Festivals, much like Australian Prime Ministers seem to be falling thick and fast these days, with UK based festival promoter All Tomorrow’s Parties announcing today they will be ceasing operations after losing funding for their upcoming ATP Iceland event. The news come after years of financial troubles and cancelled events for the company, with this last cancellation proving to be the last straw.
Founded in London by Barry Hogan in 1999 and launching the first ever All Tomorrow’s Parties the next year, the events were held annually in the UK, USA and Australia (every other year) before the company moved operations and the festival to Iceland in recent years. Each event was curated by a band or solo artist, with the likes of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Portishead and The Flaming Lips all serving as curators during the company’s run.
Struggling since 2012, when they were put into liquidation after racking up a $3.6 million debt to creditors, the company tried various tactics to right the course, launching a new entity called Wilwall only for that to find itself in dire financial straits as well. Forced to cancel multiple events last minute, including this year’s ATP 2.0 set to be held in Manchester as well as 2014’s Jabberwocky festival, this day has been a long time coming for Hogan and co.
Speaking of the move, the company issued the following official statement:
“It is with deep sadness we are announcing that ATP Festivals and live promotions are closing down. After months of speculation, our funding for Iceland has been pulled and we are no longer able to continue so will be closing down the entire live side of ATP festivals and live promotions with immediate effect and going into administration.
ATP Iceland festival is no longer happening, but all our other UK shows will have new promoters appointed and tickets transferred (all purchased tickets remain valid with the new promoter). We will post details of the administrators and what to do for festival ticket refunds over the next week.
We are very sorry we could not make this work and have tried to survive throughout all our recent losses but we are no longer able to trade and have to accept we cannot go on.
Thank you to all our loyal customers who have supported us and incredible artists who have performed or curated for us over the years and made ATP so special while it lasted.”
ATP Iceland is canceled, while all other ATP events in the United Kingdom will go on with new promoters. Tickets already purchased for those events will remain valid, and refund information for the Icelandic festival will become available later this week.
In the meantime though, if you want to revisit the glory days of the festival you can check out the trailer for the documentary on the festival here below (p.s. the whole thing is on YouTube if you really want to take a walk down memory lane.)
Watch: All Tomorrow’s Parties Documentary Trailer
