Campus music festival ExeFest is not returning for a second year, despite VP Activities Becca Hanley previously saying it would be ready for term three. The University of Exeter Students’ Guild have reported a £15,000 loss which, they believe, means attempting another event such as ExeFest would be “diverting this money away from vital core services”.
However, in an interview with Xpression FM on Monday (22 January), Hanley stated that the Guild Comms team will be doing announcements ‘soon’, and said that ExeFest 2018 would be in term three.
On Monday Hanley was asked what was happening with ExeFest this year, to which she replied:
“There will be announcements about ExeFest soon from our Comms team, but I can’t say any more at this moment I’m really sorry.” When pressed further, she revealed that “It will be term three, so like, the celebrations will be after exams.”
Since Monday, Hanley released the following statement:
“Following a series of discussions relating to affordability, the Students’ Guild has made the decision not to hold an event of the scale of last year’s Exefest – our campus music festival, this summer. Care was taken to consider the benefit of the event for the student experience versus the £15,000 financial loss that the event encountered. On balance, the Guild believed that diverting this money away from vital core services to fund a loss making event was not in the best interests of its student members. Instead, effort is going into a Summer, post- exam party, held in the Ram.
“I would like to clarify my former statement in which I declared that ExeFest would be taking place this summer. This is not the case, however, we are looking forward to continuing with our plans for an alternative summer party in the Ram.”
However, at the time of going to print, the progress updates on Hanley’s ‘They Represent You’ page on the Guild website show that her ‘Continue ExeFest’ manifesto promise is mostly complete. The most recent update, from August 2017, claims that “ExeFest will return. Becca will be on the working group to ensure that the festival will be a success with student involvement.”
ExeFest was the main manifesto point of last year’s VP Activities, Tristan Gatward. Last year, the festival hosted acts as large as The Hoosiers, Cascada, Example, and Wheatus.
