Bluesfest Creditors Likely to Recover Little of $7M Owed After Festival Cancellation

Creditors owed more than $7 million after the sudden cancellation of Byron Bay's Bluesfest in March are unlikely to recoup all of the money they are owed, a new financial report has revealed.

The company running the festival went into liquidation in March, three weeks before the Easter event was due to begin.

Worrells, the liquidator appointed to handle all financial matters for Bluesfest, today delivered its report on the company's finances to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

It found the company, operating under Bluesfest Enterprises and Bluesfest Byron Bay, owed more than $7 million to over 900 creditors.

The report also detailed that the companies had only $300,664 in the bank to pay their debts.

The owners of Uniform Print Lab, a Tweed Heads business listed as a creditor, said based on updates from the liquidator ahead of the report's release, they did not expect to get their money back.

Linda Sutton said her business was out of pocket more than $90,000 when the festival was cancelled before it was paid for merchandise, including 6,000 T-shirts bearing the Bluesfest logo.

"We've counted on the fact that we will be getting next to nothing. That's why we've had to get loans and let a staff member go, because we don't anticipate that there will be any recouping of our losses," Ms Sutton said.

"It's put us in a horrible situation where we can't really pay ourselves much.

"We're going to survive it, but at what cost to us personally?"

'Difficult decision'

In a March statement, Bluesfest said it was "an incredibly difficult decision", but the event was no longer viable.

"Rising production, logistics, insurance and touring costs, combined with a challenging environment for major live events, mean it is no longer possible to deliver the festival to the standard our audiences, artists and partners expect," it said.

The music festival, which began in 1990, had hosted some of the world's biggest stars, including Bob Dylan, Midnight Oil and R.E.M.

This year's event was scheduled to run from April 2 to 5, with Split Enz and Earth, Wind & Fire booked as the headline acts.

Byron Bay Bluesfest director, Peter Noble, who was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2016 for services to the music industry, has previously declined to comment on the festival's demise or the liquidation.

More than 100,000 people passed through the gates at last year's festival, but some were left angry at Mr Noble after he backflipped on his announcement that 2025 would be the festival's final year.