

“And a lot of people didn’t realise it was all privately funded.

“We always talk about other alternative events we could do, but it is hard as people have moved on now and are doing other things.

“However we would always like to do something in the park on a smaller scale, which we have always talked about and would be keen to do.”