Who Owns the Music Festival.

The mysterious world of music festival ownership can be complex making it difficult to know who owns what. The transparency of festival ownership various from country to country depending on financial regulations and the history of music festival growth. Why is it sometimes so difficult to find out who owns what in this sector?

Large corporate organisations like Live Nation and AEG operate in a heavily regulated financial system that requires transparency in all their business operations. This makes it straightforward to establish if a music festival is owned by these companies along with financial performance and liabilities for example. Equally small independently run music festivals often provide comprehensive information on their history, organisational structure along with details of founders and directors responsible for the festival. The murky and complex world of the mid-sized festival is often where those responsible are hidden behind multiple registered companies.

Common Structures. 
Operating a music festival is a risky business but with that risk can come high financial rewards. However, when a festival faces bankruptcy or administration it is usually those responsible who manage to disappear. To protect themselves owners often create multiple limited liability companies with one company seemingly owning the brand and operating the event. This multi-levelled limited company structure can work well for owners that operate multiple festivals where they can divide operational responsibility between events, publishing, studios, merchandise, ticketing and event agency management.

Advantages to Festival Owners. 
The division of operational responsibility can make it easier to manage all the aspects associated with running a music festival each with their own profit centre. Whilst the festival entity may only break-even the profits can be diverted to the event management agency or ticketing company ensuring that the directors can access funds. With multiple limited liabilities it enables the ultimate owners of a festival to avoid any financial loss should the event run into difficulties leaving suppliers being owed money by an entity that has no funds.

Assigning accountability. 
Any music festival that faces financial problems with numerous creditors will undoubtedly face scrutiny by the media. This can be challenging for any investigative journalists or creditors who are trying to track down owners. The directors have sometimes extracted any funds through the event production company (which they also own) who are ‘paid’ by the festival entity leaving nothing for creditors or ticket buyers. Even if a number of directors are exposed as owning these multiple companies, they can easily hide behind the limited liability of the company in trouble. 

These complex shadowy organisations are in the minority in most countries where music festivals are popular. Transparent operations of festivals with named owners help to build trust and enhance the brand. The exception to this seems to be pervasive in the EDM music festival sector and especially in the Netherlands where the bulk of their 600+ music festivals are owned and run by a handful of event management companies with little transparency of ultimate ownership. Any suppliers to the festival sector should conduct due diligence when dealing with a music festival entity to ensure they are financially secure and understand where responsibility for payment lies.

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Kampus Production via Pexels

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