A paid-for ad feature for viagogo
Found Festival is a brand new three-day event that has risen from the ashes of Towersey Festival, which bowed out in 2024 after 60 years. Last May, ahead of the very last Towersey, festival directors Joe Heap and Mary Hodson said “economic challenges” had forced them to wind down the much loved independent event, which was founded in 1965 by their late grandfather Denis Manners MBE. Today, Hodson says they “knew it was time to try something new” before the family business “potentially fizzled out in quite a sad way”.
So, Heap and Hodson regrouped and came up with Found Festival, “an inclusive yet exclusive event of musical and cultural discovery”, which will take place from August 22 to 24 at Claydon Estate in Buckinghamshire. Towersey moved to this site in 2020 after many years in neighbouring Oxfordshire, but Found promises a more intimate experience with 2,000 revellers instead of the previous festival’s 5,000.
“We want Found to feel like an ‘easy’ festival: small, but with lots of space,” Hodson explains. “Not having to fight your way to the front to see the band you love, that’s a really important element of Found.”
Hodson says elements of the tried and tested Towersey recipe will be carried forward, including the “great programme of folk music” that regulars have come to expect. But at the same time, she believes that relaunching as Found Festival gives her and Heap “a clean slate” to be even more eclectic. Artists representing genres including Americana, country, roots, blues and world music will take pride of place on the bill, along with spoken word, comedy, circus and arts performers.
“We like to say we’re programming head-turners, not necessarily headliners, which means we’re all about providing really great quality music by artists that people may not know yet,” Hodson adds. Found attendees will also be able to try masterclasses and workshops in everything from blacksmithing to learning a new musical instrument. “It’s a festival built on experiences as opposed to a ‘sit back and watch’ vibe,” she says.
Overcoming the odds
Hodson readily admits that the decision to build Found with just 2,000 punters in mind was partly a practical one. “It’s almost impossible for independent festivals to survive in the current climate and reducing the size means that we can take the pressure off a bit in terms of targets and budgeting,” she says. “It means that in our first year, we can put on something as brilliant as we want it to be without a really heavy financial risk.”
Hodson says candidly that Found Festival “simply couldn’t go ahead” this year without some kind of outside funding. She and Heap have decided to partner with viagogo after a two-year process of working with and getting to know the team behind the ticket marketplace. “It felt like the right thing to do because of our shared values,” she says. “viagogo really believe in supporting emerging artists and that’s a key aspect of our ethos. The funding they’ve given us has rescued us from shutting down completely – it means we can launch a brand new festival this year with a bit more comfort.”
Viagogo have been working with the grassroots sector by supporting venues, emerging artists programs, and now independent festivals. Outside of the support for Found Festival, this work includes partnering with organisations like Saffron and Limitless Live.
In 2024 viagogo started supporting Towersey Festival, they said “We’re excited to be working with Mary and Joe on their new project to sustain their brilliant legacy. It’s a very important partnership to us, festivals like Found are vital to propelling and sustaining the next generation of talent.
We’re dedicated to finding ways to support the industry. For over a decade, we’ve partnered with organisations that help underserved, emerging talent. Through social impact partnerships and donations, we’re working with the wider live entertainment industry to help solve some of the systemic issues that prevent people from participating in live events.”
This isn’t overstating the challenges now being faced by events like Found. According to the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), 78 grassroots gatherings were cancelled, postponed or wound down completely in 2024. Although the start of summer festival season is still several months away, 2025 has already claimed its first casualty. Last week, Liverpool’s Africa Oyé Festival announced that it will be taking a year off because rising costs of up to 30 per cent had made this year’s event “unworkable”.
Hodson says with a sigh that there are “many interconnected reasons” why independent festivals are sadly in decline. “Of course the hangover from COVID has a lot to do with it, but so does the cost-of-living crisis,” she says. “Before, a family might have gone on a traditional summer holiday and come to a festival for a weekend, but now they’re having to choose between the two.”
At the same time, festivals are having to cover rising production and supplier costs of anything up to 50 per cent. “One of the reasons these costs have really gone up is the fact the talent pool is so much smaller now,” Hodson says. “People had to find another way to earn a living during the pandemic and they haven’t necessarily come back to the industry.”
Whereas the “big boys” of the festival scene may be able to absorb some of these costs by making economies of scale, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for smaller events like Found to balance the books. And at a time when so many people are feeling the pinch, putting up ticket prices just isn’t a realistic option.
Discover your next obsession
Ahead of the first Found Festival, Hodson encourages music fans to “look around more” when picking which events to attend this summer. Instead of returning to the same massive festival as last year, why not try one with a more bespoke vibe? “Don’t be too influenced by one act on the bill, because the rest of the festival might not be what you want from a weekend,” she says. “We definitely want Found to feel like a whole festival experience. It’s about losing yourself for a few days and trying stuff you don’t normally have time for.”
She believes the festival’s intimate capacity will make it feel even more energising and community-minded. “People are going to come away refreshed and renewed instead of feeling like they need a week off because they’ve spent three days rushing around from stage to stage,” she says. “It’s called Found Festival because you’ll make discoveries – a passion for something you haven’t tried before or a new band you really love.”
Found Festival takes place at Claydon Estate in Buckinghamshire from Friday August 22 to Sunday August 24