A report published by Liverpool City Council has concluded the failure of Hope & Glory festival was due to the "mismanagement of the organisers"
news
Hope & Glory festival company in liquidation
Creditors are seeking to reclaim £888,984, corporate recovery firm Butcher Woods has said, as the fall-out from the festival's cancellation continues
By Jon Chapple on 05 Sep 2017
James at Hope & Glory on Saturday
image © Jack Rushton/YouTube
Hope & Glory Festivals Ltd, the company behind last month’s ill-fated Liverpool festival of the same name, has followed Fyre Festival LLC into liquidation, as 32 creditors seek to reclaim almost £900,000, among them Liverpool City Council.
The inaugural Hope & Glory, which took place in the first weekend of August, was called off on its second day amid reports of bottlenecking, queues and cancellations, blamed by promoter Lee O’Hanlon on production manager Richard Agar.
Ticket agencies Eventbrite and Skiddle ultimately had to refund festivalgoers themselves, with Skiddle director Ben Sebborn saying it “became clear that our customers would remain out of pocket unless we intervened”.
“Any lessons learned will be implemented for future events run by outside organisations”
Insolvency firm Butcher Woods tells the BBC 32 creditors are owed a total of £888,984, with Liverpool City Council seeking “recovery of costs associated with the clean-up operation”.
The council is holding its own inquiry into the organisation of the festival, the findings of which are expected imminently. According to a council spokesman, “any lessons learned will be implemented for future events run by outside organisations.”
Fyre Festival LLC, the promoter of 2017’s other big festival disaster (albeit on a much larger scale), was placed into liquidation by a New York bankruptcy judge last week.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
