Culture

Green Man boss reveals why she refuses to give up Wales’ beloved festival

13 Aug 2026 3 minute read

Green Man 2025 – Green Man Effigy – credit_ Patrick Gunning

Amelia Jones

The woman behind Wales’ best-known music festival has opened up about her determination to keep it independent and firmly Welsh in a new interview.

Fiona Stewart, 66, is the owner and managing director of Green Man. She spoke to The i Paper this week about the challenges of running Green Man festival in an increasingly corporate music industry, as well as why protecting its Welsh identity remains so important to her.

Green Man, which takes place in Bannau Brycheiniog, has become one of the UK’s most successful independent festivals since it was founded in 2003, selling out within hours each year.

But Stewart has repeatedly resisted corporate approaches, saying she wanted to create something she could protect from the financial pressures that have transformed other festivals.

Speaking to The i Paper, she said: “I think the value of what we do is not just a monetary thing. Something like Green Man really has a role to play in bringing people together. Developing the arts, supporting people in their early careers, generating money for small businesses and rural communities.”

Stewart took over the festival in 2006 after working at Glastonbury and The Big Chill in Dorset.

Reflecting on why she wanted to take control of her own festival, she said: “I wanted to own something that I could protect.”

She added: “I’d seen events change and develop – some good, some bad – for much more financial reasons. People maybe losing interest or respect for the audience because it’s more financially driven. I didn’t want that to happen.”

But maintaining that independence has come at a significant personal cost, with Stewart revealing just how financially precarious running a major festival can be.

She said: “I have literally lost every penny I have, and money I don’t have, four times since I started working at Green Man.”

The Covid pandemic proved particularly difficult. Stewart said she lost almost £750,000 after the festival had already sold out and she had purchased production for the event before it was cancelled.

She said: “I lost nearly three-quarters of a million pounds in Covid because we’d sold out earlier, so I bought all the production for that year, and then it didn’t happen.”

Despite the financial risks, Stewart has continued to keep Green Man independently owned, while maintaining its strong links with Wales and the communities around the festival.

The festival has also operated its own charity since 2014, supporting arts development, local communities and work around the climate crisis.

Green Man Festival is set to take place 20-23 August 2026.

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