Music Festival Production Company Files Chapter 11

Music Festival Production Company Files Chapter 11

Music festivals have experienced a resurgence in recent years, with the growing popularity of shows such as Coachella and Ultra.

One of the newest festivals BottleRock, which took place in Napa Valley, could have a shaky future, as the BR Festivals LLC – the company that produced the show – filed for Chapter 11 protection under U.S. bankruptcy law on Feb. 5.

BottleRock 2013 included some of the country’s biggest acts, such as the Kings of Leon, Train and the Zac Brown Band, but it seems that the festival’s producers took on a tremendous amount of debt in the process. According to the Napa Valley Register, BR Festivals has $4.5 million in liabilities and assets of $610,000.

Tens of thousands of people attended the first-ever BottleRock festival, which allowed the company to bring in $11.2 million in gross receipts, and that was without food and beverage funds. But, the financial losses for the event reached around $8 million – which put BR Festivals in a position wherein it was unable to pay its creditors – and have made it unable to fund the second concert this year.

Bob Vogt and Gabe Meyers, who were running BR Festivals, claimed one of the biggest reasons the company ran into financial troubles is because investor Jason Johnson pulled $3 million in capital on the eve of the 2013 BottleRock show, which made it impossible for the company to pay its bills, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Under the Chapter 11 reorganization plan, BR Festivals will have a new owner who would be able to continue with BottleRock 2.0, which is expected to take place from May 30 to June 1 in Napa Valley. The lineup has yet to be announced.