Bryn Terfel rules out Faenol plan for time being

Gŵyl y Faenol was a success despite difficulties this year said the singer

Opera star Bryn Terfel has confirmed there will be no more Faenol festivals - at least for the time being.

The Gwynedd-based singer, who was the founder of the festival, said he would not consider putting on the North Wales event again in the current climate.

He said he had learned lessons after the "terrible disappointment" of this year's festival being cancelled.

He said people were unwilling to pay to see the same artists at the festival more than once.

"I wouldn't consider putting on a festival at the moment... even more so after announcements yesterday and the possible linking of S4C and the BBC, as money from television is so important," said Mr Terfel.

'So different'

He said lessons had been learned too about the type of artist people wanted to come to see.

The comedy night was "so different" he said.

"We tried to get people to buy tickets beforehand.. but that did not happen even with Westlife... and you need the 'popular' evening to sell well," he said.

People were "not so keen" to buy tickets to see the same singers twice, he added, although Michael Ball had bucked that trend.

"I was terribly disappointed and every phone call I was receiving whilst on holiday in Spain (leading up to this year's cancellation) were negative phone calls," he said.

The singer said he accepted that people did not have money to spare, and with more cuts on the way, that trend was set to continue.

Jazz evening

"I thought the format we had was strong and secure," he said.

"I'm not closing the door to a 10th festival though," he added.

Speaking of his own personal high-lights over the years, his favourite was the evening featuring Jamie Cullum and Jools Holland.

"We had in fact thought of having a jazz evening, and tried to get Michael Buble, before he was selling out massive venues, but he always said he would not play in the open air," he added.

"Personally, the evening with Hose Carreras was an incredible feeling feeling for me," he added.

'Watch this space'

Despite the disappointment of cancelling last year the event over the years had been a success, he said.

"We only had three years for certain and two further maybes to start off with, so we went four better than that," he said.

He said he felt that getting Universal Records on board for this year would have "opened doors" for more artists to take part, but that "had not happened" - at least not this time.

Despite people travelling from all over the world to be at the Faenol Festival he said most ticket sales had been centred on the Caernarfon area.

"Over the years ticket sales would rise each year up to the week before the event, as people checked the weather," he said.

"There's nothing to say that this would not have happened this time too, but it was too much of a risk, especially for Universal's first time.

"But watch this space," he added.