We’re sending Brian Wilson to Doune The Rabbit Hole Festival

The Big Issue can exclusively reveal that Brian Wilson will be at this year’s Doune the Rabbit Hole Festival.

Yeah you read that right – but The Beach Boys won’t be bringing Good Vibrations to the Stirling festival, that will be left to our very own Big Issue vendor Brian Wilson.

The 39-year-old will heading out on tour from his usual pitch outside M&S in Perth to bring his famous name and plenty of magazines to the festival – headlined by Levellers, Akala and This Is The Kit – on July 13-15.

And Brian insists that he may even pay homage to his more illustrious namesake at the festival.

“I’ve never been to a festival before but I think that this will be an environment where I will flourish when selling the magazine,” said Bryan, who is saving up his earnings from selling the magazine to set up a boiler maintenance business.

“I can build up a lot of rapport with people by telling jokes while selling, like “I’m doing this so I can get my Ferrari serviced”, and at the festival there will be lots of people in a brilliant mood who will get that so it should go down well.

“On my pitch I can sell between 100 and 200 magazines every week and I even have the experience of selling to music fans already as I do well from the concert hall in Perth.

“I obviously get the Brian Wilson comparisons quite a lot so I’ll have to think of some one-liners about that along the lines of him being a special guest.”

I’ve never been to a festival before but I think that this will be an environment where I will flourish when selling the magazine

Rhys Morgan, Big Issue distribution team leader in Glasgow, said: “We are really excited to have The Big Issue presence at Doune the Rabbit Hole this year. It’s an opportunity for us to reach new customers, engage with people in a feel-good environment and I hope this is the start of a long running relationship.

“For Brian, it’s a fantastic opportunity to sell the magazine at a unique event and also a chance for a bit of fun after 12 months of working hard selling up in Perth.”

The Big Issue will be looking forward to the big British summer of festivals, whether it be for music, journalism or comedy, with our Festival Special, available on April 30.