From primary school teacher to co-founder of one Barry's biggest summer events, Matt Blumberg is celebrating the tenth anniversary of GlastonBARRY this year. He says this year is "critical" after Covid-19 almost bankrupted the company, Mack Events Ltd, that he created with his cousin to set up the festival.
Matt, 39, grew up in Barry and is still a proud resident of his hometown, but went to school in Cardiff. He found his love for music at a young age, learning to play guitar and singing in school. He always enjoyed live music, attending multiple concerts and gigs when he was younger. He now sings at corporate events, performing at Wales rugby games and Cardiff Blues matches.
Whilst working as a primary school teacher in Ely, Matt and his cousin Ross Mackintosh set up Mack Events and founded GlastonBARRY in 2013. Speaking about the decision he said: "It was a little idea I had 'one day I'll put GlastonBARRY on, it'll be a laugh.'" When his cousin returned to Wales after working abroad, they decided to make that idea a reality.
“One of the reason’s we started the festival was because we were fed up with people mocking Barry and saying it was rough," Matt said. "I went to school in Cardiff as a teenager and would get teased by some of the Cardiff pupils for being from Barry. I grew up with a chip on my shoulder about it. I knew there was so much more to our town than its reputation for being run down."
Today GlastonBARRY is a three-day live tribute festival held in Romilly Park in Barry every summer, with up to 7,000 people attending each day. But it was not always as much of a major event as it is now. In the festival's first year, it was held on one day at the Memo Arts Centre in Barry with 600 tickets being sold in two weeks.
Since then the festival has become a much loved event for people in Barry and around the world. With the capacity growing each year, in 2017 Matt left his job after eight years of teaching to work on the festival full-time. He said: "It used to be a bit of fun in the summer holidays when I was a teacher but now it takes up my life."
However, the event hit hard times as the pandemic stopped the festival from taking place in 2020 and 2021, almost bankrupting the company. Ross left the business during this time, moving to west Wales, leaving Matt the sole director. Uncertain times left Matt feeling stressed and unsure on what the future held for the festival. "I struggled to sleep. I was so overwhelmed by the stress," he said. "It was a very difficult time, we didn't know what was going to happen. We got cancelled twice in a row. It was very hard trying to get through it."
As the festival did not run for two years, it brought a massive loss in revenue for Mack Events. After cancelling the festival in 2020, those who had bought early bird tickets were refunded but deposits still needed to be paid to companies who helped run the festival. To make ends meet, Matt worked as a doorman, a weekend care assistant and even started a furniture upcycling project.
The festival was due to return in the summer of 2022 and with the help of his family, Matt was able to bring it back. "After two years of sleepless nights and stress wanting to put on a festival, planning it was overwhelming. During the pandemic staff had moved on, suppliers had gone bust, our events manager had taken a job abroad and suddenly a lot of work was firmly on my shoulders.
“After the decision was made in March that festivals could go ahead I worked solidly for three months to organise everything myself. My wife jumped in to take over the admin side of things because I was struggling. Now Hayley is a director of the company alongside me. She's been amazing.
“The event that I had loved and poured everything into felt like a slog and once it was over I questioned if I could face doing it again. I shared how I was feeling on Facebook and suddenly I had this huge boost of support and offers for help from friends and family.
“We built a new team and now I have lots of people I trust in my corner that I can delegate tasks to. With the support of everyone who has jumped in to help I am confident this year will be the best yet."
The festival is important for the people of Barry and the Vale of Glamorgan and Matt has become somewhat of a celebrity in his hometown. Not only do people in Barry enjoy the event, this year tickets have been sold to people across the world such as America, Australia and New Zealand as well as a group of annual GlastonBARRY goers from Germany.
This year GlastonBARRY will be celebrating its tenth anniversary at Romilly Park in Barry, on Saturday, July 29 and Sunday, July 30, with over 20 tribute acts from around the UK. GlastonBarry Juniors will also be held on Friday, July 28 for children to join in the fun, with Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran tribute acts as well as funfair rides and stalls.
