PROMOTERS WHO lost up to pounds 1m staging music festivals during the eclipse are considering legal action against Cornwall County Council claiming "gross mismanagement". Organisers of several festivals blamed the council, police and the Highways Agency for poor attendance at their venues.
Rival promoters met last week to discuss why their festivals failed. The meeting, near St Germans, Cornwall, included representatives from the Moonshadow and Sunshadow festivals, which each lost more than pounds 100,000, the Cornish Eclipse Stone festival and organisers of an event planned for Boscowan Park, Truro.
Eclipse Events Ltd, which staged Lizard99, largest of the pop festivals, has already placed itself in receivership after poor ticket sales left it with debts of up to pounds 1m. The promoters want a public inquiry into the handling of the eclipse. They say they failed partly because "walk- up" ticket sales were banned at some places and the Highways Agency removed road signs to events.
Promoter Harvey Goldsmith, behind the Plymouth event in Newnham Park, said: "The [Cornwall council] decided World War Three was about to break out and did everything in their power to deter people visiting Devon and Cornwall."
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