The full scale of the collapse of the firm behind the disastrous Hope & Glory Festival has been laid bare in new documents filed with Companies House.
Hope & Glory Festivals Ltd (H&GF) went into liquidation last month with debts of almost £890,000. Its estimated assets available for preferential creditors totalled just £63,600.
Major creditors include ticketing platforms Eventbrite and Skiddle, owed £138,368.93 and £73,000 respectively. US-headquartered Eventbrite has previously said it was “aggressively pursuing Hope & Glory” to reclaim the money, while Preston-based Skiddle refunded customers out of its own pockets after receiving a "complete lack of cooperation" from the event's organisers.
Promoted by Lee O'Hanlon, the 12,500-capacity boutique festival was scheduled to take place in Liverpool's St George's Quarter from August 5-6 with acts such as James, Ocean Colour Scene, Embrace, Razorlight and Reverend And The Makers, but faced complaints from festival-goers regarding delays, lengthy queues and overcrowding. It was eventually cancelled on the morning of its second day due to health and safety reasons.
Liverpool City Council, itself out of pocket by £51,972, has launched an inquiry into the "completely unusual and highly unexpected" fiasco.
O'Hanlon and wife Samantha have since resigned as directors of H&GF, according to the documents filed by Birmingham-based liquidator Butcher Woods. O'Hanlon's business partner Iain Kerr is listed as its sole remaining director.
The statement of affairs, dated August 29 and published online this week, show Kerr to be H&GF's biggest creditor, owed £270,000. He is also listed as a director of both Melodi Limited, owed £65,000, and Hunky Dory Media, owed £60,000. O'Hanlon's events company Tiny Cow, meanwhile, is down by £71,400. Live Nation was also owed £6,965.76.
Other significant creditors include Liverpool City Council's street services team (£10,257.68) and waste collection service (£9,720); Gateshead-based equipment provider Hi Lights (£21,600); DNG Production & Event Crew Limited (£21,103.20); Holiday Inn Liverpool (£12,000); catering company Gig-A-Bite (£11,376); Nitelites Limited (£9,800); Paramount Security Group (£9,042) and the festival's bars (£27,000).
John Robb (£1,800) and pianist Dino Baptiste (£250) were the only artists to appear among the list of creditors, while London-based Crockford Management was owed £440.
