We have made an announcement about the future of Long Division Festival. It’s all here in the video, or you can read below if you prefer.
Hi, I’m Dean, the Director of Long Division Festival.
12 years ago, almost to the day, I released a video of me walking aimlessly around Wakefield City Centre. And in that video I announced the creation of Long Division Festival. I had no idea it would last so long and become such a large part of my life.
And now, 12 years later, I’m here to announce that Long Division festival is coming to an end.
Now stick with me here. It’s never simple, but I’m going to share some thoughts with you.
The question is obviously, why is it ending? But for me, the real question is how did it ever happen in the first place? And last this long, here in Wakefield?
It’s a long, twisting story but if we really hone in on the cause - it’s money. Brexit, Covid, The Cost Of Living Crisis - you all know how detrimental these things have been on our lives. Funding and sponsorship has faded and the festival was always heavily propped up by those things.
Long Division is expensive to put on because of where it takes place. The cost of hiring venues, technical equipment, the marketing to persuade people to come here. And we can’t change that. We’ve had to be so inventive just to keep our heads above the water but honestly we’ve run out of steam.
Long Division isn’t just me. It’s a Board Of Directors and a great team. We’re sad that it has come to this but we’re not willing to dilute what Long Division Festival is.
I’m really proud of what Long Division has done. All those artists who would not have come otherwise. The amazing audiences - local people and people coming on holiday to Wakey for the weekend. The amazing volunteers and team members over the years.
It’s too sad these days; we see great shops, pubs and venues just disappear. And you never got to visit one last time. And bands split, and you never get to see them again. They just go.
I didn’t want LD 2022 to have been the end and none of us knew. I want us to go out on our own terms. To write our own ending. And to end on a high. And we want you to be there as part of that. Maybe we’re idiots and we should have packed up at Christmas, but we’ve never taken the easy road.
We don’t want this to be the end of Long Division as a whole. Our education work will continue, or other community work too. We’re massively thankful to those who continue to fund, sponsor and support us. Our mission is to Energise Grassroots Culture, and we will still do that.
But the time of Long Division Festival has come to an end, and we know that is the reason so many of you support us so passionately.
So, let’s get together one more time. June 10th. I think it’ll be joyous. And now I’ve had time to accept where we are at, I’ve genuinely not been this excited about a Long Division for years. We’ll start announcing artists and details next week, and if you buy tickets each week, we’ll announce something new, every week.
Thanks for listening.
TICKETS FOR LD2023