This year’s Secret Garden Party festival will be the last ever

'All good things must come to an end'

This year’s edition of the Secret Garden Party will the last ever – claiming that an entirely different event will ‘rise from the ashes’ in the future.

A staple on the summer music calendar for 15 years, and one of the UK’s first ’boutique festivals’, Secret Garden Party has seen performances from the likes of Gorillaz, Florence + The Machine, Faithless, Lily Allen, Blondie and many more – but now founder Freddie Fellowes says ‘all good things must come to an end’, saying that SGP will end at its peak with many ‘imitators’, and they are working on a different festival to launch in the years ahead.

“I know some of you will be questioning, why now? And more importantly , why tell us now?,” said the Secret Garden Party boss. “I hope you don’t find the timing Machiavellian, however there is never the perfect time to drop this bombshell, too early or too late and people are going to miss out and be disappointed. Hopefully we have struck the middle ground here. Secondly I’m sure you will have, by now, spotted that this is the punchline to this year’s theme as it is ultimately going to be a huge celebration of the people who make the garden party: you.”

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He continued: “15 years ago I started out with a set of ideas as to what makes a good party and the most perfect venue for it. But with no set idea of what the destination was for this venture the ‘festival’ was, at that time, the perfect medium through which to explore these ideas. Much has changed since that first Garden Party, when there was nothing else like it in the UK: Facebook, YouTube and Twitter had yet to be invented and no one knew what a boutique festival was, let alone Glamping.”

Fellowes goes on: “Since then, with you always at the heart of it, The Garden Party has defined and redefined outdoor events in the UK; we have all done this together as a collective of truly independent outsiders. I have never compromised our principles and I never will. SGP has always been a beacon of what you can do within those terms and, as imitation (being the sincerest form of flattery) proves, it has set the bar for everyone else going forward.

“But it is exactly because of those principles, and the love for all of you who have made The Garden Party what it is, that I am committing this senseless act of beauty. What better way to honour the love that has been given to this project and wholly demonstrate this principle, than going out with a bang.

He added: “This isn’t some principled self-immolation: this is opening it up for new forms in the future. So this summer will be the almighty send-off that The Garden Party deserves and whilst that is going to cause some tears to be shed, think of it more as ‘Dylan goes electric’ than our Altamont. So watch this space for the phoenix rising from the ashes…

“Because after all you can’t be avant-garde from within an institution and lest we forget: the frontier always moves. As ever with Peace, Love and Tree Hugging Hippy Shit, Your Head Gardener”

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Secret Garden Party takes place from 20-23 July, with performances from Metronomy, Toots & The Maytals, Crystal Fighters, Peaches, Wild Beasts and many more. Tickets are available now and on sale here.

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