ORGANISERS of the Welliestock music festival have received a resounding thumbs-down from local councillors after an application was made for grant support.

Wellington Town Council had received a request for a £1,500 grant from Welliestock organisers to recoup money paid out to Wellington Rugby Club and other expenses to put on the festival.

But it was certainly not music to the ears of the council’s policy and finance committee when it met on July 14.

Cllr John Thorne was quick to object to the application and said it was a “non-starter.”

“It does not meet our grants criteria,” he said. “Welliestock is a commercial operation. You can’t come to us asking for money to cover the losses of an event.”

Cllr Thorne said that if a local pub put on a music event and then came to the council asking for grant support to cover the costs “we would not do it.”

“This is what the organisers of Welliestock are doing, albeit on a larger scale,” said Cllr Thorne.

It was suggested that Welliestock was a community event – no different to Wellington Carnival.

But Cllr Thorne argued that the two events were completely different and pointed out that people had to buy tickets to attend the music festival, while Carnival was free to watch.

Cllr Chris Booth, although in agreement with Cllr Thorne, said: “Welliestock is a good event as it does bring people into Wellington.”

Committee chairman Cllr Mark Lithgow said: “It is a commercial enterprise.”

The Welliestock music festival made a triumphant return at Wellington Rugby Club on July 5 for the first time since 2018.

Around 1,000 people attended the event and enjoyed a packed line-up of bands throughout the day and night which was headlined by the ever-popular Wellington-based Filta – a group which features Welliestock organiser Huw Weston.