Failed festival companies face bankruptcy

The company behind the "chaotic" Hope and Glory Festival has gone into liquidation owing almost £890,000 to creditors. The Liverpool based event suffered numerous problems on its first day and was cancelled on its second day (6 August) amid reports of overcrowding, long queues for drinks and toilets, and long delays for artists and acts axed at the last minute. Some acts, including Charlotte Church, were axed. Headliners James did perform but lead singer Tim Booth apologised to fans for the "chaos". Insolvency firm Butcher Woods said 32 creditors were owed £888,984, including Liverpool City Council.

The Council told the BBC it was "seeking recovery of costs associated with the clean-up operation" for the festival at Liverpool's St Georges Quarter. Ticket selling websites Eventbrite and Skiddle said they had given full refunds to people with tickets for the cancelled day and a 50% refund for weekend ticket holders but it is thought likely that the ticketing firms will have to meet the cost themselves. Eventbrite had already paid festival organisers for the funds collected from ticket sales and was now "aggressively pursuing Hope & Glory" to get the money back, a spokesman said.


A judge has forced the company that owns Fyre Festival into bankruptcy, after the first edition of the ‘luxury’ VIP event soon turned into a nightmare earlier this year. Despite promising potential festival goers luxury accommodation and a line-up that included the likes of Major Lazer and Blink-182, the event quickly descended into chaos when it took place in May. Now, it has been placed into bankruptcy by Judge Martin Glenn after investors John Nemeth, Raul Jimenez and Andrew Newman claimed that they were owed a repayment of the $530,000 that they had placed in to the event to finance it. Judge Glenn approved an involuntary petition against festival founder Billy McFarland and his Fyre Fest LLC. McFarland was arrested after he allegedly showed fake documents to investors to encourage them to put more than $1 million into the Festival.