The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the Charity's Memorandum and Articles of Association, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)".
As set out in the Memorandum & Articles of Association, Beltane Fire Society’s charitable objectives are set out as follows:
· to advance the education of the general public in the traditions of the Celtic lunar calendar fire festivals and their relevance to contemporary culture.
· to further an awareness of and promote participation in the Scottish traditions of street theatre, music, and pageantry.
· to advance the performing arts through the development of skills in professional performance and production, within a cooperative and collaborative environment.
But it’s also a chance to take stock of what we’re doing on our own terms - what we as a community have achieved or are still working towards, how well we as an organisational team are discerning the will of the membership and trying to uphold that, whether we’re living up to our aims and values, how well the structures of BFS, the entity, are either helping or hindering us in the Work.
So with that said, although this is a formal legal account of the Charity’s activities over the past year, I want to start it as I start any community mailout, by addressing you as
Dear Friends:
Thank you for being with me, today, and on this great adventure.
This time last year we got together, and elected your Board for 2025-2026:
At that time it was myself, Steffie Sutherland, Jenny Glover, and Robert Lee staying on from the previous year, with C’tri and Zhi Kang Chua joining us. Andy MacLeod had said “so long but not goodbye” when he took a contractor role within the Society, eliminating him from Board eligibility, and Neil Barton asked the Society’s consent to stay on a few weeks and tidy up the accounts before ending his term as Treasurer. To general delight though, Neil’s other commitments loosened up, and we were able to co-opt him back onto the Board not long after, so he’s continued Treasuring for us ever since.
This was the first election taking place under the updated Articles of Association whereby Trustees would be elected for up to three years in each Term, and the New Board Day offered us a tantalising glimpse of the future: more of an onboarding of some much-welcome new skills and interests, and a reshuffle into more comfortable roles, than a full rewrite. I asked if anyone wanted a shot of Chairing, and they all said no - more fool them. It’s the best. Our initial delineation of roles was:
Jenny Bloom : Chair and Safeguarding Team
Steffie Sutherland: Vice-Chair and Safeguarding Team
Zhi Kang Chua: Company Secretary and Festival Secretary
Robert Lee: Communications Officer and Sysadmin Team Lead
Jenny Glover: Volunteer Coordinator
C’tri: Vice Treasurer, Vice Sysadmin and Safeguarding Team
Neil Barton: Treasurer
The board has three main areas of responsibility - operations, governance, and community.
Focus on Operations
Our first little challenge was a promised Lughnasadh event, with the prompt “low-key, high enjoyment”. On a budget of just under a hundred pounds and sixty feet of new bunting we had a lovely day out at the Granton seaside with a BBQ, competitive games and some splashing in the very cold sea. No performance element, no audience, apart from a few curious dog-walkers, a balm after the bruising time some of us had had the previous year at Fringe By The Sea. We should do it again this year.
In the background of the hazy lazy Lughnasadh days though, the BFS organisation team are already getting cracking on Samhuinn preparation: especially because this year’s was our move back to Calton Hill with a view to settling and consolidating after our years of wandering the city. It needed to be a success for its own sake, but also to help us feel ready to put down happy Samhuinn roots on our Hill, and stop reaching back for the raucous and beautiful street parade that we just can’t have any more. Blues, Board, and Contractors worked through the late summer getting the blueprint of the processional route and the broad strokes of this year’s story locked in early, so that GOs and members would have a coherent scaffold to build the festival on.
Fortunately, this did work out! Three disparate, but surprisingly complementary, Court stories wove together and poured across the Hill, supporting a host of performance groups and ritual elements including experimental music, dance, acrobatics, fire, and costume. In a touching return, the Harbingers drum crew, born out of a BFS drum crew ten years ago, asked to reprise their role as the Heralds of Winter. Tickets sold out early, but this year we stuck to our instincts and didn’t release extras - rather someone was sad to have missed out, than come and have a poor experience. The crowd of 5,000 felt about right for Samhuinn in that format and venue - allowing for a big crowd at the big-ticket moments, but also quieter areas, intimate witness interaction moments, and comfortable movement for roaming groups.
The major headache of the season wasn’t actually the Festival at all - it was the Afterparty. Halloween night, on a Friday, and even with about a year’s warning that our usual spot wasn’t available, we didn’t have a venue until half way through the run-up. It might seem like a minor priority, but as well as being *fun*, our afterparties serve quite important purposes in the community - a safer space surrounded by friends and found family to come down from the endorphin rush of performing, or begin to come up from the profound shock and upset if it’s gone badly. An in-between space where we can begin to let go of our character work and come back to ourselves. A last hurrah with a home crowd for the drum and music groups who have been consumed by nine weeks of practise and might never play together again. The place where we take a collective breath together before we have to re-enter the realer, less real world. Accuse me of taking things too seriously if you like, you wouldn’t be the first, but for me a BFS festival without any Afterparty available, would be a failure in our duty of care to the community.
Thank all that is holy, some members have connections at the partially-restored Barnton Nuclear Bunker and we were able to hire their space and fit it out for a very large private party. Tom Caine, Tom Watton and Lindsay Bell pulled an absolute blinder turning a building with no bar and one toilet, into a really rather magnificent event. There are many, many changes to make if we were to do it again (and we might have to do something like that again, because next Samhuinn is also a weekend!) but it worked and the community feedback was broadly very positive.
Barely was the last of the grey paint out of my hair, it was time for Yule! A lovely family feast and open-mic to honour the Longest Night - which I had nothing to do with planning, because I’d been completely consumed by the departure of our Ninth May Queen, Alix, and the process to discern who should step into the role. We’d chosen not to announce Mairi’s selection until afterwards, out of respect for those applicants who’d not been selected, giving them space to be in community without being overshadowed by the inevitable enthusiasm - and out of respect for the deep dark wintertime of the Cailleach and the Winter King. But for those of us who’d been involved in the May Queen selection process, it felt beautifully timed too - in the very precipice of the transition, an affirming reminder of the warmth of our community and the reason we do it all.
We rolled into 2026 with a cozy Imbolc event hosted by the Earth Our Mother committee, as they had with the Mabon meet-up in September. Again, the Board had little involvement as we were up to our eyes in Beltane selections, but it’s a real success story of the last couple of years that the Fabric Sharing and EOM teams have built the momentum to host events and work solidly on their areas of interest without either relying on, or being hampered, by the BFS structures too much. More on that later, but love to see it.
Then before you can blink – Beltane! Pretty much universally acclaimed as “just a really nice one!” Where run-up challenges cropped up, they were dealt with quickly and effectively, the GO team worked beautifully together, and a sold-out crowd had a wonderful experience. On the night, almost everything went well, and the things that didn’t, were explicable and actionable for the future; a source of community learning rather than bitterness. Special credit to the Fire itself, somewhere between Too Big and Just Right.
And what’s next on the horizon?
Well, Samhuinn obviously, but first we need to move premises. The lease will run out on our beloved, but leaky roofed, building in October 2026, and although we would have liked to extend it, it eventually became clear that wasn’t an option. Finding an alternative that would meet even our essential needs has been, a nightmare to put it mildly, and up until a few weeks ago, I was really quite frightened. Several promising leads fell through, or were at too short notice to be grabbed. But we do now have a rather unorthodox plan: our wonderful neighbours at Dalziels Garage have enjoyed our company so much that we’re going to cohabit next door for a couple of years! They have a big upstairs space that they don’t need much use of, they don’t mind our fuel storage or greasy handprints because they’re a garage already, and we’ll still have access to the same yard for outdoor activities. Obviously, it’s not the BFS community centre/workshop of our dreams - the physical accessibility will be dreadful because it’s nearly all upstairs, and we’ll have to work out understandings so that our activities don’t impinge on the Garage’s business needs at all. But what’s exciting is the chance it gives us to build an exit plan, so that when we do finally find a property listing that’s perfect like a vacant community centre or an old church we can actually jump for it, with a pot of money and a solid plan already in place.
And that’s my review of the operational year!
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Focus on Governance:
This year, there hasn’t been any big-ticket policy announcements or reshuffles, but the project of iterative improvement has been quietly building momentum. As a largely more experienced Board than this time last year, we’ve been better at recording and formalising things as they’re learned and decisions as they’re made. For example, after going through complex situations with individual groups in the last couple of selections, we’ve written some guidance for future Selection Panel members to help them avoid the same pitfalls. Lots of little but useful things like that. We’ve continued using the spreadsheet of pain points from the previous festival in the early stages of planning the next, and solidified the format of the GO Debrief process, to be so much more constructive and effective than the recent past.
One of Robert’s key projects has been to transform the massive and thankless BFS Sysadmin role into one handled by a team, which as a pilot has gone brilliantly, if slower than anticipated. If not lessening the workload, then at least it takes away the sense of a Board member being on-call 24/7 to deal with sometimes urgent and stressful issues. Thank you to those who’ve helped, especially Stew and C’tri, and of course Robert himself.
A project in recent years has been to expand the Contractor team to reduce the pressure on the few we had, and to separate off tasks that are better suited to specialists, than well-meaning volunteers. This year we’ve felt real benefit from the Contractor Assistant role currently filled by Andy, and the additional confidence and confidentiality made possible by a Safeguarding Officer who does this professionally. We’ve also been able to assess where the roles could be more usefully defined or deployed: more of that glamorous iterative improvement. Having the most competent and experienced Safeguarding and Resolutions Officer in role for a long period of time has made it clear which of the Safeguarding challenges really are best addressed by outsourcing to a professional, and which actually aren’t - which is somewhat different to our expectations. After eighteen months above-and-beyond service, Simone resigned in May and we’re actively looking for a new Safeguarding and Resolutions Officer, as well as expanding our volunteer team.
Many of our Policies and guidance documents remain hopelessly out-of-date, and work has started to update some of them, but it’s painstaking work as they’re so interconnected, and it’s often unclear which elements of an old document are required (legally, practically, whatever), and which were just a choice made by the original writer. It’s not something we can farm out to someone not completely steeped in BFS, because our needs and our ways of doing things are pretty unique, even within the community arts scene. It’s also something that I think has got neglected over the years because people often don’t feel confident in relatively short Board terms to just get in there and make changes, so hopefully that’s another positive effect of the 3-year terms.
We may need to re-visit the Articles of Association again soon - there are still some bits that don’t have an internal consistency, and some that don’t reflect either best practice or the way we habitually do things. As Chair, I’ll take the responsibility for not having spotted it sooner, but as Chair a year ago, I don’t think I had the experience to recognise those problems either. We’re in a constant state of finding better ways to do things, then learning more, and superseding ourselves - which is actually pretty great, for all it’s annoying having to redo individual things!
A big success this year is something I mentioned above - the Fabric Sharing and especially Earth Our Mother groups, running independently of the Board, but with our support whenever they ask for it. Board members and Blues, for years, have been wanting to take action on the environmental impact of BFS and help our community build resilience, but the Urgent Stuff (™) has often outnumbered us hard, and left little room for passion projects. A subcommittee of people for whom that is their priority within BFS is a fantastic vehicle for actually getting the work done. I’d like to thank everyone involved on behalf of the whole Board.
I’d also like to throw out to the community an invitation - there are two other issues that we think would really benefit from having a champion like Earth Our Mother, someone external to the Board, so that the issues don’t get sidelined by other Board work constantly. I’d love a committee or an individual to take the lead on Equity/Diversity/Inclusion in BFS - that is, working out in whatever way feels right, where we have problems, what might work to address them, proposing change at any level in the Society, and assessing how it’s working. I’d also like a team or an individual to take the lead on assessing the specific accessibility issues for members who are parents or carers. Again, this is something we know we want to do better on, but we don’t yet have a clear sense of how best to help. If you feel called to get involved in working on either of those, we can have an extremely informal chat and work out a plan, with as much or as little guidance as you’d like.
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Focus on Community
As well as Governance and Operations, the Board has a responsibility to support the BFS community - this or that side of eight hundred fellow travellers with diverse stories, diverse reasons for participating, and diverse needs. It’s continually humbling and energising to see the ways we really are a community - helping each other out, sharing resources and skills, looking after members in times of distress or need. That comes from you, not us: it’s what people do naturally when capitalism, or trauma responses, or exhaustion, don’t get in the way. Alongside that natural sense of community care, we have a number of systems in place so that members can reach out for help when they’re out of their depth to resolve a problem themselves, or when they’re worried but unsure of the right course of action. These can vary from tea and sympathy with a Blue, someone calm and experienced, who can listen and advise and won’t gossip, up to the Safeguarding and Complaints procedures that exist to help when an issue might be an ongoing safety risk to members.
This year our Safeguarding Team has consisted of a mixture of Blues, Board Members, and an external specialist with a professional background in charity Safeguarding work. We’ve done a lot of work with the Blues to build a more coherent understanding of our three complementary roles and how we work best together and in parallel, and we’ve started rewriting our guiding documents to match industry best practice and the way we operate on the ground.
Alongside continually developing our practice and procedures, we’ve supported members who brought concerns and complaints forward, and we’ve offered advice and interventions in some situations highlighted by the Blues or Contractors, where things seem to be escalating towards a crisis. It’s difficult to measure numerically, when the mark of success is something *not* escalating into a complaint, but there have been a few, and it feels very good to know we helped.
Obviously, because of confidentiality, I can’t provide updates on individual casework, but for a general idea of scale, we currently have about ten open cases, of which four are over a year old. Since the last AGM we have opened sixteen new concern or complaint files.
We believe in transformational justice and a trauma-informed approach, so we prioritise trying to support members to stay in the Society and learn to do better, with supports or protective rails in place where needed for their own and others’ safety. Occasionally the risk someone’s behaviour may pose is too high or there is no identifiable way of mitigating that risk. Since the last AGM, two members have been removed from the Society as an outcome of a complaint investigation. This is not intended as a punishment, that is not what we are for, but a necessary precaution where the Team cannot identify any other way of reducing a severe risk.
Financially, 2025 was a disappointing year for BFS, with the society suffering its first deficit since 2021.
Although our main festival, Beltane, fell on a mid-week evening this year, ticket sales were still lower than anticipated. The Beltane festival is the society’s main revenue producer, and although it, in-itself, made a surplus, it wasn’t sufficient to fund all of the society’s other festivals, events, and overhead costs. As a result, the society incurred a deficit for the year of £18,965.
The Beltane festival saw ticket sales decrease from 8,300 in 2024 to 6,670 in 2025. This resulted in a reduction of income of £16,000 compared to 2024. The costs of staging the festival increased from £80,000 (2024) to £88,000 (2025). On top of this, Edinburgh Council’s Premier Parks Levy was applied to Beltane with a charge of £6,160 being paid. Combined, these differences produced a net surplus of £28,600 compared to 2024’s surplus of £58,900, a decrease of over £30,000.
Our second largest festival, Samhuinn, was sold out at a capped level of 5,000 witnesses. Unfortunately, costs continue to rise, and a deficit of £10,950 occurred. By contrast, 2024’s festival returned a surplus of £4,200.
Overhead costs increased from £31,500 (2024) to £36,000 in 2025. The majority of this increase was due to the use of our professional, external, safeguarding officer. As in previous years, the society’s largest expenditure item was the rental, and associated costs, of our premises. At £15,312, this single item constitutes over 42% of our total overhead costs.
Looking forward to 2026, our Beltane festival was a sell out at over 9,500 tickets sold. Provisionally, the festival will have returned a surplus of over £67,000, which will comfortably lead to the society returning to an overall surplus for 2026. In October, the society is moving premises. Although this won’t be completely cost-free, the monthly savings, especially in rent, will be felt immediately.
We continue to pursue our policy of having sufficient free reserves to support two fire festivals and at least twelve months of overhead costs. With the surplus that Beltane 2026 produced, strict cost control for Samhuinn 2026 and the future reductions in overheads, I am confident that this policy will soon be met.
Risk Management
The Trustees acknowledge that they have a responsibility to identify, assess, and manage potential risks that could stop the charity achieving its aims or carrying out its strategies. The board has worked with various methods this year to help manage risks within a health and safety policy framework:
1. Risk assessments completed by GO’s for each festival, detailing what risks they predict their group may face on the run up and during the night of our festivals.
2. Risk assessments (including Fire, COSHH, Food Safety, COVID, Manual Handling, CDM regulations and health and safety policies) for the Building and premises, and BFS operations.
3. The Event Coordinator’s event management plan to oversee each festival from start to finish.
4. The Event Coordinator’s debrief report (including the EPOG debrief).
5. Completing a SWOT and PESTLE analysis when completing a 5-year fundraising strategy.
6. Examining ways to improve our Safeguarding with external support, and drafting a safeguarding policy for the coming year.
The Trustees are satisfied that the adequate control measures and systems are in place to mitigate exposure to the major risks, and are looking at controls to be put in place to manage lower case risks.
Beltane Fire Society is a registered charity (SC040137) as well as a company (SC341753) limited by guarantee. The principal & registered office for the society is 16 East Cromwell Street, Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 6HD.
Trustee Election & Selection
The majority of the directors are elected directors, chosen by the membership during the Annual General Meeting, having been advertised to the membership in advance of that meeting, where members can ask questions to determine the person's suitability for the role. A minority of the board members may be co-opted directors, who are appointed by the elected directors as required, in accordance with the company’s memorandum & articles. There is also the ability for members to express an interest in joining the board where they will supply the reasoning for why they should be co-opted, which will be discussed at a board meeting to determine whether or not the elected directors wish to co-opt this individual.
No specific skills or experience is required to stand as an elected director although the person must be a member of the society. Co-opted directors may be picked for their specific skills or experience, (i.e. extensive background knowledge relevant to our festivals or charity governance) to help fill any skills gap that the board determines it needs to fill.
Structure
The charity has no formal employees and is instead run by its dedicated volunteers and members alongside contracted workers. The board of trustees are very hands-on, focusing on both the strategic direction for the charity, as well as being very operations-based during the two key festivals that are held in the year. For each festival being held, the board delegates the day-to-day management responsibilities to the contracted Development Manager who is line-managed by a representative of the board. The board also delegates certain responsibilities to contracted positions as required to ensure that the society operates its festivals and events to a high standard of safety and quality.
The Contractors work alongside a group of volunteers designated as ‘Blues’, who are chosen for their knowledge and respect for carrying on the traditions and stories of the society. This team works to guide the Group Organiser volunteers to craft their group ideas, themes and stories while ensuring they all fit the overall narrative of the festival and ensure all licences and other legal paperwork has been completed. The Group Organisers are then responsible for recruiting volunteers to help perform in their group at the festival.
Governance
Festival related decisions are made by a mixture of the board, contracted persons and BFS volunteers appointed to operational roles depending on the nature of the decisions. These decisions will either be made during official board meetings or will take place in a Group Organisers meetings. Official business, such as issues of membership, the charity’s finances, hiring contractors, or changes in policies, will be carried out by members of the Board of Directors. This is done via regular meetings, held throughout the year between each Annual General Meeting, usually once a month but can be more depending on circumstances. If a matter is considered significant enough, the board has the ability to call a General Meeting of the society’s membership.
Trustees are able to claim back reasonable expenses if they are incurred on behalf of carrying out work for Beltane Fire Society. Contracted workers may only claim back expenses directly related to their role if there are funds in the relevant budget and it was appropriate to use them for the purchase in question.
Related Parties
Beltane Fire Society has a membership to SCVO and one of the Trustees has an associate membership with the Institute of Fundraising and Arts & Business Scotland on behalf of BFS. These memberships do not impact on the society itself, but do allow the Trustees access to materials to ensure they are staying up-to-date with relevant developments in the third sector. No third-party person or organisation is entitled to appoint a trustee other than those stated in the Trustee Election & Selection section.
Beltane Fire Society does not hold any funds on behalf of others and has nothing to disclose in relation to this.
I’m going into my third year of being Trustee and potentially staying on as Chair, unless someone else wants a shot. It is such a privilege to steer this ship..
The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
I report on the financial statements of the Charity for the year ended 31 December 2025, which are set out on pages 10 to 19.
The charity's trustees (who are also directors of the company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the terms of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006, and they consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1)(a) to (c) of the Accounts Regulations does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts as required under section 44(1)(c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to our attention.
My examination was carried out in accordance with the Statement of Standards for Reporting Accountants and Regulation 11 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeks explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.
In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:
to keep accounting records in accordance with section 44(1)(a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations; and
to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of Regulation 8 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations and with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities;
to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Beltane Fire Society is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in Scotland. The registered office is 16 East Cromwell Street, Edinburgh, EH6 6HD.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charity's memorandum and articles of association, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended), FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the Charities SORP "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (effective 1 January 2019). The Charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The Charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities not to prepare a Statement of Cash Flows.
The financial statements have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to provide a true and fair view. This departure has involved following the Statement of Recommended Practice for charities applying FRS 102 rather than the version of the Statement of Recommended Practice which is referred to in the Regulations but which has since been withdrawn.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the Charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the Charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Expenditure is recognised when a liability is incurred.
Charitable activities include expenditure associated with the staging of festivals and include both direct and
support costs relating to these activities.
Governance costs include those incurred in the governance of the charity and its assets and are primarily
associated with constitutional and statutory requirements.
Support costs include central functions and have been allocated to the charitable activity on a basis
consistent with their use.
Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.
At each reporting end date, the Charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible and intangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).
Recoverable amount is the higher of fair value less costs to sell and value in use. In assessing value in use, the estimated future cash flows are discounted to their present value using a pre-tax discount rate that reflects current market assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the asset for which the estimates of future cash flows have not been adjusted.
If the recoverable amount of an asset is estimated to be less than its carrying amount, the carrying amount of the asset is reduced to its recoverable amount. An impairment loss is recognised immediately in income/(expenditure for the year, unless the relevant asset is carried at a revalued amount, in which case the impairment loss is treated as a revaluation decrease.
Recognised impairment losses are reversed if, and only if, the reasons for the impairment loss have ceased to apply. Where an impairment loss subsequently reverses, the carrying amount of the asset is increased to the revised estimate of its recoverable amount, but so that the increased carrying amount does not exceed the carrying amount that would have been determined had no impairment loss been recognised for the asset in prior years. A reversal of an impairment loss is recognised immediately, unless the relevant asset is carried in at a revalued amount, in which case the reversal of the impairment loss is treated as a revaluation increase.
Stocks are stated at the lower of cost and estimated selling price less costs to complete and sell. Cost comprises direct materials and, where applicable, direct labour costs and those overheads that have been incurred in bringing the stocks to their present location and condition. Items held for distribution at no or nominal consideration are measured the lower of replacement cost and cost.
Net realisable value is the estimated selling price less all estimated costs of completion and costs to be incurred in marketing, selling and distribution.
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The Charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised in the Charity's balance sheet when the Charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the Charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
In the application of the Charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
After party costs
Contractors
Festival promotion
Insurance
Licences
Operations & Safety
Production costs
Room bookings
Volunteer expenses
No trustee received remuneration for their role as Trustee, but 4 of them were reimbursed a total of £660
(2024 - 8 were reimbursed £1,713) of expenses incurred in respect of the charitable activity.
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2024 - none).