Hope & Glory: Liverpool festival company 'goes into liquidation'

Police were called on the first day of the festival to help open another entrance to the site

Picture: Music fans at Hope & Glory festival in Liverpool (Hope and Glory Festival)

The company behind a music festival that was cancelled on the second day has reportedly gone into liquidation.

Hope & Glory Festival in Liverpool was pulled on 6 August following reports of overcrowding and acts that were cancelled at the last moment due to scheduling delays.

Police were called to assist with an additional entrance on the first day of the festival, which was attended by 12,500 people.

Guests reported long waits to get in, with poor access to toilets and food and drink facilities, and “chaotic” scenes as a single entrance was opened late on the first day.

In a statement, organisers said that the festival was cancelled over safety fears and said they accepted “ultimate responsibility”, expressing their apologies to the public.

Artists including Charlotte Church were axed from the lineup due to delays with scheduling, while headline act James went ahead with their performance. Frontman Tim Booth apologised to fans for the “chaos”.

Insolvency firm Butcher Woods told the BBC that 32 creditors, including Liverpool City Council, were owed £888,984.

The council said it was 'seeking recovery of costs associated with the clean-up operation“ for the festival, which was held in St George's Quarter.

It is holding an independent review which is said would be completed shortly.

“Any lessons learned will be implemented for future events run by outside organisations,” a spokesperson said.

Ticket selling websites Eventbrite and Skiddle said they have provided full refunds to those who purchased tickets for the cancelled day, and a 50 per cent refund for weekend ticket holders.

Eventbrite said it was now “aggresively pursuing Hope & Glory” to get the money back, while Ben Sebborn, director of Skiddle, said despite attempts to “cooperate with the festival owners it became clear that our customers would remain out of pocket unless we intervened”.

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

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