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. 

Final day of Y-Not washed out

The final day of the UK's Y-Not festival in Derbyshire has been cancelled after heavy rainfall turned the site into a mud bath. Some sets on previous days were also cancelled. Promoters said "Unfortunately we've had to take the difficult decision to cancel Sunday due to the adverse weather conditions across the weekend, after consulting all the relevant authorities. The safety of our guests, performers and crew is our primary concern and the potential risk was too severe for Sunday to go ahead". The statement added: "We are very sorry for the disappointment and disruption caused to everyone who was looking forward to the final day of the festival. We understand that people will have questions about refunds. We will be giving all our guests further information about this over the coming days". The festival having was acquired by Global's Broadwick Live venture last year and this year featured headliners Two Door Cinema Club, Happy Mondays, Jake Bugg, Stereophonics, Feeder and Clean Bandit amongst others.

There were complaints that the organisers were not prepared for expected heavy rain and fans took to social media to demand refunds and complain about the organisation of the event. Y-Not Festival said it would be meeting insurers to discuss refunds.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-40773130  Image BBC

https://www.facebook.com/ynotfestival/

HOPE & GLORY CANCELLATION HERE http://www.musicweek.com/live/read/hope-glory-organisers-devastated-after-festival-chaos/069368

Y-NOT REFUNDS HERE http://www.musicweek.com/live/read/y-not-festival-releases-refund-information/069382

Apple's iTunes Festival rebrands to Apple Music

Apple’s iTunes Festival has rebranded to promote the technology giant’s Apple Music brand, reflectung the growing importance of streaming and the decline in downloads sales. The Apple Music Festival will feature 10 nights of live shows, including Pharrell Williams, One Direction, Florence + The Machine and Disclosure at London’s Roundhouse venue this September. Apple will broadcast performances around the world for free, live and on-demand on Apple Music. Apple’s radio station Beats 1 will broadcast backstage news while footage will be available on Apple Music Connect.

A right to guns at Festivals - only in the US of A

Most festivals do their utmost to ensure their events are peaceful, trouble free and that festival goers respect each other, and don't bring in weapons. Not so Norman, Okla, where a pro-gun group have successfully brought a court claim in the Cleveland County Court, challenging the Norman Music Festival's 'no gun' policy. Judge Thad Balkman issued a temporary restraining order (Friday 17th) against the city of Norman and the Norman Music Alliance, prohibiting enforcement of a gun ban at the upcoming Norman Music Festival. Judge Balkman ruled in favor of the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association, whose attorney argued that banning licensed gun carriers from carrying guns to the festival was a violation of both state and federal law and an infringement on people’s constitutional rights. “The court gives great weight to constitutional rights issues,” Judge Balkman said. Judge Balkman said he was only ruling on the request for a temporary restraining order. He will hear further arguments at 8 a.m. on Thursday — the day the music festival opens — on whether an injunction should be issued.

http://newsok.com/judge-says-norman-cant-prohibit-gun-carriers-at-norman-music-festival/article/feed/827983

4 dead after Italian festival flash flood

The BBC reports that four people have been killed and at least 20 others injured after a flash flood tore through a festival site in Northern Italy. A mud-filled torrent swept people away late on Saturday night at the festival at Refrontolo, North of Venice, after a burst of very heavy rain meant that wall of water suddenly ripped through the area, also causing local landslides. According to local media, some panic-stricken party-goers managed to cling to trees at the site  at a historic mill house beneath a waterfall while the muddy torrent raged around them, but tragically others were swept to their death in the flood, which also carried away cars and tents. A rescue operation went on throughout the night and with several people missing, divers are continuing to look for more victims.

Read and Leeds on the road

UK Reading & Leeds festivals will be going on tour in March, bringing a taste of the festivals to cities across the UK. The club nights, hosted in venues across the country, will give fans a taste of the summer with playlists featuring a mix of rock, indie, dance and alternative artists including those already announced to play at the Festivals. Held in conjunction with leading club promoters, the nights will offer an audiovisual mix from the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Blink-182, Jake Bugg, Disclosure, The 1975, Courteeners, SBTRKT and more, and will offer Festival fans the chance to win a pair of weekend tickets to Reading & Leeds each night.

First Central and Eastern European border breakers announced

Eurosonic Noorderslag and co-organisers Sziget Festival and Exit Festival have announced the first results of the new Central and Eastern European Talent Exchange Programme (CEETEP) - a sub-programme of ETEP, the European Talent Exchange Program which helps acts perform across borders in Europe. The announcement at a press conference at The Sziget Festival with Fruzsina Szep (Sziget Festival), Ivan Milivojev from Exit Festival and Peter Smidt from Eurosonic Noorderslag, said that 24 confirmed shows by 16 European artists from 9 different countries had been confirmed, headed up by Grimus (Romania, 3 shows), Instrumenti (Latvia, 3 shows), Kerekes Band (Hungary, 2 shows) Monika Brodka (Poland, 2 shows) and Pipes & Pints (Czech Republic, 2 shows). The 3 CEE acts with the most bookings at the 13 CEETEP festivals will receive an invitation to play at Eurosonic Noorderslag. CEETEP Festivals also include Coke Live Music Festival (Poland), Podoha (Slovakia), Rock For People (Czechia), Taksirat (Macedonia), B'estfest  (Romania), Heineken Open'er Festival (Poland), the Positivus Festival (Latvia) and Spirit Of Burgas (Bulgaria).

Roskilde tower death sparks enquiry

CMU Daily reports that a young woman died at this weekend's Roskilde Festival in Denmark after falling from a tower in the event's camping area that was part of an aerial cable ride run by one of the festival's sponsors. Another festival-goer fell but suffered only light injuries. A spokesman for the event said this weekend's accident was "very tragic", adding that organisers were waiting for more information from the police regarding the incident before making any further comment.

Scottish festival cancels

A new music festival due to launch in Aberdeen this month has been axed just four weeks before show time because of poor ticket sales. The promoter of the Northern Lights Festival, Jim Sandison, said in a statement: "We're so sorry to announce that the Northern Lights Music Festival has been cancelled. This has been a heartbreaking decision to make, which has simply been taken out of our hands due to poor ticket sales. To those that have supported the festival from the beginning by buying tickets, we can only thank you and apologise".