The Doune the Rabbit Hole music festival is to be resurrected in 2025, after previously being cancelled – seemingly permanently – following controversy over unpaid bills including artist fees and a subsequent a union boycott.

The new organisers have renamed the festival ‘Beyond Doune The Rabbit Hole’ and say that their new management team has no connection to the previous incarnation of the festival.

The surprise news was broken on Facebook: “Doune the Rabbit Hole will be returning to Cardross Estate under new management on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of August 2025 as ‘Back Doune the Rabbit Hole’.

Doune the Rabbit Hole 2023 was cancelled following much-criticised plans to crowdfund debt repayment were followed by the announcement that a scaled-down event, with headliners Thurston Moore and Spiritualized, would, if profitable, fund outstanding debts.

However, the 2023 festival was finally cancelled after the Bectu union called for a boycott.

Doune the Rabbit Hole had been a successful fixture on the Scottish festival calendar for close to 15 years previously, before like many events it hit problems during the Covid pandemic. And while the 2022 edition was deemed a great success by those attending, headliners such as Belle and Sebastian stated that they had not been fully paid for their slot, saying that “the event should not have any tickets on sale for 2023 until 2022’s performers have been paid – which has not happened”.

The organisers of the planned 2025 event are led by businessman Brian Harkin, a former musician, while booking agency Rock Artist Management, who have acts such as Hue & Cry and the Boomtown Rats on their books, are part of the new management team.

Organisers said the festival would “reclaim its rightful place on the UK’s music festival calendar”.