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Uncorking Winestock’s price tag

Winestock catches a lot of comments over its price, with 89 per cent of Epigram's readers calling it 'expensive'. But how is an event like this organised? How much value is in their ticket?

By James Lewis, SciTech Deputy Editor

When you think of Winestock, images of wholesome reunions and avoiding that first-year flatmate might spring to mind. Many also feel it to be an event whose ticket price isn’t justified, reliant on social pressures to draw a crowd.

‘Winestock is an all-inclusive food and wine festival [...] your food’s included in the ticket, your drinks are included, we’ve got fabulous entertainment from firebreathers to DJs and jazz bands,’ Pascha, Head of Operations at Winestock, who is also a fourth-year psychology and innovation student, told Epigram. On their website, Winestock call themselves ‘the End-of-Year Ball for all University of Bristol students.’ 

A basic ticket costs £69 while other, progressively more expensive, tickets include more food, a wider drinks selection and other perks. For any student, this is a sizeable chunk of their budget, but Pascha says they hope that ‘people look at [the price] and go “that’s worth paying”.’ But what I kept hearing from friends and flatmates was that Winestock is too expensive. 

First-years wait for the bus to Winestock | James Lewis

In fact, 89 per cent of Epigram readers deemed the event ‘expensive’. Noah Wheeler, a third-year Politics student, told Epigram he thought Winestock was ‘horrific value for money’ and relied on ‘FOMO’ to sell tickets. Wanting to find out more, Epigram spoke to Pascha to understand Winestock’s pricing and determine whether ticket-holders are victims of a cash grab or simply throwing their toys out of the pram. 

Because ‘a lot of festivals and events are interested in being on the Downs’ they start organising Winestock early, ‘like a year in advance’, Pascha says. Once they’ve laid down the ‘five-figure’ booking fee for the Downs, the team sets about populating the field with tents, bars, DJ booths and fire breathers that make Winestock Winestock. This includes the obvious – like staffing, toilets, food and drink, and entertainment. There’s also all that you can’t see, that which ‘you can’t run [...] without’ and, half joking, ‘you can’t sleep at night without’, Pascha says. 

‘You have to comply with licensing requests from the council; there’s a safety advisory group that you have meetings with who give you guidance and tell you to do certain things. You have to write up safety plans and fire evacuation plans and things like that. We work quite closely with a safety consultant, because it’s not something you can get wrong.’ It requires plenty of hidden, but important factors that, as Pascha is keen to impress, if done well, shouldn’t be seen by the punters. 

Fire performers at Winestock | Natalia Alejarra

All but one of Winestock’s organisational team are students, with the only full-timer being Jasper Williamson, who graduated from the University of Bristol in 2020 and was President of the Wine Society. They employ ‘hundreds’ of students in the whole process, from set up to pack down, while student bands and DJs make up the set list. ‘We’re not getting people to do things for “exposure”,’ Pascha laughs as she assures me even the entertainment is paid in full or given free tickets if they want. ‘We like the idea of a student event that actually gives back to the student community’. I wonder if this is PR spin for students being cheap, but Pascha understands it to be quite the opposite. Most jobs have a wage of £12.70 an hour, while managers make £13.70 and those manning loos make £20.70 – ‘because no one wants to do toilets!’  

While the event welcomes students for three days, Winestock have the site for 12. This is because they must set up in a ‘particular order’ to comply with safety regulations, particularly surrounding the use of a forklift. Inevitably, as university students are more adept at operating ChatGPT than forklifts, a professional is needed. With requirements for medical staff, security and more, not all positions can be filled by students, which comes at a price. 

This year, the event is licensed to welcome 9000 drunken students over three days. That’s a lot of bottles of wine. Pascha won’t tell me how much the average attendee drinks, fearing what might happen if people aim to be above that average, but did say, with a laugh, ‘students drink well.’ 

'students drink well' | Tristan

It’s impossible to get away from how seriously Winestock take their commitment to providing a positive experience for their staff and ticketholders alike. They release questionnaires after the event where the team can express what they felt worked well, what didn’t, and what they’d improve. Pascha says that having a student team is important so they can ‘have a real conversation about what [they’d] be willing to pay and why.’ 

Their relationship with food vendors is what Pascha calls the ‘secret sauce’ for running Winestock. At your Glastonburys or your Love Saves, vendors pay a pitch fee and agree to share profits with the festival. Winestock does neither. Instead, being all-inclusive, you’re given tokens to exchange for food and Winestock ‘pay[s] vendors per portion once they’ve been made’ at an agreed price. Pascha says ‘[they] don’t want vendors [...] to go home out of pocket’, with this system ensuring they won’t.  

Pascha takes great pride in this business model that values vendor satisfaction over profits while the festival industry has been struggling recently. Last year, 78 festivals across the UK announced ‘a postponement, cancellation or complete closure’, which brought the total losses since COVID up to 211. Winestock, after four years of operation, have put up their price for the first time this year. Meanwhile, from 2022 to 2023, the cost of a festival ticket, on average, went up between 15 and 20 per cent. 

Is it possible that our complaining about Winestock being expensive is a case of spoiled child syndrome? Maybe. 

In 2022, the average cost of a night out for those between the ages of 18 and 21 was £73.81. This includes costs of pre-drinks, entry fees and transport (Pascha says they moved venue from Kings Weston House to the Downs to save transport costs for ticket holders). Obviously, no one is shelling out 70 quid for a night on La Rocca’s dance floor, but you would, maybe, for your favourite band’s gig or a special occasion. Winestock’s price reflects this in the hopes that people are willing to celebrate a year’s hard work with familiar friends and seminar buddies you might not see otherwise. 

What’s it like at other universities, though? Peter Chen, a third-year law student at the University of Oxford, spoke to Epigram about Oxford’s Commemoration Balls. Much like Winestock, ‘everything is included [in the price]’, says Peter, but events are hosted by individual colleges at the university. St Hilda’s is cheapest at £135. New College, the most expensive, is a cool £268, and this is, as one Cherwell commentator put it, ‘without considering additional costs like renting a white tie, the required dress for Commemoration Balls, which isn’t a wardrobe staple for the average person.’  

University of Bristol alumni, Lost Track of Time, peforming at last year's Winestock | Natalie Alejarra

The University of Exeter have, in a predictably precocious way, The Enchanted Garden Ball, which costs £60 for just entry. If you happen to be a member of their Wine Society, you can buy an all-inclusive ticket, like Winestock’s basic ticket, for £92. Epigram spoke to India Moore, a second-year Neuroscience student at the University of Exeter, who said that ‘it’s definitely not worth all the money’, but ‘social pressures’ meant people felt they had to come. This is similar to how many in Bristol feel about Winestock. 

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FOMO or not, Winestock is popular. In an email sent to ticket holders on 12 May, Winestock said they had sold out all three days. There seems to be a culture that loves to hate and hates to love Winestock, there’s no getting away from the fact that people are willing to pay their price. While Winestock’s price tag could afford four people a sizeable Indian takeaway – peshwari naans all round – it's the plain truth that this event is expensive to organise. Students in Bristol should, though, take solace in that an approachable and friendly team of students put their all into, as Pascha says, ‘making it worth it.’ 

Featured Image: Abraham Dein / Unsplash


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