Mutiny Festival organiser is '˜over the moon' at event's success

And now the organiser of Mutiny Festival, now in its fourth year, has reflected on its success and told of his team’s bid to get planning for 2018, despite concerns about security and drug-use.

Luke Betts, the festival’s 30-year-old organiser, said: ‘The whole team is over the moon about this year’s success, we’ve had some great feedback on social media.

‘About 30,000 people attended and performance-wise, both days were very strong.

‘As long as we can produce a really good line-up we’ll always be back. We’re already working on that for next year.

‘Our paint party was a hit and it’s gone viral online. We’ll have it as a regular fixture each year.

‘The tributes to the Manchester terror attack were very fitting, when Chase and Status got everyone to light their phones up it was very touching. We thank them for that.’

Security at the event was stepped up in light of the attack, new restrictions were put in place and in turn entry queues were longer – something Luke said crowds were supportive about knowing it was for safety.

People took to social media to comment on the issue, and festivalgoers’ drug-use. Mark Evans said: ‘The website said 100 per cent bag check, loads were not searched at all.’

Lynne Mills added: ‘I’ve never seen drug-use like it, it’s disgusting how openly people were able to take and deal drugs there.’

But Courtney Louise Shambrook said: ‘I felt so much safer with all of the extra security, and armed police, they all did a great job.’

Luke said his team worked with police and authorities to make sure the event was as safe as it could be.

He added: Security couldn’t have been tighter. We did everything we could to tackle drug-use, there were dogs at every entrance and undercover police inside, but there’s always going to be people who take drugs at events like this.

‘What’s important is how we educate people about the effects of drug-use. Bigger festivals now have on-site testing where people can find out what’s in their drugs.

‘We’ve never had any serious drug-related incidents.

‘I want the event to continue to grow, we need to make sure it’s fresh and we’re looking into how we can make the site different. I don’t want it to be a gig in a field.’