Stewart Lee speaks out regarding rumoured ‘ATP 2.0’ cancellation

"I'm in the same boat as everyone else" says Lee in interview

Stewart Lee has spoken in an interview today (March 1) regarding the rumoured cancellation of his own curated ATP 2.0 festival at Pontins holiday camp.

As reported yesterday by NME, ATP organiser Barry Hogan had categorically denied the claims that the ATP 2.0 Festival, running between April 15-17 – and its follow up festival, curated by post hardcore band Drive-Like Jehu – had been cancelled.

I got in about half four yesterday,” Lee said in an interview with The Quietus today, “and I saw on the internet that someone had got a screen-grab of a thing from Pontin’s, saying ‘The organiser has cancelled this event’. Well, the organiser won’t have cancelled the event. So that must be a standard thing that goes out from Pontin’s if there’s some sort of problem. Which is probably a problem about payment, or something like that. A debt for the rent. It’s now five past twelve the next day, and it’s unlikely that anybody in the Pontin’s office will have started dealing with it before about 11.00am, so we don’t really know anything about it” he explained.

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“Barry [Hogan, of ATP] said there’d be a statement from Pontin’s about it this afternoon. The other thing is that there won’t be anyone at Pontin’s who knows what ATP is. They’ve just got a booking for the weekend, and for all they know, it’s a bowls weekend. They won’t know or care that someone’s coming from Texas, or something. So it’s a bit difficult to find out what the problem is. But, added to that, I can see why people’s alarm bells are ringing, given that he’s cancelled two events” he went on, empathising with ticket holders’ worries about the festival going ahead as planned.

Lee then went on to discuss his involvement with ATP and the rumour mill of the internet, before stating his final thoughts on whether the situation would be cleared up and the festival to go ahead as planned.

“At the moment, of course it’s terrifying for people. It’s not great for me either, to be honest. You know, I’ve got a babysitter, I’ve made plans, so in that respect I’m in the same boat as everyone else. I didn’t sleep last night, I thought I was gonna have a stroke or something. I suppose the way these things work is that ATP hoped that whatever good reputation I might have would become attached to the event… but the other side of that is that when things go bad, that becomes attached to me! The one time I do something like this, it would just be typical if it goes wrong. But I hope it goes ahead. I’d like to see that line-up happen.”

Read More: Comedian Stewart Lee to curate ATP Festival in 2016

Yesterday, NME received communication from ATP’s Barry Hogan, claiming that “We have just spoken to Pontins and we are currently resolving this miscommunication. Our events are going ahead as planned.”

After a twitter furore, Hogan also took to Twitter to confirm that the events were still running to plan after customers started to air their concerns. You can view the thread of Tweets below.

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All Tomorrow’s Parties had confirmed the first 19 acts due to perform at the holiday camp weekender (rebranded as ATP 2.0) this year.

Sleaford Mods, [a]The Raincoats[a] and Boredoms are among those scheduled to play, along with folk singer Shirley Collins and ’90s psychedelic rock trio The Heads.

Stand-up comedian and musician Lee, who has previously interviewed Sleaford Mods for NME, was recently announced as ATP 2.0’s curator, and has since said he will also be performing stand-up at the festival.

Also due to perform are ’80s Welsh group Datblygu, Aussie jazz trio The Necks, John Kirkpatrick and The Trembling Bells, Richard Youngs, Shonen Knife, Wild Billy Childish & The Dear Watsons, The Bevis Frond, Evan Parker, John Edwards, John Russell & Han Bennink, Trash Kit, Shopping, The Ex, Bardo Pond and The Nightingales.

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