Beachdown directors claim mystery backer could save festival (From The Argus)

Beachdown directors claim mystery backer could save festival

1:00pm Tuesday 9th March 2010

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The people behind the failed Brighton Beachdown festival claim to have a new investor who can make the debt-ridden event happen again.

The directors of Future Festivals Ltd, which put on the festival, have persuaded the majority of the company’s creditors that their best chance of getting back the more than £1 million they are owed is to rely on a mystery backer who is refusing to be named.

Despite not naming the man they claim will save the event, the businessmen - Joe Pidgeon, Darren Murphy and John Murphy - have been granted a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) by Kingston-upon-Thames County Court on the basis of having the new investor on board.

The agreement means the company’s debt will be frozen and allows Future Festivals to continue operating in the hope of making a profit from future events with which to repay their debts.

Future Festivals began selling £100 tickets for the 2009 event despite having debts of almost half a million from the previous year.

The firm blames the “hundreds” of people who got into the 2008 festival without paying by climbing through security fences as well as bad weather for their failure to make a profit.

Legal documents reveal that Future Festivals currently has 18 major creditors, owing a total of more than a million pounds.

Fifteen of the 18 investors voted in favour of the CVA. Three of those votes were from the directors themselves.

John Murphy invested almost £200,000 of his own money, his DJ son Darren invested £30,000 and Mr Pidgeon, a former pilot, invested £20,500.

IPC Media, Ticketline and Powerline, who are owed more than £200,000, voted against it, but the rules state that the majority vote means the CVA was approved.

Hundreds of ticket holders have still not received refunds for the tickets they bought to Beachdown 2009, which was cancelled on August 27, the day it was due to start.

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