Festival organiser: 'I still want to do something for Helensburgh'

But James Windebank says he hasn't yet decided whether or when that event might happen – or what form it will take.

The Gathering had been due to bring major Scottish musical names such as the Red Hot Chilli Pipers and Donnie Munro to the town on August 19 and 20.

But Mr Windebank and his colleagues pulled the plug less than three weeks before it was due to take place, blaming poor advance ticket sales.

Speaking exclusively to the Advertiser, Mr Windebank said there were no hidden agendas behind the festival's cancellation.

He said: “We set out with the idea of attracting between two and three thousand people on each day of the event, but we fell well short of that.

“Advance ticket sales were less than a thousand for the whole weekend, and a good portion of that was accompanied under-12s, who would have gone to the festival free.”

Following the announcement of the Gathering's cancellation, some members of the public suggested more people might have chosen to go along to the event on the day, rather than making a commitment well in advance.

Mr Windebank said: “You can't just take a chance on it being a really sunny day. And in the end it was raining, certainly on the Saturday.

“I know there was a feeling that we should have held out for people to show up on the day, but that was too much of a risk – for the organisers, the artists and the traders.

“It's not just a case of putting a stage up in a field – the police, for example, have to charge for their services, and you still have to pay for that, even if folk don't show up.

“Even if we did it again – and I can't confirm whether we are or whether we're not – it will always be a family event. But we have to be able to pay for the event and the infrastructure.”

Asked for his own view on why the idea of the Gathering didn't catch on with the Helensburgh public, Mr Windebank said: “Locally, I think it was a case of 'it's never happened before'. People didn't quite get what it was we were trying to do.

“We had a line-up of great acts, but if you've never been to a festival before why would you necessarily engage with it?

“Perhaps the scale was another thing we might have done differently. It wasn't overly big but I think we could have maybe gone with one day to start with.”

Mr Windebank also said the decision to make the Gathering a non-camping event made it harder to get festival-goers to commit in advance – but that the 'no camping' rule was a deliberate move to build trust with the Helensburgh community.

“We didn't want to run a festival on the scale we're looking at and put on camping in a town that isn't necessarily used to it,” he said.

“We wanted to build trust with the town then looking again at the possibility of camping in the future.”

The Gathering's cancellation came during a summer in which the organisers of several boutique festivals announced the events would no longer take place

The new Cowal Afterglow Festival was called off just days after the Gathering's similar announcement, while the inaugural May West Festival in Glasgow was also cancelled, and the Loopallu festival in the West Highlands was staged for the final time in September.

Mr Windebank said: “A large part of the reason [for the cancellation of the Argyll Gathering and other events] has been adverse weather.

“There's also a lot of boutique festivals in Scotland now. With T in the Park not happening at the moment, a window has opened up for events in other places.

“But there aren't that many people in Scotland to go round all the festivals, and the number of events spreads that number even more thinly.

“The cost of going to festivals is also going up. But I'm still looking to do something for Helensburgh – I just don't know what form it will take.

“Since the Gathering's cancellation I've had people come forward looking to work with me on stuff in Helensburgh.

“That's great, and I would really relish that opportunity. Here's hoping we can bring something to the town.”