BELLE & Sebastian are among the many acts, suppliers, technicians and workers still waiting to be paid by the organisers of the Doune The Rabbit Hole music festival, The Herald has learned.
The Glasgow indie pop band headlined on the Saturday night, playing to some of the more than 10,000 people who attended the four-day event in July.
However, the group have only been "partly paid."
The Musicians' Union told us they had not "seen anything like the scale of the issues we have seen with Doune the Rabbit Hole."
They urged bands and acts considering accepting work at next year's festival to “exercise caution.”
Last week, in a statement, Doune The Rabbit Hole Festival Ltd, announced that they were winding the company up after suffering “huge financial difficulty”.
However, organisers said the festival would return in July next summer under the new management of Festival Beverage and Property Services Ltd, who operated the festival in 2018 and 2019.
They also claimed that they would “try to repay artists, crew and suppliers from the event in 2022 as soon as possible”.
READ MORE: Company behind well-known Scottish outdoor festival enters liquidation
According to Companies House, Doune The Rabbit Hole Ltd is run by Jamie Murray while Festival Beverage and Property Services Ltd is run by his father, Craig Murray, a blogger and former diplomat who was jailed last year for contempt of court after he was found to have published material capable of identifying four of the women who accused Alex Salmond of sexual assault.
According to his profile on Linked In, Jamie Murray is also the "Senior Project Manager" at Festival Beverage and Property Services Ltd.
It is not clear how many of the more than 200 acts booked for the festival have been paid in full or partly paid. Many acts approached by The Herald were unwilling to speak out.
Yesterday, Sacred Paws, Honeyblood and Scarlett Randle all confirmed that they had not been paid.
The festival is currently selling "early bird" tickets for next year's event though no lineup has been announced.
James Sandom, who manages Belle & Sebastian said the band, "would like to see the payment in full for us and other performers in 2022, prior to 2023 tickets being sold to the public."
Honeyblood told The Herald: “Doune the Rabbit Hole was a great festival. I really wanted to support it continuing after knowing that it had had a couple of rough years like we all had.
"There are not many camping outdoor festivals in Scotland.
"It's important to have them. So I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
"But unfortunately, I feel like we've been misled about what was going on.“
READ MORE: Doune the Rabbit Hole accused of 'insult' over unpaid artists
Caroline Sewell from the Musicians' Union said the problems with Doune The Rabbit Hole were “hugely concerning - particularly as the festival has been in receipt of significant amounts of public funding through Creative Scotland and Event Scotland.”
Doune the Rabbit Hole received £60,000 from the arts body's open funding strand in May, while Festival Beverages and Property Limited were granted £90,000 from the Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund in 2020 and 2021.
Ms Sewell said: “Whilst we fully appreciate the extremely difficult landscape being faced by every festival at the moment, we haven’t seen anything like the scale of the issues we have seen with Doune the Rabbit Hole elsewhere, and the news last week that they went into liquidation makes the prospects of ever being paid feel even more unlikely for many - despite the pledges being made by the organisers.
“The festival is now operating under a new company - but ultimately with the same people involved - and are selling tickets for the 2023 event.
"This is concerning to us and we would urge any musicians considering accepting work at Doune the Rabbit Hole 2023 to exercise caution and MU members should speak to us first.”
Ritchie Wilson from Bectu’s Scottish Live Event Network said organisers had promised them of their intention to pay everyone, right up until the firm entered liquidation.
“I mean, they may want to pay but when a company liquidates itself, the suggestion is that they don't have the means to pay. And that is obviously concerning our members very, very much.”
Doune The Rabbit Hole did not respond to requests for a comment.
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