THE FIRST Indie'Go World Music Festival proved to be a spectacular flop last weekend and has left its organisers with huge financial losses after it had to be cancelled mid-way through the weekend. The festival in Fenagh was eventually cancelled at 4 p.m. on Saturday after it had become clear that it had not captured the public's imagination.

Things started to go badly wrong on Friday night when, seeing the largely empty site, the security team walked off the job, fearing they wouldn't get paid, and though the organisers managed to get security for Saturday it quickly became clear that they wouldn't have much to do as a very small number of people made their way to Ballydarton House.

The festival was the brainchild of Ballinabranna-based Mags McMonagle but her dream has now turned into a financial nightmare as what few weekend tickets were sold now have to be refunded and all the acts booked for the weekend also have to be paid, along with all those employed in other roles.

THE FIRST music festival to be held in Fenagh proved a spectacular flop last weekend and had to be cancelled, leaving the organisers nursing huge financial losses.

Less than a month ago the festival's 'media partner' The Nationalist predicted that the Indie'Go Music Festival ' looked set to be a memorable weekend'. That certainly proved to be the case when the event was cancelled on Saturday after it had become abundantly clear that it had not captured the public imagination, with more security personnel than festival goers in attendance at times on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.

The festival was the brainchild of Mags McMonagle, a former community artist, but her dream has now turned into a financial nightmare as what few weekend tickets were sold now have to be refunded and all the acts – the majority of whom did not play – have to be paid.

Ms McMonagle, the festival director, also confirmed that her large security team walked off the job on Friday night as they felt they would not be paid due to the absence of crowds at Ballydarton House, meaning that health and safety concerns, allied to the lack of interest, eventually brought a premature end to the first Indie'Go World Music Festival.

'I think a bit of blind panic set in,' said Ms McMonagle, in reference to the security team's disappearing act, which she said started a series of events that caused things to spiral out of control.

She managed to get security personnel back at the venue on Saturday, but the crowds once again failed to materialise and at around 4 p.m. the whole event was cancelled.

An announcement was posted on the group's website on Saturday stating that: 'Due to circumstances beyond our control Indie'Go World Music Festival has had to cancel the event. We sincerely regret and apologise that this has had to happen'.

Some of the headline acts for the festival, which had hoped to attract up to 5,000 people for the weekend, were Aswad, Alabama 3, Colin Devlin and Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club.

'We are all gutted, we all worked so long and so hard on it,' Ms McMonagle said yesterday (Monday) as her team worked to clear the site at Ballydarton House. 'I feel we've let down a lot of people who were really looking forward to it.'

'We just didn't make the numbers we needed and at 4 p.m. on Saturday we felt it was better to call it a day,' she said.

Though not many people turned up on Friday night, indicating that things were about to go pear-shaped for the festival, Ms McMonagle said it went really well and that some people compared it to the atmosphere at Glastonbury's massive music festival.

'It was gorgeous and the atmosphere was wonderful,' she said, adding that though there wasn't a big crowd, there was 'a really nice sort of crowd'.

A three-day ticket with camping for the Indie'Go World Music Festival cost €110; a weekend ticket with no camping cost €90, while a one day ticket for a family cost €90. Tickets for Friday night alone, of which very few were sold, cost €35.

The festival director said that anyone who bought a weekend ticket will be refunded.

'We're working out the details at the moment,' she said, pointing out that their first priority was restoring the site to the condition in which they found it.

After that has been achieved, Ms McMonagle said they will have a team meeting to see where it all went wrong. She said there was a core team of around six people involved in the organisation of the festival and that they had put a huge amount of effort into it.

'We have to assess what went wrong and why the numbers weren't there,' said Ms McMonagle.

When asked if she felt they may have priced people out of attending, Ms McMonagle said she wouldn't be commenting on what caused the festival to flop so badly before their team meeting.

Ms McMonagle did confirm that it's 'a big blow financially' for the organisers. She said that a company had been set up for the purpose of staging the Indie'Go World Music Festival, but that she herself feels 'personally responsible' for what happened.

She could not comment on whether they will be able to meet all their financial obligations arising from the festival, including to the security personnel and bands, once weekend ticket purchasers have been refunded.

'It's happened now and we'll deal with it the best way that we can,' said Ms McMonagle.

She said the festival would only rise from the ashes next year with proper financial support and a good investor. It's understood that this year's festival had lost a private investor in recent weeks, but felt they had sufficient funds to carry on.

It had been planned that if the festival turned a profit the proceeds would go towards Self Help Africa and Barnardos.

- CONOR CULLEN