A POPULAR Dalgety Bay music festival may be forced out of Fife after a change in regulations means it’s looking for a new home.

The PKD festival has rocked into Dalgety Bay Sport Centre for the last eight years, but a ban on having alcohol on the premises has led to the need for organisers to find an alternative venue.

Since starting in 2008 as a simple homemade go-kart event, which was known as the Push Kart Derby, the event has grown and has just been nominated for Scotland’s Best Outdoor Festival in the 2016 Scottish Outdoor Leisure Awards, placing it alongside competition from events including T in the Park and Rewind.
This year’s festival – which was held in aid of local community projects in Fife – saw a sell-out, 5,000-strong crowd turn up for a family-friendly day of music, motors, food and fun.

It included headline performances from boy band 911, pop group S Club, indie band Space and Scottish singer Owen Paul.

Organisers Mark Bennett and Stuart Prentice are devastated at the prospect of moving and now face a frantic search for a new venue for next year’s event.

“The Fife Sports and Leisure Trust have advised us that because they are a sports and leisure trust, they should promote health and wellbeing, and should not allow alcohol on any of their premises,” explained Mark.

“However, in that case, they maybe shouldn’t have vending machines either.

“It has shocked us. We were hoping that because of the amount of revenue that it brings onto the site and the feelgood factor, they may let us use it as the exception.

“We have been hoping someone on the trust board would stand up and say that for this one event, let them be the exception to the rule.

"We get our own licence, we police it ourselves and we know what we are doing.

“In the eight years, there hasn’t been a single alcohol-fuelled incident at all and police have never been called. It is a family festival.”

The event costs about £50,000 to put on every year, and this sum is raised through donations and ticket sales, with the leftover proceeds being shared out among local community projects and good causes.

Having all but given up on a U-turn by the trust, efforts are now being made to find somewhere new for next year’s event on July 15.

“We have given ourselves a fortnight to find a venue so we can effectively launch next year’s festival,” Mark told the Press.

“We are approaching one or two local sites but if they aren’t available, it will leave Fife.

“Community projects will miss out if we leave.

“It will not be Scout groups and nurseries in Dalgety Bay who get our profits, it will be the groups from wherever we are.”

As part of their quest to rescue the event, the pair were due to meet local MP Roger Mullin about the situation yesterday afternoon (Wednesday).

A Fife Sports and Leisure Trust spokeswoman said their decision had come after a review of their booking conditions.

“Fife Sports and Leisure Trust manages 14 leisure facilities across Fife on behalf of Fife Council.

“As such, under our agreement with the local authority, we have a requirement to provide a range of services from our centres which meet the requirements of local communities, as well as deliver wider access to physical activity opportunities for the people of Fife,” she explained.

“Earlier this year, the trust reviewed its booking conditions, in part, due to an increase in requests for the hire of our facilities where alcohol would be sold at an event.

“Following wider consultation with its board of directors, it was decided that the trust would no longer accept bookings for hire of its facilities where alcohol would be sold or consumed.

“This policy fully reflects the trust’s commitment to improve the health of Fifers and promote and raise awareness of the links between activity and improved physical and mental health and wellbeing across Fife’s communities.

“Bookings which entail the sale and consumption of alcohol are completely at odds with our health improvement agenda and the work that we undertake with NHS Fife and other partners.

“We are sorry to lose bookings, particularly ones where organisers of events have had an established relationship with the trust, however, we have suggested the PKD Festival organisers may wish to approach Fife Council to find alternative facilities for them to host their event.”