This year we have taken the difficult decision to introduce a £1 charge for the Festival's programme.
In recent years we have found that the advertising revenue our publisher earned has been insufficient for us to give you both the size of programme we thought you ought to have and to provide sufficient copies to cope with the growth in attendance. As a result festival goers have not been getting all the information they required, with those who came on Saturday often not getting a programme at all. There is also an environmental consideration, as a very considerable waste of recourses occurred. Why was this? Because the programme was free, ever one took a copy, then promptly discarded them on to the floor, sometimes completely unread. We decided that this unsatisfactory situation could not continue. Hence, what we believe is very modest charge of £1 will be levied. Compare that with the cost of a programme for a rugby or football match at Edgeley Park or the price of programme at a concert or the theatre.
The income will firstly be used to offset the cost of providing you with a bigger, better, brighter, glossier programme and to ensure that everybody who wants a programme can have one. Secondly, at least 25p from every sale will be donated to our Festival Charity, whose volunteers will be selling the programme. Any balance left over will then be used to assist our unpaid volunteers, who give up their time so generously, with the additional costs they incur with late night taxis (and for a few who come a distance - their accommodation). We hope that you appreciate the reasons for this decision – remember that we have only had one entry price increase since we first moved to Edgeley Park. There are few if any CAMRA festivals across the UK which have lower prices for beer and cider.