Chaos Festival set to end after 20 years

The annual weekend summer music festival, held on the cliffs above Pleinmont, has rocked the western end of the island for nearly two decades.

But organiser ‘Ozy’ Chris Chadwick said it had been decided that 2025 would mark the last incarnation of the festival which has attracted thousands to the island’s quietest parish.

‘We are definitely going to take a year off and reassess.’ he said.

‘We have had a great run but it’s time to take a break and think about what comes next. Whether we come back and it’s called Chaos or something else, I just don’t know at the moment, but we won’t let it simply fizzle out. There’s stuff we want to do that we haven’t been able to as we have been so committed to the festival. We have actually done 21 years straight of organising as even when Covid cancelled it, we had already done most of the work.’

He said that next year was a fitting year to end as it marked the 25th anniversary of Greenman Motor Cycle Club, which runs the event, and the 20th anniversary of Chaos itself.

Among the issues the festival has faced has been transport.

‘Just looking at the new Condor timetable has been another nail in the coffin,’ he said.

‘Half of the organising committee are in Jersey, so they would have to take a week off to come. And you can’t ask the Jersey bands to sacrifice a week for one 50-minute set.’

He added that when the festival began, Condor would adapt timetables to suit the timing of the event and even sold tickets as part of a package.

‘About this time of year we would have been sitting down to chat, it was the same for Vale Earth but in the last 10 years they have become much less flexible.’

Mr Chadwick said Chaos would go out with a ‘real big party’.

‘We have lots of friends coming from across the UK and Jersey. People who first came as kids with their parents, and we want to make it the biggest Chaos ever.’

Chaos 2025 will be held on the last weekend of June and Mr Chadwick said he hoped that tickets would be on sale by Christmas.

‘It makes the perfect Christmas gift,’ he said.

‘And we would love for people to join us for the last one who haven’t been before. It’s not all rock music and motorbikes, there is a huge variety of things going on – the peace tent is almost a festival in itself, we have dance and trance, and even the Guernsey recorder group playing.’