Ticketing cos, BBC, Live Nation among H&G creditors

The identities of the creditors collectively owed almost £900,000 by the company behind the doomed Hope & Glory Festival have been revealed by liquidator Butcher Woods.

The inaugural Hope & Glory (H&G), which took place in the first weekend of August, was called off on its second day amid reports of bottlenecking, queues and set cancellations, blamed by promoter Lee O’Hanlon on production manager Richard Agar, who was allegedly late in completing the festival site. Hope & Glory Festivals Ltd went into liquidation last month with debts of £888,984.

Hope & Glory festival company in liquidation

Documents filed with Companies House by Butcher Woods’ Roderick Butcher on 13 September, first spotted by the Liverpool Echo, show Hope & Glory Festivals Ltd director Iain Kerr, is the single largest creditor, owed £270,000 – more than four times the £63,600 has in assets.

Ticket agencies Skiddle and Eventbrite, both of which refunded festivalgoers out of their own pockets, are owed £73,000 and £138,368.93, respectively, while Liverpool City Council is out of pocket more than £70,000 (£51,972 directly and almost £10,000 for cleaning and waste collection services).

Other creditors include Live Nation (£6,975.76), BBC Radio Merseyside (£500), catering company Gig a Bite (£11,376), Crockford Management (£440), production suppliers Hi Lights (£21,600) and DNG (£21,103.20), artists Dino Baptiste (£250) and Trampolene (£200) and the festivals’ bars (collectively £27,000). Two further companies of which Kerr is a director, Melodi and Hunky Dory Media, are owed £65,000 and £60,000, respectively.

An investigation into the reasons for the failure of the festival is underway and will be complete “shortly”, the council says.

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