Mark Drakeford defends buying £4.2m land for festival without business plan

Mark Drakeford has defended a decision to buy a £4.25m farm for the Green Man music festival without a business plan.

The first minister said the festival's organisers were a "trusted partner" and are expected to submit proposals for Gileston Farm, near Crickhowell, Powys, next month.

A deal on allowing the festival to use the site is still being negotiated.

Opponents have asked whether other potential tenants were allowed to bid.

In the Senedd, Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said: "How is it that the Green Man festival can secure £4.25m worth of government support with no business plan when any other business here in Wales would have to submit that very necessary piece of information to acquire even a fraction of that money to support their business plan?".

But Mr Drakeford said the festival had not received any funding or land yet. For now, the Welsh government owns the farm, which he said was worth more than the £4.25m it paid.

He called Green Man a "major success story for Wales", adding: "We are working with a trusted partner.

"We are working with a company that the Welsh Government has known and worked alongside over an extended period of time as it has grown to be amongst the fifth most successful of its kind anywhere in the United Kingdom."

Gileston Farm is currently being leased back to its previous owners. They are still there, growing crops and running holiday accommodation, he added.

Green Man says it has no plans to move its annual festival from the current Glanusk site, where it attracted 25,000 people last August.

Mr Drakeford said the organisers wanted to expand their plans, adding: "To do that they need more space in which to be able to develop those further possibilities."