Shockwaves have yet again recently emanated across the UK goth scene from drama ground zero on the North Yorkshire coast, as Tomorrow’s Ghosts festival – the current version of the flagship goth event at the Spa Pavilion in Whitby – will not be running a spring/April edition of the event from next year, thus ending the cycle of twice-yearly goth events at the venue as part of the long-running Whitby goth festival/gathering/clusterfuck. A statement by the promoters sited increased costs for themselves and the audience as the reason for the decision, which although not impacting events by other promoters over the weekend does nonetheless mean that the largest goth event in the UK is being cut in half.
Of course, to some degree this is only the second decision relating to the event that has any degree of rationality following that first, fateful decision to pass the running of the Spa shows onto the current event from Whitby Goth Weekend in 2018. It has always been an odd kink (one of many, no doubt) that the Whitby goth festival is unique in happening twice a year; after all, every notable cultural event in British life, from Burns Night to the FA Cup final, happens just once a year. Similar events such as Damnation, Infest, and Rebellion also only happen annually; UK goths are seemingly unique in making their pilgrimage to Whitby twice a year, considering that even the Hajj only happens once every twelve months. On the face of it, this looks like a sudden attack of common sense.
It is worth noting, however, that we got to this position through the initial runaway success of Whitby Gothic Weekend in the first place. Demand for the early festivals in the ’90s was so great that as early as 1997 the festival began running April events alongside the autumn ones, and that even those events were so successful that overspill shows had to be arranged for other venues at the same time. Although generally considered slightly quieter than their ‘Halloween’ counterparts, and catering for the overspill was gradually taken on by other promoters in the town, it still saw both The Damned and Paradise Lost make their WGW debuts and was an essential component of the multi-million pound gothic industry around the event. It was also arguably the failure of the April 2018 event in a reduced-capacity Spa that led to WGW losing the franchise at the venue. So for the April event to vanish now does look somewhat odd.
There may, however, be more to it than first seems. When Tomorrow’s Ghosts took ownership of the Spa events (initially under Absinthe Promotions) they provided solid line-ups based around proven headliners – Fields of the Nephilim, New Model Army, and Wayne Hussey headlining their first three events, as well as Peter Hook & The Light and many others. New promoters Ghostwriter Consultancy, who took over after the October 2021 event, followed the winning formula but over their first three events also booked Fields of the Nephilim, New Model Army, and The Mission (featuring Wayne Hussey). The number of headliners fitting the bill to deliver the box office clout required to fill the Spa is now seemingly reduced to a shallow and diminishing pool of legacy acts.
It is also worth noting that Ghostwriter decided to forgo the April 2022 event in order to prepare for a Halloween 2022 launch, and after running in April 2023 have already decided not to run in April again, meaning they will have only run an April event once – and that was a sell-out. If the numbers can’t justify running it again after such a success, then that must be of concern to followers of the festival.
It therefore appears that the Whitby event may be reaching its Event Horizon – a festival that is outrageously successful, and is too big to fail, but which is now making the task of running its core event increasingly impossible. A full town on festival weekend doesn’t necessarily translate to a full Spa without headliners of sufficient stature, which leads to increased costs for the promoters, and then accordingly for the audience, who are facing accommodation costs that are now verging on the extortionate; and the removal of the April event will surely only make October’s even busier.
Exactly where the event can go for oxygen to survive this bottleneck is, at best, unclear at the time of writing.
Voodoo Diplomacy 