News / Boomtown
Boomtown sells 45% stake to major music promoters
Two senior Live Nation UK employees have joined Boomtown‘s board of directors in July, it has been revealed. Boomtown has sold 18 per cent to Live Nation UK and Gaiety and 9 per cent to SJM.
Live Nation UK is a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment, an American global entertainment company founded in 2010.
SJM Concerts is one of the largest concert promoters in the UK, ‘offering more than 2,000 concerts a year’, according to their website.
is needed now More than ever
Denis Desmond, the chair of Live Nation UK & Ireland, and Stuart Douglas, the Chief Operating Officer, were appointed as directors of Boomtown Festival UK and its parent company Circus of Boom on July 6.
Desmon also owns Gaiety Investments, the other company with an 18 per cent stake in Boomtown.
Boomtown began a new chapter this year with the organisers completley reimagining what a festival should be and becoming a fully immersive theatre experience. UK government’s Culture Recovery Fund last year helped realise this vision after the festival was forced to cancel in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
In a statement released by Boomtown, they said: “For us as a business, our vision has always been very clear, we are a festival like no other – a full living theatre which is set around friends, community, and creative spirit. Like many other businesses in our industry, due to Covid our landscape has changed, and to stay ahead we have had to adapt and be agile. It’s been a very tough few years.
“One of the decisions we came to in the last few months, as a direct result of the rising costs in staging such an epic and complex show, was to seek investment; a minority stake in the business from some of the most experienced names in the industry – SJM (9%), Gaiety (18%) and Live Nation (18%).
“This decision will not only allow Boomtown to continue its vision to be one of the most exciting festivals in the world, but it will also ensure the flexibility to continue to uphold independence on all decisions around business and creativity.”
The news of these major entertainment companies having a stakehold in the festival means that it will no longer be running as an independent festival.
This came as a huge shock to those working there as it was leaked to the staff on site during the weekend of the festival. Many workers have said they are unsure if they’d like to continue working there and the first day of the festival was dubbed ‘black Wednesday’.
We will have to wait and see what changes this will be bring.
Main photo: George Harrison
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