Musicians, production crew, and promoters are all still out of pocket following the financial collapse of Peats Ridge Festival, which owes its creditors nearly $1.2 million in unpaid debts, including $95,000 owed to the New Year’s Event headliners the John Butler Trio.
In an aggressive bid to get the money that they’re owed, The Sydney Morning Herald reports that creditors have successfully replaced the original liquidator appointed in winding up The Festival Company, the organisers behind the three-day music event run by festival director and sole secretary, Matt Grant.
Performers and production crew looking for reimbursement have also removed Andrew Spring, a partner at Jirsch Sutherland, the insolvency firm handling the liquidation, from his position as chairman of the creditors’ meeting in Sydney on February 5th.
Mr Spring filed a report on the list of creditors at the start of the month, with a long list of bands, artists, management, production crew, suppliers, and more all owed vast amounts from the Peats Ridge fallout. The Jirsch Sutherland partner also revealed that Peats Ridge Director Matt Grant had been the director of four companies that had been made insolvent since August 2011.
Including PERIFE PTY LTD, the original company behind Peats Ridge, meaning that this is the second time the festival has entered liquidation after the original company was wound up in late 2011, facing the ongoing financial fallout from the cancellation of the 2007 Peats Ridge due to extreme weather conditions. “We worked collectively to demonstrate that promoters will be held accountable if they do the wrong thing.” – Mal Tulloch, MEAA
Once the original operators were liquidated, Matt Grant shifted the Peats Ridge name to a new entity, The Festival Company, responsible for the New Year’s event over 2012; but now history has somewhat repeated, when Mr Grant announced on January 18th that Peats Ridge was unable to cover its costs and would be placed into liquidation, claiming he had been “open and transparent” about the festival’s financial woes.
The notice to creditors however, had declared only $140,000 of its own money ponied up on the books, with Jirsch Sutherland seeking $80,000 of that amount for its services in the liquidation; leaving just $60,000 to spread between the vast amounts of money owed to creditors.
Mr. Spring has now been dismissed from his position as chairman and described the creditors’ standpoint as “aggressive” in seeking financial reimbursement, but Mal Tulloch, of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) – the union representing artists and performers – says the decision to re-appoint a new liquidator was about making festival promoters accountable for their actions.
A press release from the MEAA calls the removal of Mr Spring and Jirsch Sutherland as a significant win, that reads:
Under advice from the Musician’s Alliance, an overwhelming majority of the performers, crew and other creditors, voted to remove the festival appointed liquidator, Jirsch Sutherland, an insolvency practice that had previously represented the Peats Ridge Director on four separate occasions, and replace it with a liquidator of choice.
Mr Tulloch, who is representing more than 50 creditors owed approx. $750,000 says, “we worked collectively to demonstrate that promoters will be held accountable if they do the wrong thing.” The MEAA first accused Peats Ridge organisers for failing to pay “hundreds of professional musicians, performers and production crew,” calling Director Matt Grant’s actions irresponsible as he “intends to wind up the company without paying its debts.”
Christopher Darin and Ivor Worrell, partners at Worrells forensic accountants have been appointed as the new liquidators of Peats Ridge, and have indicated they want to investigate further into Mr Grant’s finances, including pushing for him to front a public examination under oath in court, and setting up a creditors committee to find out what happened to the proceeds of ticket sales from the 2012 festival.
Among the list of more than 200 creditors is the Butler Brown Touring Company, who are owed $95,579.50 for the John Butler Trio’s headline performance at the Peats Ridge Sustainable Arts and Music Festival over New Year’s, while other acts that remain out of pocket include $11,500 to The Black Seeds, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Falls, Cass Eager & The Velvet Rope, Fanny Lumsden & The Thrillseekers, Lolo Lavina, plus many more owed finances through touring companies and agencies.
The biggest debt is owed to Sorted Events, the beverage catering company who provided the bars onsite, who are owed a whopping $283,726, while the festival’s own booker, Damien Cunningham of Elastic Entertainment wrote an open letter about the $49,477 figure he’s missed out on.
Industry heavyweights are also owed money, including Chugg Entertainment who is owed $6,985, The Harbour Agency $16,195, Select Music $6,780, Modular Agency $11,000, Foreign Dub $12,100, Niche Productions $10,000,Fuzzy Touring $5,500, and Billions Australia $45,650.
The Australian Tax Office are seeking $21,656, APRA for $14,850, Australian Mobile Staging $15,296, SPA Publisher $4,315 and also listsISEC $15,249, JR Richards & Sons $38,460, Oztix $10,982, Premier Motor Services $20,748, Rock Posters Sydney $6,600, Sydney Posters $16,792, TFH Temporary Fence Hire $20,465, and Splashdown $28,837.
