Billericay RSS Feed Send your news, pictures & videos


Send us your news!


Barleylands pulls out of teenager’s plan for music festival


A FOUR-DAY music festival for up to 120,000 revellers in Billericay looks unlikely to go ahead, after the host venue pulled out.

It seems ifestlive will not happen after bosses of Barley-lands showground said they were no longer interested.

Last week Phil Hutchinson, 19, who lives in Billericay, said his company, PH Productions, wanted to stage the event between July 1 and July 4 next year.

Phil Burrows, commercial manager at Barleylands, said: “PH Productions made preliminary inquiries regarding hiring our venue for a festival. But, after further investigations, we have spoken to them and agreed the ifestlive will not be going ahead at Barleylands.”

Mr Hutchinson said his company had been working with former V Festival planner Tony Wheeler on bringing the event to Billericay.

Mr Wheeler, now a production manager for events management company Nine Yards, said: “We’re not involved in that. I had a brief conversation with that young man a couple of years ago and know nothing about it.”

The Echo tried, several times, to call Mr Hutchinson, who claimed to be a millionnaire, but he did not return our calls.

Meanwhile, neither Basildon Council nor Billericay Town Council have seen any plans or licensing applications for the event.

Ticket companies Ticket-master and Essex Live said they were due to start selling tickets for the event tomorrow.

Jon Wiffen, a spokesman for Ticketmaster, and David Eve, managing director of Essex Live, vowed to offer a full refund to customers if the event was cancelled.

However, Jim Devlin, vice chairman of Billericay town council, said he would not advise people to buy tickets until licensing had been formally approved and a line-up confirmed.

He said: “I think buyers have to beware.”

Comments(18)

mrslc says...
12:13pm Fri 5 Mar 10

Thank heavens for that, the noise and traffic pollution would be hellish for local residents.

152 says...
12:32pm Fri 5 Mar 10

Sounds like another Gary Cooper.... I wonder if Phil Hutchinson wants to sponsor Southend United next...

undertaker says...
1:20pm Fri 5 Mar 10

mrslc wrote:
Thank heavens for that, the noise and traffic pollution would be hellish for local residents.
No it would'nt we would have enjoyed it you miserable old hen.

DannyK86 says...
1:23pm Fri 5 Mar 10

That's a shame, would have bee ngood to see a local music festival. Maybe next year?!

essexboi1989 says...
4:04pm Fri 5 Mar 10

well it's not surprising really

ukman says...
4:17pm Fri 5 Mar 10

Pie in the sky event ?

APR says...
5:53pm Fri 5 Mar 10

ukman wrote:
Pie in the sky event ?
It was never goingt to happen, not at Barleylands anyway.

They would have demanded a lot of money up front.

Mary Lou says...
7:11pm Fri 5 Mar 10

Looks like Barleylands is sticking to Car Boot sales.

Pity, it would have been good for live music fans.

resident3 says...
7:35pm Fri 5 Mar 10

Millionaire??? A million what exactly? Billy **** more like.

bazzo says...
9:22pm Fri 5 Mar 10

Did anyone check his credentials before reporting on this event ? Or is he just a chancer hoping to use advance ticket money to fund the event ? If the money was there to back it I'm sure the other parties mentioned would still be interested.

APR says...
10:41pm Fri 5 Mar 10

The people who run Barleylands are very shrewd business men.

They don't let any events take place unless they stand to make a big profit.

Some years ago, a club I belong to wanted to do an event for charity.

They wanted us to put a huge amount of money up front, and wanted half of any profit, ie the money which would have gone to charity.

ConkerBonker says...
8:36am Sat 6 Mar 10

See told ya he was a nutter!

APR says...
10:14am Sun 7 Mar 10

Just another note about Barleylands.
We usually go to the big country fair every year.

Health and Safety doesn't seem to exist there. Youngsters driving vehicles in public areas, and operating potentially dangerous machines.
There is going to be a serious accident there sooner or later.

Basvegas says...
7:26am Mon 8 Mar 10

APR wrote:
The people who run Barleylands are very shrewd business men. They don't let any events take place unless they stand to make a big profit. Some years ago, a club I belong to wanted to do an event for charity. They wanted us to put a huge amount of money up front, and wanted half of any profit, ie the money which would have gone to charity.
I work with the local scout group, we get free use of the show ground & lake all year round. I also know that St luke's get alot of support to from Barleylands too. Its a shame the festivals not happening here, beats being stuck in a que for V-fest!

Brentwood says...
10:15am Mon 8 Mar 10

My family and I regularly visit Barleylands and love going to their events. I know that a lot of money they raise throughout the year and at the Essex Country Show goes to helping local charities.

richomack360 says...
12:59pm Mon 8 Mar 10

So this amazing business man has been found as a liar and a total bull-5hitter

Superb, I wouldn't hire him to organise my family BBQ

susie65 says...
8:59am Tue 9 Mar 10

On reading this artical, it seems to me that this bloke was ready to con thousands of people out of their money for an vent that was never going to take place.
It sounds to me that the people running barleylands should be praised for saving people from loosing their hard earned cash.
At least somone has their head screwed on.

maverick23 says...
7:08pm Tue 16 Mar 10

That's definitely a good article. Great job, keep up the good work.

<a href="http://www.mp3
do.com/soundrecorder
.html">music recorder</a>


Organiser – Phil Hutchinson had announced plans for a music event to rival V Festival Organiser – Phil Hutchinson had announced plans for a music event to rival V Festival

Most popular






Local Information

Enter your postcode, town or place name

House prices »   Schools »   Crime »   Hospitals »

Local Businesses