Firm behind shambolic festival goes into liquidation

The company which ran a shambolic music festival in Liverpool a month ago has gone into liquidation with debts of almost £890,000.

Hope & Glory Festival was abandoned on August 6 as acts Charlotte Church and Lightning Seeds were axed from the bill because of long delays.

According to insolvency firm Butcher Woods, 32 creditors, including Liverpool City Council are owed £888,984, by Lichfield, Saffordshire-based Hope & Glory Festivals Ltd.

The council said on the BBC it was “seeking recovery of costs associated with the clean-up operation” for the festival in the city’s St George’s Quarter.

Meanwhile, ticketing websites Eventbrite and Skiddle say they had given full refunds to people with tickets for the cancelled day and a 50% refund for weekend ticket holders.

Eventbrite paid festival organisers for the funds collected from ticket sales up front and was now “aggressively pursuing Hope & Glory” to get the money back, according to a spokesman said.

Skiddle director Ben Sebborn, said despite attempts “to co-operate with the festival owners it became clear that our customers would remain out of pocket unless we intervened”.

He said it was now “very unlikely that Skiddle will receive reimbursement from the festival organisers”.

On the day Charlotte Church and Lightning Seeds were pulled from the line up due to late running, but found alternative venues in the city willing to let them play for fans.

Headline act James did perform, but singer Tim Booth apologised to fans for the “chaos”.

Up to 12,500 people attended the festival, amid long waits and poor access to toilets and food and drink facilities.

Hope and Glory Festival director Iain Kerr was unavailable for comment.