What is Wilkswood Reggae Festival?

The Festival is produced and administered by Hard Way Promotions Ltd, 4 The Triangle, Poole BH16 5PG.

The Festival takes place on the site of the Wilkswood Farm (Valley Road, Swanage, Dorset BH19 3DU). Gates will open at 10.00am on Friday 21st July 2023 (or at 10.00am on Thursday 20th for Bonus Thursday Ticket holders). The main stage will finish at 12.00pm on Sunday 23rd with low-volume, acoustic and chill out music until around 2.00am. The site will be expected to be clear by 2.00pm on Monday 24th.

Maximum attendance including weekend campers and day attendees will be 2,500.

Contact email address: info@wilkswoodreggae.com.

Information for Residents

We will contact all residents near the site to explain what the Festival is and when it will be taking place. We have strict curfews and in order to maintain the license for future events will be adhering to the Purbeck Council’s regulations regarding traffic and volume. If you live in the vicinity, the local newsletter, The Dubber, will contain further details. We want to get on with all our neighbours, so if you have any concerns you’d like to raise, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Lost Children

The Wilkswood Reggae Festival is only a small festival but crowds can sometimes be overwhelming for children. To avoid any potential crisis, give your children the same advice you would if you were anywhere else: don’t go off with strangers or anyone without telling you first. If they get lost, tell them ask for help from a security steward (they will be clearly uniformed) or any Festival staff with a radio.

It’s really helpful to reunite lost children with their parents if they have their parent’s mobile number on them. Write it in marker pen somewhere on the child’s clothing or somewhere that the child won’t lose. Please don’t write their name on the wristband. If you lose your children, ask for advice at the Information Point (this will be signposted on the site and in the Festival programme).

Although there is a wealth of kid’s entertainment occurring through out the duration of the Festival (including a designated Kid’s Field and Chillout Area), there are no crèche facilities at the Festival so you must make your own arrangements within your group of friends and partners for someone to be supervising your children at all times.

General terms & conditions

By purchasing a ticket (or tickets) for the Wilkswood Reggae Festival you are agreeing to the terms & conditions outlined herein.

TICKET TERMS & CONDITIONS

1. Your ticket is non-refundable and non-transferable unless by written agreement with the organisers. 

1.1. Covid restrictions in 2020 and 2021 required specific terms & conditions: these can be viewed as additional items later in these terms.

1.2. No refunds will be considered less than one month before or more than one month after the start of the festival (whether that festival has been rescheduled or not).  

2. The artist and performer line-up and all billed attractions may be subject to change at any time without notice.

3. The organisers reserve the right to refuse admission in any circumstances. In order to facilitate the security, safety and comfort of all guests the Premises Licence Holder may refuse entry to ticket holders who attempt to enter the Festival site with prohibited items. Prohibited items include, but are not limited to glass, animals, sound systems, illegal drugs & nitrous oxide (laughing gas), weapons, excessive alcohol. By buying a ticket, you confirm that you are allowing both ticket holders and vehicles to be searched to this end.

4. Admission is at Ticket Holder’s own risk. The organisers will not be held liable for any loss, injuries or damages sustained at the event including damage, theft or losses to property and motor vehicles, if the cause is due to the negligence of the ticket holder, the actions of other patrons or third parties or force majeure.

5. Duplicate tickets will not be issued for lost or stolen tickets.

6. Tickets are only valid when purchased from the official outlets and are strictly non-refundable. Tickets bought from other sources will be refused admission.

7. This ticket is personalised to the named ticket holder and may not be:

(a)  sold or transferred to another person unless in agreement with Dubwood Productions via email tickets@wilkswoodreggae.co.uk or

(b)  used by any person for promotional purposes, including as a prize or other reward in a competition or lottery, except with the prior written permission of the organisers

(c)  purchased by a third party and sold on for profit.

8. Where a ticket has been obtained by a person in breach of clause 7, the organisers obligations in relation to the ticket will cease to have effect immediately, in particular:

(a) any person presenting the ticket may be refused entrance to, or removed without notice from The Wilkswood Reggae Festival

(b) the ticket may be confiscated and there shall be no obligation on the organisers to refund any monies paid for the ticket.

9. Strictly no trading or other commercial activity by any ticket holder will be allowed on Festival Site without the Festival’s prior written consent. All enquiries to traders@wilkswoodreagge.com.

10. Entrance to the Festival is subject to both the Festival’s Photography Policy and Broadcaster Internet and Filming Policy which prohibit the use of photographic or filming equipment on the Festival site for commercial gain, without the Festival’s prior written consent.

11. Tickets cannot be used as part of any marketing, media, sales promotion, staff reward programme or general competition use whether commercial or non-commercial without prior written permission of the festival organisers.

12. As a condition of sale the ticket holder consents to being filmed, photographed and recorded for television, radio, webcast and other public broadcast in any medium and/or for any video or DVD as part of the audience and/or by onsite CCTV cameras and recordings for security purposes.

13. Wristbands removed from the wrist or tampered with will be rendered invalid and will not be replaced. Lost or missing wristbands will not be replaced. Those without wristbands will be refused admission to the site or may be removed from the site. For security purposes this ticket remains the property of the organisers at all times and all wristbands issued by the organisers remain the property of the organisers until the event finishes.

14. All under 18s must have a paying adult accompanying them.

TICKET PAYMENT INSTALMENT PLAN

1. Our instalment payment plan allows you to spread the cost of Adult and Youth Weekend ticket purchase over monthly instalments, including booking fees. Bonus Thursday, Family Bundles and Campervan tickets are not able to be paid for in instalments but can be purchased separately at any time. You will have the option to choose this method at the point of purchase. All instalments must be paid in full in order to secure the tickets you’ve booked.

2. All instalment plan tickets will be sent to the purchaser only once all three instalments have been paid. The purchaser will receive confirmation of each instalment payment via email and the Weekend Tickets will emailed to the same address within 48 hours of the final instalment payment.

3. All Weekend Tickets purchased using the instalment plan are subject to the same terms & conditions as tickets purchased in full. Tickets are not refundable but may be gifted or transferred provided you inform the Wilkswood Reggae ticket office (via tickets@wilkswoodreggae.com) of the new owner’s name, email and contact number.

4. This agreement is not cancellable by you and none of the instalment payments are refundable. However they can be ‘rolled over’ to future festivals. In the case that only one or two instalments have been made and the purchaser cannot attend the event date, then vouchers to the value of the instalments paid will be issued for the purchaser to redeem against tickets for future festivals.

Coronavirus Covid-19 Additional Conditions – 2020 Update

Due to the global coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, the Wilkswood Reggae Festival was rescheduled from the original dates of July 24th to July 26th 2020 to the weekend of Friday 23rd July to Sunday 25th July 2021.

All tickets (including Adult, Youth, Child & Campervan) bought prior to the rescheduling remain valid for the rescheduled event. Any ticket-holders unable to attend the 2021 event can also use their ticket(s) for the 2022 event.

As a bonus all ticket-holders who retain their tickets for the rescheduled event in 2021 are also entitled to an additional festival day on Thursday 22nd July 2021 at no additional charge. This is has been added as our way of saying thank you to everyone for sticking with us and supporting the festival. This extra date will not be available for purchase so your original ticket now gets you FOUR days of live reggae with FOUR nights camping!

All ticket-holders were emailed directly on the 27th May 2020 to explain the situation. All tickets are sold on a non-refundable basis (the Eventbrite listing and our website’s terms & conditions clearly stated this) and would only be refunded in the case of an event cancellation (rather than postponement). However, as a gesture of goodwill, we are providing discretionary refunds to any ticket holders that request them.

If you do need to request a refund please email tickets@wilkswoodreggae.co.uk, stating your name, your order number and the amount you are claiming by June 30th 2020. Any refund requests after this date will be unable to be fulfilled. All existing ticket holders will be presumed to be attending the rescheduled event.

Refunds will be issued via the Eventbrite ticketing portal and it may take up to ten working days to process. Booking/processing fees cannot be refunded as these are paid direct to Eventbrite and the debit/credit card issuers at time of purchase.

To minimise the number of refunds we are also allowing all existing tickets to be transferrable. This was previously not permitted in order to reduce third-party outlets from profiting from resales. However if you have booked in a group and one or two ticket holders can’t make the revised dates, the tickets can be resold to alternative people to attend instead. All we ask is that if you resell your ticket you inform us via email on tickets@wilkswoodreggae.co.uk so that we can change the ticket holder details (we only require a name and email address). Tickets remain transferrable right up to the date of the festival in 2021.

Coronavirus Covid-19 Additional Conditions – 2021 Update

Due to the uncertainty of lockdown restrictions easing on July 19th 2021 and the lack of financial support in the event of being forced to cancel, the decision was made on June 16th 2021 to postpone the festival for a second year. The Wilkswood Reggae Festival will now take place from Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th July 2022.

All ticket holders were informed directly via the Eventbrite and Ticket Tailor ticketing portals on June 16th 2022. 

All tickets are sold on a non-refundable basis (both the Eventbrite and Ticket Tailor listings and our website’s terms & conditions clearly state this) and would only be refunded in the case of an event cancellation (rather than postponement). However, as a gesture of goodwill, refunds were issued in very limited, individual cases based on the ticket holder providing proof that they could not attend the rearranged festival in 2022.

No further refunds will be issued after midnight of Thursday July 22nd, the eve of the 2021 festival event. Any refund requests after this date will be unable to be fulfilled. All existing ticket holders will be presumed to be attending the rescheduled event.

All tickets (including Adult, Youth, Child & Campervan) bought prior to the rescheduling (either for the 2020 or the 2021 events) remain valid for the rescheduled event in 2022. Ticket holders do not need to do anything to action this transfer as all valid tickets will become automatically valid for the 2022 event.

As a bonus all ticket-holders who retain their tickets for the rescheduled event in 2022 are also entitled to an additional festival day on Thursday 21st July 2022 at no additional charge. This is has been added as our way of saying thank you to everyone for sticking with us and supporting the festival. This extra date will not be available for purchase so your original ticket now gets you FOUR days of live reggae with FOUR nights camping!

To minimise the number of refunds we are also allowing all existing tickets to be transferrable. This was previously not permitted in order to reduce third-party outlets from profiting from resales. However if you have booked in a group and one or two ticket holders can’t make the revised dates, the tickets can be resold to alternative people to attend instead. All we ask is that if you resell your ticket you inform us via email on tickets@wilkswoodreggae.co.uk so that we can change the ticket holder details (we only require a name and email address). Tickets remain transferrable right up to the date of the festival in 2022. We will be having a ticket resale page on the festival website nearer next year’s event in order for ticket holders to safely resell their tickets.

INFORMATION & NOTIFICATION

Please also ensure that you have read the Terms & Conditions

1. Car parking is included in the ticket price. Weekend passes must be purchased for campervans and caravans.

2. Do not buy tickets from street traders or unauthorised agencies. Tickets resold will void the organisers of any responsibility to the ticket holder and original buyer unless with written permission from the organisers. Beware of forgeries.

3. Festival Programmes will be available on site as will official Merchandise (also available online).

4. Please use the toilets and urinals and do not pollute the streams and hedges.

5. Please use the litter bins and recycling points provided.

6. Your vehicle may be searched by security personnel at the vehicle gates on entry to the Festival car parks.

7. You may be searched at the entrance. Any items which the organisers consider may be used in an illegal or offensive manner shall be confiscated. Persons suspected of carrying out illegal and/or offensive activities onsite may be searched. Anyone resisting confiscation of disallowed items or disregarding these conditions will face eviction from the site.

8. No animals are allowed on site with the exception of registered dogs for the disabled.

9. Fireworks, Chinese/flying lanterns, flares, sound systems and generators are not permitted.

10. To protect your own safety and those of other guests, please act responsibly.

11. Medical treatment at the Festival is provided by an external medical services provider who are a separate legal entity. Details are available upon request. Any claims resulting from medical treatment on-site should be directed to them directly. The organisers accept no liability for any injury, claim or damages resulting from any medical treatment on-site.

12. Limited disabled facilities are available – please contact us for further information

13. Smoking is not permitted in enclosed public areas

14. The organisers operate a ‘Challenge 25’ policy for alcohol sales. If you look under 25, you will not be served alcohol unless you can prove you are over 18 – by presenting acceptable ID (photo ID cards, passports, photo driving licenses). Do not buy or provide alcohol for under 18s. Anyone under 18 found with alcohol will have it removed.

15.The organisers do not offer refunds in the event of lost or stolen tickets or where the ticket holder cannot attend the festival due to reasons beyond the Festival’s control. You might consider it prudent to insure the value of your ticket in the event of such loss.

16. No fires are allowed on site. Portable barbecues and gas camping stoves are permitted if raised off the ground. Do not use barbecues or stoves inside tents or change gas canisters inside tents.

17. You can bring a reasonable amount of alcohol for personal consumption onto the camp site. This must not be in glass containers. Any glass or excessive amounts found will be confiscated.

18. Please do not dig any holes – this can harm the cattle who have to use the field after the festival.

19.The organisers operates a zero tolerance for the selling of illegal substances at any of its events. As in all other areas of the UK, the consumption of illegal recreational drugs is prohibited at the festival. Please also note that use of nitrous oxide (NOS) and ‘legal highs’ are also prohibited at the event.

20. All under 18s must have a paying adult accompanying them.

Crime Prevention Statement

Wilkswood Reggae Festival is an overwhelmingly peaceful event yet some crime does unfortunately occur at festivals. The most common crime is theft from – or even of – tents. Security staff and stewards provide 24 hour patrol the around the site. You can help yourself by following the advice provided by Dorset Police: 

• Don’t let the criminals disrupt your enjoyment by committing crime against you or your friends. 
• Lock and empty your vehicles. Leave the glove compartment open and conspicuously empty. 
•  Only bring what you can afford to lose. 
• There’s safety in groups: set up camp near friends and make friends with your neighbours. 
• If you see someone who looks unwell or not coping because of over indulgence, please get the attention of a Steward straight away
• Look out for each other’s property.  
• Mark your property: clearly label your gear (including your tent) with your postcode. Obvious indelible markings will significantly reduce the risk of things being stolen and will increase the chance of their return if found. 
• Tag your keys with a phone number and a friend’s address. DO NOT USE YOUR OWN!
• Take any valuables with you when you leave your tent. To make life harder for thieves, leave your tent untidy so there’s not an obvious bag to grab quickly.  Be inventive about where you hide your valuables when sleeping: you may not hear someone enter your tent, so separate your money and valuables into small amounts and hide them in different places in your tent. 
• Don’t challenge people looking through tents – report them to Festival Stewards/Security. Security are there for reporting suspicious behaviour, and offenders will be dealt with accordingly.  
• Keep with friends or people you trust: unfortunately at any gathering a small number of people can attend to prey on others. You present a far less vulnerable target as a group than you would on your own.  
• Money-sense – Don’t keep all your cash and valuables in the same place; spread them around in different pockets. Only take the credit cards you need – make a note of your credit card numbers and leave it at home, plus the number to call if they are mislaid.  
• Wear your wristband at all times. Once inside the security fence Stewards & Security are able to make a visual check on the legitimacy of each person on site. Please note if you lose your wristband and cannot supply either your numbered ticket stub or your e-ticket printout with valid ID when you claim your replacement you will regrettably be ejected from site. 
• If you do have something stolen, or if you lose something, we will operate a Lost Property facility at the Information Office. It is always worth checking there if anything goes missing. If your item has not been handed in please complete a lost property form as this will help us match you up with your belongings if they are found during clean-up. 
• Bring an old mobile phone with you to the event and save clear contact numbers like ‘home’ we can call if we find your phone. Although we do liaise with the police, if you require a crime number you will need to obtain that yourself through your local police station.
• Live music on the main stage will end at 11:00pm on Friday and at 12:00pm on Saturday and Sunday. The other two stages will have low-volume, acoustic and chill out music until around 2.00am. Please don’t instigate, attend or encourage impromptu campsite musical gatherings. Not only will there be a lot of sleeping children at the event but any undue noise levels could threaten the future of the event.
• Sound systems can cause upset and distress to our neighbours and threaten our licence. These will be removed at your own risk. 
• Please do respect the land – clear up after yourselves, put litter in bins and recycle where possible.