GuilFest, formerly the Guildford Festival of Folk and Blues, is an annual music festival held in Stoke Park, Guildford, England. The festival, like the larger Glastonbury Festival, features a range of genres including rock, folk, blues, and in recent years pop. In 2006 GuilFest was awarded the title of "Best Family Festival" in the UK Festival awards.[1] Following a 10-year hiatus from 2014, GuilFest returned to Stoke Park in summer 2024.[2]
GuilFests 1992–2014
The event was started in 1992 by Tony Scott a Guildford businessman who is a keen festival-goer, the festival grew from an audience size of 500 with two stages in 1992 to 20,000 with 10 stages by 2011.[3] As well as music, the festival also included comedy, theatre and performing arts. From 1992 to 1994 it was a one-day event. In 1995 it became a two-day event with onsite camping and was moved to nearby Loseley Park. GuilFest returned to Stoke Park in 1996 and became a three-day festival in 1997 with headliners Jethro Tull.[3]
1992 Guildford Festival of Folk and Blues, a one day event with two stages headlined by Peter Sarstedt, John Otway, Macavity's Cat.[3]
The 2005 event, at that point the biggest in the event's history with 15,000 people attending, featured 6 music stages along with a comedy tent. The headline acts were The Pogues, Paul Weller and Status Quo, other acts included Chas and Dave, The Subways[3] and The Storys.
After 21 years, GuilFest shut down.[9][10] Scotty Events Ltd, the company that ran the festival, said matters were in the hands of an insolvency practitioner. Tony Scott, from Scotty Events, said the company had been left with debts of about £300,000. He said the company's debts included payments to cover tax, VAT, PAYE, Surrey Police, Guildford Borough Council and private individuals.
Reasons cited by organisers included the abundance of competing major events in that year, most notably the London Olympics. Poor weather also contributed with the rain turning Stoke Park into a "quagmire by Saturday – and by Sunday it had turned into sticky bog".
To fill the gap, for 2013 the Magic FMSummer Of Love event was held at Stoke Park on the weekend of 13–14 July 2013, headlined by Jamiroquai and Bryan Adams.[11] A rival event, free festival GU1, took place the same weekend at the Holroyd Arms, a Guildford pub, in protest at what organisers saw as the "corporate takeover" of the former Guilfest by Magic FM's promoters Live Nation. The line-up included The Feathers, Louise Distras, Shakespearos, Anarchistwood, The Unbelievable Freeloaders From Mars, P45, Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area, Archive 45, Gobsausage, Black Anchor, Collage of Sound, Snork and Kerb.[11][12]
GuilFest returned in 2014 after permission was given quite late for an event this size in January of the same year, with conditions imposed by the local council.[13] Unfortunately despite reports of it being one of the best festivals the organisers had run, it went into insolvency again shortly afterwards blaming a bad weather forecast, leading to low ticket sales.
Revival
Eight years passed before GuilFest returned again, still being run by Tony Scott, on 16–17 July 2022 at a new location, Hurtwood Polo Club, in Cranleigh. This was headlined by Peter Hook and Sister Sledge.[14][15][16]
Although a much smaller event, 2022 enabled the festival to gear up for its return to Stoke Park in 2024, and a surprise announcement was made in December 2023 with the line-up.[2]
